By Christina MacIntosh
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — At the kickoff of the Wyoming Legislature’s interim Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, lawmakers did not make it through the first agenda item before discussing whether the state should take control of federal public lands.

The debate comes on the heels of the narrow defeat in the Wyoming Senate last session of a bill demanding that Congress turn over all federal lands in the state except Yellowstone.

At Thursday’s meeting, lawmakers brought more nuance to the land transfer conversation. 

Some argued that there are certain parcels of land the state would be better equipped to manage, such as reservoirs with heavy recreation currently managed by the Bureau of Reclamation. Many agreed that it’s a good time to seek out control of federal lands.

“It just feels like to me that there’s an opportunity at the national level right now,” said Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, a co-chair of the committee.

The move comes as Wyoming State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails has fewer employees and a smaller budget to manage its 98,830 acres of land than it did in 2010, said Dave Glenn, the department’s director.

The Bureau of Land Management, meanwhile, manages around 18 million acres of land in Wyoming.

“I do believe that there are certain places that we could manage and do a good job on,” Glenn said, adding that without additional resources the department would not be equipped to take over millions of acres.

While Glenn, Landen and Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Hoback, focused on a handful of reservoirs with recreation facilities that they believe are not being adequately maintained by the Bureau of Reclamation, other lawmakers took broader stances for or against land transfers.

“Every time we talk about transferring any of these federal lands or trying to put them in state hands, the problem becomes that we’re not willing to pony up the cost for it,” said Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie. “This state can’t actually manage these lands.”

Rep. Bob Wharff, R-Evanston, said the financial outlook of a land transfer is more complex, including mineral rights that would come along with taking over federal lands.

“We can’t lose sight of the fact that it’s not all cost,” Wharff said. “There are benefits that come from this.”

The committee’s conversation comes as the land transfer movement is having a moment at the national level. Republican representatives from Utah and Nevada sought to insert a provision to sell off public lands in their states into the budget reconciliation bill approved last month, leading to an intraparty battle among Republicans.

Republican representatives from Montana and Idaho helped defeat the measure, though Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has vowed to resuscitate it in the U.S. Senate’s version of the bill.