“Not now. Not ever”: Hundreds rally against public land selloffs in Cheyenne
An amendment to the federal budget bill sparked outrage across the west, and across party lines, by mandating the sale of forest and wild lands.
Wyoming has rallied for its public lands.
Several hundred Wyomingites of various political stripes gathered on the steps of the Wyoming State Capitol Building in Cheyenne Thursday, demanding their Congressional representation in Washington, D.C. oppose “any and all” mandatory public land selloffs.
State Rep. Karlee Provenza (HD-45) was among the cross-partisan coalition organizing the rally. Ahead of musicians and other speakers, Provenza welcomed the diverse crowd with a reminder of their aims.
“We’re going to show our elected officials tonight that our public lands aren’t for sale. Not now. Not ever,” she said. “And any elected official or aspiring politician that thinks they can sell off our land, they should know that there will be hell to pay.”
The public ownership of wild lands — long an important issue in the hunting, hiking, ranching west — became a more immediate priority earlier this month because of developments in D.C. Utah Sen. Mike Lee brought an amendment to Congress’ reconciliation budget bill mandating the selloff of some 2-3 million acres of land currently owned by and accessible to the people of the United States.
But because Lee’s proposal exempted only certain designated sites — like national parks and monuments — the end result was that any of more than 250 million acres throughout the west could have satisfied that 2-3 million acre mandatory selloff.
A map produced by the Wilderness Society outlined these 250+ million acres. That map showed beloved parcels of land in Albany County could be among those on the auction block — from the Happy Jack and Pole Mountain area east of Laramie to the Snowies beyond Centennial.
Following public outcry and concerns about the proposal’s adherence to Congressional rules, National Forest lands have been removed from consideration. The current state of Lee’s plan to sell public lands is uncertain at time of publication.
But the threat to public lands is not over, according to the hundreds who attended the rally Thursday evening.
As Sen. Lee and Wyoming’s own Rep. Harriet Hageman defended the amendment, Provenza and others were planning to gather and demand that public lands stay in public hands.
Even as the forest lands were removed from consideration, the organizers kept up the momentum.
Chris Madson, who worked with Kansas and Wyoming wildlife agencies for nearly four decades, took to the microphone Thursday, telling the crowd public lands “are why I came” to Wyoming. He added, “They are why I stay.”
“I have lived in places where every time I got out of my vehicle I was looking at a ‘No trespassing’ sign,” Madson said. “I will not go back to that. I will not. So I got a message for Mr. Mike Lee, Messers [John] Barrasso, Miss [Cynthia] Lummis and Miss Hageman: Do not sell an inch of my land. It is my freedom. Do not sell it.”
The original plan for Thursday involved marching from the capitol building to the Federal Building a few blocks away. Both of Wyoming’s U.S. senators have offices there, though they were not likely to be present.
Given the enormous turnout, organizers said they would take the postcards written or signed by rally attendees and deliver them the following day.
Another speaker, Wyoming columnist Rod Miller, reminded the ralliers that the fight would not stop there on the capitol steps.
“Our job here is to show elected officials in Wyoming — and throughout the west, really — if they start dicking around with our public land heritage, they’ll soon find out it’s like drinking political hemlock,” Miller said.
“There are 170,000 voting eligible Wyomingites who don’t even register,” he said. “So when you’re done demonstrating, protesting, singing — tomorrow, the next day, get on the phone, because you know some of those people. And tell them what’s at stake, and get them registered to vote, because that’s what’s going to move the needle, my friends and neighbors.”
I am so glad the American public is responding to this outrageous theft of our public lands., and thanks to the Reporter for covering it. This is happening all over our country, and the congress people who are supposed to represent us must do their jobs, or be replaced. Make sure your representative hears from you, and be persistent. America is NOT for sale!