Council for the Bighorn Range in 2018

 

The Council for the Bighorn Range (CBR) is the first organization to challenge our land management agencies in the Bighorn Mountains to do better. We are an increasingly a constant force to bring the public in on everyday land management decisions across the Bighorn Mountains region.

 

• The Council for the Bighorn Range mobilized the public, our local governments, our Congressional Delegation to keep the Bighorn National Forest from eliminating the Powder River Ranger District. The BNF had moved on the planned consolidation of the three remaining districts into two without public input or knowledge. The and the Forest Service as management has legitimate budget an staffing concerns, but it keep public support, it needs public face in our communities. In 2019, a new Powder River District Ranger was in Buffalo.

• Council for the Bighorn Range is a member of the Keep It Public coalition of conservation, , outfitter, environmental interests and individuals out there in support of a Wyoming Public Lands Day. In 2018 we sponsored rallies in Sheridan, in Greybull and Worland and contacted legislators. The effort did not see legislation in 2018, but in 2019 session, an enhanced version of the Legislation did clear legislature and into law Governor Mark Gordon.

• Timber, from fire mitigation to promoting an increase in timber production, the BNF released their proposal on the Buffalo Municipal Watershed Project that includes 3,000 acres clear-cuts. The BNF sought and received clearance to make the clearcuts 40 acres. The project also calls on the construction of nearly 90 miles of temporary road in the Clear Creek headwaters just outside the Cloud Peak Wilderness. CBR objected to the lack of language on decommissioning and naturalizing the roads, sufficient buffers from stream beds and wetlands on the Bighorn NF and transparency in the costs to the American public on these fire mitigation projects. The hazard of fire to the Buffalo Water Supply in the contract study compared to actual history in the Clear Creek Watershed.

• Grazing and Range. In a and focused Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, CBR is working to support credible range science for range health and ecosystem benefits. After many years of research and practice, measurement systems that were by University of Wyoming, US Forest Service and most of the stockmen that use public lands for forage and water is being undermined by few in industry. Additional studies have been requested by the Department of Agriculture using public monies to reexamine the Robole Pole method of grass regeneration and suspend use of the . The BNF in public has declared 60% of the range across the Bighorn Forest is not meeting range health standards.The Bighorn National Forest is a recreation and range forest. When these uses of either of those out of balance, everyone with a stake on our public lands is affected.