Monday of this week, we continued to make progress on plans for small timber cuts as coordinated through our national forest districts. That coordination comes through Wyoming Legislature’s Federal Natural Resource Management Committee (FNRMC), which I have been honored to serve on for the past two years with Rep. McKay Erickson. We both have an interest in using the product as part of Forest improvements.

The FNRMC met in Casper on Monday and State Forester Kelly Norris was in attendance. She has an enthusiasm for the work and sees the same potential and opportunities that await us with our forest lands.

RELATED: RADIO INTERVIEW WITH STATE FORESTER KELLY NORRIS – 

As I noted in our FNRMC Casper meeting, we have waited a long time to coordinate forest management with our federal government.

Coordinated management allows for an opportunity to develop  forest health while harvesting the product for business; all of this while reducing risk of costly wildfires.

We already have excellent examples of small projects underway in the Kemmerer and Greys River Districts.

District Rangers Justin Laycock and Adam Calkins are helping to move these projects forward.

Helping with this are Shad Cooper, EFO Fire Cheif/Warden for Sublette County Unified Fire and Josie Valette, WUI Midtigation Coordinator, Sublette County Unified Fire.

They introduced us to a small timber mill in Sublette County as the regional projects move forward.

It’s a common sense approach. We come together, coordinated plans for small harvests, get the product to market, utilizing Wyoming small business and improve the forest health.

This type of progress helps maintain my enthusiasm for the work and make it worth another drive to Casper or wherever we’re needed to keep the state moving forward.

This is simply making good use of our forest country, using a a common sense approach.