Public Land Issues in Wyoming

An attack of public lands anywhere is an attack on public lands everywhere.

Rep. Celeste Maloy, radical Republican, is behind the latest attack on Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in her state.

She’s using an increasingly popular ploy among Right Wingers to force the Bureau of Land Management to abandon the current Resource Management Plan.

Maloy flaunts an “opinion” from the Trump toadies in the Government Accountability Office to treat the plan as a “rule” that Congress can overturn. 

This “opinion” can’t be challenged in court and supports using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to kill the conservation-based plan and bar the agency from issuing any “substantially the same” plan. 

Any replacement plan would leave the monument unprotected from extractive industry and off-road vehicles.

This is the same gambit that threatens the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota.

Why? She and her fellow thieves know there’s too much public support to openly seek the monument’s degradation. 

“The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument offers people the freedom to experience the very best of our nation’s public lands,” said Axie Navas, director of designation campaigns at The Wilderness Society. “We stand ready to defend our national monuments so that future generations may inherit these irreplaceable landscapes.”

“Utah politicians are at it again, doing whatever they can to erode protections for our public lands,” said Tom Delehanty, senior attorney at Earthjustice. “The monument management plan was created by local officials, Tribes, and communities working together to provide certainty in how this national treasure is managed. Now Utah’s elected officials want to flush that effort down the toilet and replace it with uncertainty – a situation that benefits no one.”

“The Utah delegation knows that our national monuments are well-loved by Americans and protecting them is overwhelmingly popular among Utahns regardless of party affiliation,” said Tim Peterson, Cultural Landscapes Director at the Grand Canyon Trust. “The public would not stand for legislation that gets rid of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument outright, so they’re trying to eliminate the commonsense management plan that affords day-to-day protections to the monument. We can’t let that happen.”

“Using the Congressional Review Act to unravel Grand Staircase‑Escalante’s management plan is an assault on a national treasure,” said Bobby McEnaney, Director, Land Conservation, NRDC. 

“It would wipe out years of science and public input and lay the groundwork to make additional attacks on Grand Staircase easier. Congress must reject this assault on our conservation values and honor its commitment to Tribes, local communities, and future generations,” McEnaney added.

“No one ought to mistake this effort as isolated–it’s part of a concerted effort to destroy the Bureau of Land Management’s ability to manage public lands, so that privatizing or industrializing them are the only viable options,” said Chris Hill, CEO of the Conservation Lands Foundation. “Going after BLM’s first national monument sends the signal that the rest of the 30 monuments and all of the National Conservation Lands that BLM oversees are in the crosshairs …”  

One million people visit the monument every year and spend money in the two surrounding Utah counties. Yet Maloy discounts data showing the economic value of preserved public lands. 

Maloy says that emphasizing conservation “undercuts rural economic development.” From 2001 to 2022, however, real per capita income grew by 41% in the monument’s counties.

Maloy laughably talks about “deep cultural traditions” but listens only to county commissioners and legacy ranchers and doesn’t include indigenous peoples’ traditions. 

The six Native Nations of the Grand-Staircase Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition have said, “our ancestral lands and … cultural sites within the monument would be at greater risk of looting, vandalism, graffiti and degradation.”

This new attack would set a national precedent of degrading public lands with no public input that could upend public lands protection for years.

Tell Maloy that her hatred of public lands in public hands is unacceptable.

Rep. Celeste Maloy

249 Cannon House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

https://maloy.house.gov/contact/email-me.htm

202-225-9730

SCOTUS Slaps Down Elk Mountain Ranch Owner & Carpetbagger
The  lands where you ATV, snowmobile, hunt, fish and hike with your family,  over 2.4 millions acres in Wyoming, continue to be yours to enjoy and  pass on to the next generation.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced  Oct. 20 that it will not hear the case of Fred Eshelman, Elk Mountain  ranch owner in Carbon County. The North Carolina carpetbagger has  unsuccessfully claimed for four years the right to prohibit corner  crossing access, losing every one of his multiple court decisions and  appeals.

“It preserves a very important public access to public  lands ruling from the 10th Circuit that ensures in checkerboarded lands,  the public can reach the public lands,” said Casper, Wyo., attorney  Ryan Semerad, as quoted by Wyoming Public Media. Semerad has represented  the appellees on the case.

The case centered on access to public lands in the “checkerboard,” the alternating sections of public and private land.

Four hunters from Missouri stepped across section corners in 2021, crossing over Eshelman’s land.

Eshelman  sued the hunters, arguing that they trespassed and asserting the  bizarre claim of controlling the airspace above his land. (Who does he  think he is, the Federal Aviation Administration?)

As  it most often does in deciding whether to take an appeal, the high  court did not provide any explanation on why it declined the case.

The  court’s decision leaves in place the March 2025 10th Circuit Court of  Appeals’ unanimous ruling upholding the legality of corner crossing.”

Wyoming  Public Media continued, “Semerad said the court’s denial to review the  previous ruling is a bit ‘bittersweet. Our ruling is safe and preserved,  but we did miss out on the opportunity to expand the reach of our  victory.’”

Because the Supreme Court did not take the appeal, the  10th Circuit Court ruling will not apply nationwide. The ruling only  applies to Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas,  along with the parts of Yellowstone National Park that stretch into  Idaho and Montana.

The law is murkier in other states across the country.

“The  Supreme Court’s action affirms a principle hunters and anglers have  long understood: corner crossing is not a crime,” said Devin O’Dea,  Western Policy & Conservation Manager for Backcountry Hunters and  Anglers (BHA). The organization has been a primary fundraiser for the  legal challenges.

“Access to 3.5 million acres of public lands  has been secured because four hunters from Missouri took a leap of faith  across a corner, and the Wyoming Chapter of BHA stood up in their  defense. It’s a victory worth celebrating and a key domino in the fight  for public land access across the West,” O’Dea said.
 

“Today’s  win is historic, but it cannot be mistaken for a finish line,” said Jack  Polentes, BHA Policy & Government Relations Senior Manager,  “Powerful interests will continue to test the boundaries of public  access in statehouses and courtrooms across the country.” 

Want to know more? Check out these resources:

Click here for the Sierra Club.

Click here  for Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

Click here for Advocates for Multi-use of Public Lands

Click here for Utah State Attorney General

Click here for the Albany County Democrats platform, p. 8

Click here for the Wyoming State Republican Platform, 19. Water and Land Rights.

Click here for the Wyoming Outdoor Council.

Click here for the Trust for Public Lands - Wyoming.

Click here for the Nature Conservancy - Wyoming.

Click here for the Wyoming Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Click here for the Wyoming Wildlife Advocates.

Click here for the Defenders of Wildlife.

Click here for Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.