This story is part of a series on how some conservatives in the West want states to take over federal land. The dives into their perspectives.
Near the end of a long dirt road outside the small city of Casper, Carolyn Griffith鈥檚 tan A-frame house sits in front of a towering mountainous ridge.
鈥淭his is the foothills of Casper Mountain,鈥� said Griffith, who has short, spunky, white hair.
As chickadees sang in her front yard, the 65-year-old said the wide open area is pretty tranquil, but that was all turned upside down on one February afternoon last year.
鈥淚 noticed a backhoe going onto the state land,鈥� Griffith recalled.
Right now, that land is open for recreation, but it鈥檚 in a state trust. Griffith and her neighbors learned gravel and sand mining had been approved there.
鈥淭he individual that was in the backhoe produced a permit for a potential gravel pit,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o we were all pretty shocked at that.鈥�
She's worried that gravel mining could impact the fragile aquifer she relies on for drinking. Others are worried about losing their place to birdwatch or walk their dogs 鈥� things that don鈥檛 exactly make the state money.
鈥淪tate trust land is not public land. It's trust land,鈥� said Jason Crowder, who used to run the Office of State Lands and Investments, which manages the land.
At a highly-attended at the University of Wyoming, Crowder explained that trust land has to be used largely to fund K-12 education, as well as other public institutions, like the University of Wyoming.
鈥淥ffice of State Lands and investments is not the BLM. It's not the Forest Service,鈥� 鈥淲e have different missions.鈥�
Federal lands are managed for multiple uses, but on many state lands in Wyoming and the Mountain West, recreation comes second. Some states allow day use like picnicking or fishing and sometimes camping, but overnight stays are off the table in Wyoming.
鈥淲e're here to optimize revenues,鈥� Crowder emphasized.
But there鈥檚 simmering tensions over how these lands are used. Outside Casper, hundreds of Wyomingites have fought or on other parcels of state trust land.
鈥淲hat's lost in that criticism is that the office has a fiduciary duty,鈥� said Crowder, 鈥渁 duty higher than all others.鈥�
That's a big reason why many Wyomingites are worried about proposals in Congress to transfer federal land over to states, local governments or private owners.
want the state to take over all 30 million acres of federal public land in Wyoming 鈥� about nine times more than the state currently manages. Many are frustrated with federal management of mineral leases or ATV restrictions on roads, and think the state would do a better job.
Some even believe Congress is constitutionally obligated to dispose of its land. A controversial, largely symbolic resolution in the state senate earlier this year that would have demanded Congress hand over most of those acres in Wyoming, but many thought it went too far.
State Sen. Bill Landen (R-Casper) has said the state could take on management parcel by parcel.
鈥淔or a long time we have talked about land transfer, and It just feels like to me there's an opportunity at the national level right now,鈥� Landen said in a recently.
But if federal lands are turned over to states, there鈥檚 no guarantee that land would stay public. Wyoming has sold of its state land in the past two centuries, looking just at land on the surface, not underneath where there鈥檚 mineral rights. Utah has sold , and Nevada has gotten rid of
| Credit: State governments, Wilderness Society, National Association of State Trust Lands |
States might also not have the capacity to take on more land. The Wyoming state trust agency has five field staff for 3.4 million surface acres, according to Crowder. The state parks department, the other state land manager, has a shrinking budget. The director it has fewer resources than it did 15 years ago,
That鈥檚 also why environmentalists say land management should be left as it is.
鈥淲e understand there are issues with how federal agencies are managed, but our federal agencies have more capacity to do public outreach,鈥� said Josh Metten, the Wyoming field manager at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a hunting and angling group.
State lawmakers actually sought on this in 2015. They wanted to inherit federal lands but learned there was no way Wyoming could afford taking over management with the system currently in place.
Utah, which federal government to take over some land, has to take over management. That hasn鈥檛 happened in Wyoming. Some lawmakers say they want to create a new state public land category.
鈥淭here is no clear way to take federal public land and just transition it into state public land,鈥� Metten concluded.
In the foothills of Casper Mountain, Griffith gestured to the open landscape through her floor-to-ceiling window.
鈥淲e knew there were state lands,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e also knew there was a fragile water supply and certainly didn't think that digging a pit through that would be a good choice for the land.鈥�
After a year of pushback, the gravel mine project ended up largely hitting the brakes. The state's top officials most of the leases, but Griffith knows 鈥� with state management 鈥� there could be another threat down that long dirt road.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, 萝莉少女 in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .