By Joseph Beaudet
The Sheridan Press
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

SHERIDAN — The Wyoming Senate advanced a resolution Friday that declares that public lands should stay in public hands, as many Wyomingites have expressed in recent months. 

The Senate narrowly voted down a resolution in 2025 to demand Congress turn ownership of federally owned public lands over to the state. 

A resolution this year to request Congress protect federally owned public lands and involve local entities in management decisions sailed through an introductory vote Friday; the Senate voted 25-6 to introduce the resolution.

Senate Joint Resolution 9, “Keeping public lands protected and decisions local,” would state the Legislature opposes any state or federal policy promoting the broad sale of public lands and demands the respect of existing land management plans.

While traveling the state during his campaign for governor, Sen. Eric Barlow, R-Gillette, said he has gained a better understanding of the generational value of public lands, likening them to the many multigenerational ranches in Wyoming.

“In many families, public lands are generational heritage,” Barlow said.

Public lands have a wide-reaching impact in Wyoming, with a history in agriculture, mining and outdoor recreation, Barlow noted. Presently, many businesses benefit greatly from access to public lands.

Wyoming Outdoor Recreation Business Alliance Executive Director Addie Jenkins said outdoor recreation businesses are a $2 billion industry employing more than 15,000 people across the state.

“Numerous Fremont County businesses rely on access to public lands, as do our residents. Getting outdoors is a fundamental component of why people live and work here, so our public lands are immeasurably valuable,” Fremont County Commissioner Michael Jones wrote in an email.

The resolution was lauded by public lands activists in Wyoming, such as Keep it Public, Wyoming, a coalition founded in 2016 to oppose the sale of public lands. 

“After much discussion involving how public lands hold no value and should be sold, it’s outstanding to see our great state taking the lead on the importance of our cherished public lands,” said Chris Steffen, director of operations for Muley Fanatic Foundation, in a statement published by Keep it Public, Wyoming.

Last summer, a proposal from U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, sparked widespread concern about the potential sale of federally owned public lands. Thousands of Wyomingites, including about 90 in Sheridan, protested the proposal.

Protesters in Sheridan said they use public lands to hunt, fish, camp and hike. They all generally expressed a desire to protect access to public lands, which they feared would be threatened or stripped if lands were sold.

Lee’s proposal, which he walked back after widespread protests, included an order to sell an estimated 2 to 3 million acres of public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service across 11 western states, including Wyoming. Lee claimed his proposal would help shrink the nation’s more than $1.3 trillion deficit and would sell the land to housing developers. States and local governments would have submitted potential tracts suitable for housing development.

Resolutions are a way for the Wyoming Legislature to convey what the state, its citizens and lawmakers believe.

“We’re telling them we don’t support selling off public land in Wyoming,” said Sen. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, a co-sponsor of the resolution.

SJ9 was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to the session schedule, Feb. 19 is the last day for bills and resolutions to be reported out of committee in the chamber of origin.