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

JACKSON — Gov. Mark Gordon and the U.S. Forest Service last month signed an updated agreement on how the state and the agency can collaborate to steward federal forest lands within the state.

The agreement comes amid a spate of revised agreements between the Forest Service and western states, including Idaho, Montana and Utah. It also comes on the heels of recent attempts for states to take over management of federal lands, including in the Wyoming Legislature and U.S. Congress.

State officials have maintained that the agreement will not undermine the Forest Service’s authority over its lands. The agreement will allow the state and the Forest Service to build capacity, better align priorities and expedite projects, Wyoming State Forester Kelly Norris said.

“Nobody’s taking away decisions from the Forest Service,” she said. “We’re just helping move these decisions or move these projects along.”

Wyoming has had an agreement with the Forest Service since 2020. The updated agreement is fairly similar to the first, formalizing between the state and the agency ways to plan together and share resources.

The updated agreement includes an addendum on increasing timber production, in line with federal and state-level executive orders. The state will work with the Forest Service to decide on timber harvest goals and to craft a five-year plan to achieve those goals. The entities will streamline logging projects using emergency authority and exceptions from federal environmental law.

The federal government pushed for updated agreements in Wyoming and other states.

“This administration really wants to get back to focusing on work with the states,” Norris said.

The Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Some conservationists are skeptical of the agreements.

The agreements could allow states to take on more responsibility for federal environmental assessments necessary for projects, said Mike Garrity, executive director of Alliance for the Wild Rockies.

“The Forest Service doesn’t have the employees to do that anymore, so they’re farming it out to the states,” Garrity said.

Wyoming has contracted out environmental analysis work for the Forest Service, but has never undertaken the work itself, Norris said.

“That’s not to say we can’t,” she said, adding that even if the state were to help with that work, decision-making authority still lies with the Forest Service.

Wyoming’s agreement is also less timber-centric than those of Idaho or Montana, Norris said.

“It is a piece of it, but this is much more holistic,” she said. “We do need to have active management, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s only about the timber.”

The agreements will help streamline projects related to wildlife, grazing, soil health, water, recreation and invasives, Norris said. For many projects, time is of the essence.

“In the Bighorns, they have some really scary invasives we dealt with before they reached critical areas like the wilderness,” she said.

Those concerned about federal land management under the current administration can participate through public comment, Garrity said.

“The whole idea of the National Environmental Policy Act is to have the public have a say in the management of public land,” Garrity said. “The vast majority of Americans don’t comment on how public lands are managed.”

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