June 24, 2022 |
Governor Mark Gordon last week appealed a stealthy land purchase made by the Bureau of Land Management with $21 million of taxpayer money. Now, the Wyoming Congressional delegation is following suit.
On Thursday, U.S. Senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Liz Cheney, sent a letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Haaland joined the challenge, charging the DOI, as the governor did, with lack of transparency in the massive acquisition of land in Natrona and Carbon Counties.
In the letter, the delegation says the Bureau did not involve the public, local or state officials in the process and failed to consider the impacts of lost revenue on local communities when it purchased the Marton Ranch southwest of Casper.
The Bureau kept a lid on the purchase of the sprawling 35,670 acre property using $21 millon of taxpayer money until the record of decision was announced on May 18th. The property straddles both sides of the Carbon/Natrona County line and includes eight miles of prime access to the North Platte River southwest of Casper.
If they were kept in the dark, Carbon County Commissioners did not express any concern or to ask any questions of the Bureau of the Bureau of Land Management when informed for the first time publicly about the purchase at meeting earlier this month.
Rawlins Field Manager John Elliot, who signed the Record of Decision, acknowledged that the commissioners might be hearing about the purchase for the first time.
Several of the commissioners own ranches themselves or are connected to ranching families with large private land holdings in the county.
Scott Kerbs sits on the board of the Saratoga – Encampment – Rawlins Conservation District. Kerbs told Bigfoot 99 that he did not think the transaction was a secretive as some suggest.
Pictured above: Photo from Marton Ranch real estate listing from farmandranch.com.
Governor Gordon named the field managers of the both the Casper and Rawlins field of the Bureau of Land Management in the appeal filed by the state attorney general’s office last week. Both signed the Bureau’s May 18th Record of Decision announcing the purchase.
The Bureau kept a tight lid on the purchase of the sprawling 35,670 acre property using $21 million of taxpayer until the DOR was release. Then the Bureau released a flurry of public statements. The property straddles both sides of the Carbon/Natrona County line. It includes eight miles of prime access to the North Platte River southwest of Casper.
Commissioner Sue Jones told Bigfoot 99 that the only notice Carbon County received was contained in a newsletter from the Bureau. Jones provided a link to an undated article about the purchase that is posted online at the Conservation Fund website. The article includes a photograph of Dan Schlager, Wyoming State Director at The Conservation Fund standing with Randy Marton at the property. Maron is identified as a “former rancher.”
The term “former rancher” in the cut line to describe Marton suggests that the story was written after the May 18th decision and the sale.
Jones suggested Carbon County should not be impacted very much by the sale. The “good land,” she said is in Natrona County. Commissioner Jones said her research indicates the land in Carbon County amounts to 1,879 acres of open sage. She says how much PILT money, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes, won’t be known until next year.
Jones acknowledged that the concern over lack of transparency by the Bureau stems from the use of taxpayer money to buy the land.
Kerbs characterized the Bureau’s handling of the purchase as an “end-around,” and said the purchase is part of the Biden administration’s 30 by 30 plan to lock away 30 percent of all land and waters by 2030.
Some , like Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts call the 30 by 30 plan a “federal land grab.”
In yesterday’s letter, the Wyoming Congressional delegation urged the DOI to neutralize the Bureau’s expansion of the federal footprint in Wyoming by disposing of other federal land in the state. They also call for the reinstatement of a previous DOI policy requiring local and state support before the federal government can acquire more land.
