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WY Public Lands Initiative
In September 2016, nine members were selected by the Johnson County Commissioners to serve on a county-led WY Public Land Initiative (WPLI) Committee charged with the task of determining a designation and management option for the two Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in Southern Johnson County. Those WSAs include the North Fork of Powder River WSA and Gardner Mountain WSA. The JC Collaborative has been meeting since October and has been gathering background information and current data on the two WSAs in order to make the most informed decision possible. Speakers so far have included resource specialists from the BLM, Tara Kuiper discussing how collaboration works, Angus Macintosh speaking on private rights on public lands, and WY Game and Fish to discuss wildlife in the areas.
On June 19th the committee had the opportunity to tour the North Fork WSA and has plans to tour the Gardner Mountain WSA in July. During their June meeting collaborative members began to generate options for future management of North Fork WSA. This process will likely take several meetings though a final recommendation will need to be advanced to the JC Board of County Commissioners by the Spring of 2018.
The WPLI is an open process and we encourage the community to attend the meetings and provide public comment. If you have been unable to attend and would like to know what has been occurring, minutes are taken and posted along with any documentation produced by or circulated among the Committee on the WPLI Information Hub; (https://wcca.wygisc.org/wpli/hub/index.html)
If you have any questions please feel free to contact any of the other collaborative members or myself. (That list can be found in the Information Hub.)
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