The recent announcement of a 58,000-acre oil and natural gas lease buyout in the Wyoming Range not only conserves a valuable fish and wildlife resource, it also helps preserve an important piece of Wyoming’s heritage — access to hunting and fishing opportunities on public lands.
The region, south of Jackson, encompasses the headwaters of the Hoback River, which is a stronghold for native cutthroat trout and serves as critical habitat for migrating antelope and mule deer, as well as elk, moose and bighorn sheep.
During the past two years, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership asked Wyoming hunters and anglers to identify places in the state that they value as important hunting and fishing resources. The TRCP’s Sportsmen Values Mapping Project integrates input from meetings with more than 1,000 Wyoming residents — input designed to be used, in part, to maintain or enhance hunting and fishing opportunities throughout the state.
Not surprisingly, the region in the Wyoming Range that will be withdrawn from energy development ranks high among these sportsmen due to its richness in wildlife, its rugged beauty and its longstanding tradition as a place where generations of Wyomingites have hunted and fished.
In meeting after meeting, sportsmen told us that if the areas they valued were no longer suitable or available for hunting and fishing, they would be unsure of their ability to continue these pastimes. The agreement reached by the Trust for Public Land and Plains Exploration & Production regarding the Wyoming Range leases takes an important step toward helping retain Wyoming’s fish, wildlife and hunting and fishing traditions.
All of those involved in making that happen deserve a thank you from the state’s sportsmen and sportswomen.