Episode Details

It's time to take a look at what's happening around Wyoming, for Thursday, June 19th. I'm Wendy Corr, bringing you headlines from the Cowboy State Daily newsroom - Brought to you by the Wyoming Community Foundation, who asks you to give back to the place you call home. "5 to thrive" is YOUR opportunity to leave a legacy for generations to come. Support the community nonprofits you care about with a gift through the Wyoming Community Foundation. Visit wycf.org to learn more.

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A map circulated by the Wilderness Society claims that vast swaths of Western public land — including nearly 15 million acres in Wyoming — could go up for sale, based on language in a bill currently before a U.S. Senate committee.

The map was released in response to a measure before the U.S. Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is intended to be included in the budget reconciliation bill, the so-called One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

But Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Harriet Hageman told Cowboy State Daily's Mark Heinz that the bill would not lead to a free-for-all selling off of millions of acres of public land. But the Wilderness Society stands by its report, which it says is based on the language of the bill.

"Our Republican representative, Harriet Hageman said that's an inaccurate representation. Really what, what could potentially go for sale is just a small fraction of that. I talked to a Wyoming attorney who confirmed that… No way it's going to entail anything anywhere near 14 million acres. Hageman is saying, you know, we're looking only at lands that really don't wouldn't have much public value, except maybe, perhaps, to provide some more housing in places like Jackson, where they need a lot of new housing."

Read the full story HERE.

And hunters are also up in arms over potential federal public land sales included in the Senate budget bill. Prominent groups like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Wyoming's Muley Fanatic Foundation, and The Boone And Crockett Club all blasted the proposal, saying the land sales wouldn't do hunters any favors.

"I talked to two very prominent hunters, one in Wyoming and one in Montana, both of which really don't like this idea. They say, you know, either you're going to cut off access to areas where we like to hunt, or you're going to sell off parcels of public land that are at the entrance to millions of acres behind it and will be cut off from that… And then there's also been several organizations… a pretty broad and wide spectrum of hunters and hunting groups are saying, We don't like this. We don't want to see our land sold in this manner."

Read the full story HERE.

However, Wyoming's neighbors to the north aren't concerned about the sale of public lands. Cowboy State Daily's David Madison reports that Republican Steve Daines, Montana's senior senator, carved out an exemption for his state.

"Daines is saying, Look, we're going to get an exemption… Montana's public lands won't be up for sale, and this will allow Danes to kind of have it both ways, and the delegation to have it both ways. They can appease their colleague, Senator Lee from Utah, who's really pushing hard on this and the President's agenda to get this bill passed. And they can cover themselves politically in Montana, or so they think. But this has really erupted a big bunch of chatter online and different groups coming out and making their opinions known, including Wild Montana, who I spoke to today, they said they think Daines might still be trying to get the whole publi