Commissioners call for second round of public comment for Natural Resource Management Plan
The management plan will detail how the feds and local agencies cooperate on Albany County’s federally owned land. The plan also catalogs the county’s ag, recreation and energy resources.
County leadership is sending the natural resource management plan out for yet another round of public comment, lengthening what has already been a lengthy process.
Commissioners said they weren’t ready to approve the plan, but that seeking a second round of comments and incorporating those comments into the draft could get them there.
“I think we are 99% of the way there,” Commission Chair Pete Gosar said during the commission’s meeting last week. “But I’d like to kick it out to the public one more time to see if we can get a little bit more feedback before we wrap it up and call it good.”
The resource management plan will outline goals for local and federal cooperation whenever the county’s natural resources are at stake.
“Federal public lands are integral to life in Albany County,” the plan states. “They play a vital role in the area’s economy, are a source of enjoyment and freedom, and for more than 150 years, have been an inseparable part of the county’s culture and customs.”
The plan states that county and federal management teams should work together to recognize the diversity of the usage. While doing so, they have to come up with ways to reduce the conflict that can come from such diversity, with an emphasis on cooperation.
“While statutes and rules may bring the participants to the table, the effectiveness of the discussion depends on mutual respect and a common understanding,” the plan states. “Specifically, the federal agencies’ recognition that decisions and activities on public lands often impact local residents more than national constituents, and the county’s acknowledgement that federal agencies make the ultimate decision about the management of lands under their care.”
The commissioners said last week that another commenting period would allow for more eyes to cover the document, picking away at the 1% of error they saw before the document is finalized.
“The steering committee did a really good job of improving on the original draft — it is a much better draft and I thank you for all the hours you guys have put in,” Commissioner Sue Ibarra said. “The document serves for us, the county, a place at the table for when it comes to whatever might be proposed down the line.”
A first draft was rejected by the commissioners in April for failing to focus on Albany County’s specific needs. The commissioners advanced a second attempt in May and established a public comment period that ran into June. This week, the steering committee behind all of these drafts returned with their latest version — a document focused more tightly on Albany County and incorporating comments from the public.
County Planner David Gertsch and steering committee members Bonnie Bath and Mike Massie presented the most recent draft of the management plan to the commissioners during the commission’s meeting last week.
They described additions and edits that had been made to the document.
There were public comment and stakeholder meetings held in Rock River, Centennial and Laramie. All public comment was gathered and reviewed by the steering committee. All comments were read and discussed, Gertsch said. Some comments were incorporated into the document to reflect what the community felt needed recognition.
Gertsch said the document would be the foundation for the ongoing conversation between the agencies that manage the public lands. The document will showcase information that was found to have importance from the stakeholders.
“Federal agencies, public land users and the general public were, on their own, providing information to build this track,” Gertsch said.
Massie detailed some of those public comments.
“Some were rather technical and in those situations we made all the corrections (and) minor edits,” Massie said. “For example, someone from the ag community suggested bringing a study that was cited earlier in the report to the ag section.”
Other comments addressed issues outside of the county’s jurisdiction.
“There were three comments we got dealing with the issue that's been around for a while about people hiking out in the National Forest and having their dogs get trapped — whether it's a steel trap, or some kind of a noose, and their dogs being injured,” Massie said. “Now really, that issue is a state issue. It's the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and folks not having success in getting the state statute changed. But there is still concern about it. As a result, we went in and recognized the importance to the county for people to be able to have safe experiences while they are recreating.”
Massie said other comments detailed issues outside the scope of the natural resource management plan.
“There were some folks that showed up to continue the debate over windmills,” he said. “We pointed out to them that this was not taking the place of the county’s other document in regards to natural energy policy.”
Ibarra also asked about the order of the document, whether there was a reason that the document was in alphabetical order rather than being prioritized. Gertsch explained the team didn’t want to place emphasis on one thing being more important than the rest. Massie added that the steering committee had already made some decisions on importance and didn’t want the document to become any more arbitrary.
Commissioner Heber Richardson said he liked that the document was broad to start, then narrowed as it went on. He also said the document was not perfect but was on its way to being so.
The commissioners decided to publicize the document in the next few meetings, which are still available to watch. Public comment and questions can be sent to the email listed on the county’s natural resource plan webpage.
This story is supported by a grant through Wyoming’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) and the National Science Foundation.