The sharp criticism of the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Rock Springs land-use plan in southwest Wyoming is misguided, conservation groups say in a new analysis that emphasizes the federal agency adopted many recommendations from a task force formed by the state’s Republican governor.
That group’s input and concerns are well-represented in the final proposal released in August that substantially scaled back the amount of land that would be protected, according to the analysis released Tuesday by the Wilderness Society and the Wyoming Outdoor Council.
In total, a side-by-side analysis of the task force’s more than 130 recommendations and the proposed land-use plan outlined in a final environmental impact statement in August found that BLM adopted 82 percent of the suggested changes.
“It’s apparent that the agency took seriously these substantive recommendations for management direction,” said Alec Underwood, program director with the Wyoming Outdoor Council, in a Zoom call with reporters.
