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Shed hunting in Wyoming will look different this year. The legislature passed regulations that will give residents a one week head start on some public lands, including popular antler gathering areas near Jackson Hole and Pinedale. Also, non-residents will now be required to purchase a conservation stamp to go shed hunting on designated lands.Wyoming Public Radio’s Olivia Weitz spoke with UC Berkeley PHD Candidate Sam Maher who is the lead researcher on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem Antler study. Preliminary results suggest that the rule changes may lead Wyoming residents to look for antlers in places they haven’t looked in years, and that out-of-state shed hunters may not be as profit driven as some may think.
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The Western Solar Plan added five more states, meaning more public land has been identified for future projects. But there are concerns over the effect on hunting and fishing on some of these lands.
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When the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its draft plan for managing millions of acres in southwest Wyoming in August, it got heated – amongst Wyomingites and even nationally. So, Wyoming’s Governor Mark Gordon appointed a task force to sort through all the opinions, and the group has released their recommendations.
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In its first three years, the Biden administration has protected millions of acres and spent billions on conservation.
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Ranching, agriculture, public lands, livestock – these are all key industries in the Cowboy State, and a new bachelor’s degree at the University of Wyoming (UW) aims to prepare students for those kinds of jobs.
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Legislation to improve access to public lands and address issues related to rising usage has been introduced in the U.S. House.
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The HOUSES Act would allow the sale of federal land to a state or local government, so long as there's a plan in place to build affordable housing there.
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The public comment period for the Bureau of Land Management’s proposed public lands rule closed this week, with well over 200,000 people weighing in. The Center for Western Priorities, which supports the proposal, analyzed those comments and found that an overwhelming majority was supportive.
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The protection of greater sage grouse is in conversation again. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning to update its protections this year, as the bird is considered a ‘sensitive species.’ But several conservation groups wrote the agency a letter saying it is still not enough.
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One element of the BLM’s proposed Public Lands Rule would allow for so-called conservation leasing, which would enable public and private entities to carry out restoration work or compensatory mitigation to offset the impacts of projects. The Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank, says that such leases could speed the development of clean energy on public lands, an important prospect given the Biden administration’s ambitious goal of permitting 25 gigawatts of such projects by 2025.