Wildlife Taskforce looks at improving access to land
Wildlife Taskforce looks at improving access to land
By Alex Hargrave
Buffalo Bulletin
Via Wyoming News Exchange
BUFFALO — The Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce, commissioned to examine the state's wildlife policies, is exploring ways to improve access to public lands.
As it stands, a few million acres of public land are effectively inaccessible due to bordering private land. Adam Teten, a Buffalo resident and member of the board representing Wyoming's sportsmen, said the issue has come up several times at the task force's meetings that started last summer. He described the ideas for improving access as “wait and see remedies.”
A bill that passed in the Wyoming Legislature last year raised the price of conservation stamps for hunters and anglers. It was written with the intent of raising funds to improve access to public lands.
According to the legislation, at least 85% of the revenue must be used to purchase access easements or other agreements to provide public access to federal and state lands that are difficult to access or inaccessible by the public for hunting and fishing purposes.
Teten said the impact of the legislation has yet to be seen.
“2022 will be the first full year of seeing what that income ends up being," he said. "There's a large contingent that says, well, just have people enroll in Access Yes. Access Yes has been around for quite some time. My opinion is it's probably gone as far as it will go without some better means of marketing or partnership with landowners.”
The program, according to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, was established in 1998. With it, hunters and anglers can access lands that are enrolled by the landowner.
Accessibility, too, is a subjective term. Teten used an example in Johnson County — the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's North Fork Wilderness Study Area, which is technically accessible in just one way.
“There is a piece of public land that starts from the end of the Billy Creek access and traverses the entire face of the Bighorns and will allow you to get back into the North Fork Wilderness Study Area,” he said. “You need to have about three sets of climbing gear. It's a 22-mile trip, one way. There are very few folks that have the ability, knowledge and or equipment to do that safely, let alone make the return trip and or do it repeatedly.”
The other access point, he said, would be through private land, for which permission is required to cross.
“Unless you border that chunk of BLM land, there's no way you're getting into it," Teten said.
Other ideas are being discussed among the task force members, including tying landowner tags to access.
"We don't know how that's going to shape up yet,” he said.
The task force assembled a subcommittee to specifically look into solutions. And as this conversation about access to landlocked public lands progresses, a court in Carbon County will soon decide whether four hunters from Missouri committed criminal trespass by using a step ladder to cross from one public land parcel to another.
“That could have either a positive or negative impact on this entire conversation, depending on what ends up being found out,” Teten said. “If the local court decides that is trespassing, the corner hop, that sets somewhat of a precedent. If they decide it isn't, it could set a precedent.”
According to the Center for Western Priorities, land ownership patterns render more than 750,000 acres of Wyoming public land inaccessible. A checkerboard pattern makes it so the only way someone can access another parcel of public land is by stepping over private land, an issue that has been debated for many years.
Teten said the answer to the debate depends who you speak with. Private landowners largely think corner-crossing is a violation of private property rights. Those who want to access public lands, however, think differently.
Peter Kassab is a Buffalo resident and co-chair of Wyoming Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a nonprofit that advocates for public access. The group is by no means anti-landowner, Kassab said, and it supports landowners and the fact that their lands should not be trespassed on or damaged.
However, when it comes to corner-crossing, he sides with recreationists, particularly in the Carbon County case.
"What we're focused on is corner-crossing,” Kassab said. “That legitimate, legal corner-crossing be reviewed and ruled in favor of, the public being able to access that patchwork of corner-crossed lands across Wyoming.”
The group's position is that hunters and anglers should work to establish relationships with landowners to not only improve access, but to also improve communication.
“Wyoming BHA recognizes that solutions to the corner crossing gray area can only come through collaboration at a statewide level, with a multitude of stakeholders represented,” its statement reads. “We are prepared to support and participate in such efforts.”
Teten said the task force's subcommittee working on land access is scheduled to report back with findings and suggestions at the board's next meeting March 22-23.
This story was published on Feb. 10.