Around the 307
News, commentary, and other items of interest from the greater Wyoming landscape.
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A quick look at Wyoming news items for the week of August 18th, 2024:
First up, wildfire status across the Cowboy State has intensified over the past seven days with multiple fires burning across Wyoming. As of mid-week, the Fish Creek Fire burning in the Jackson Ranger District of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, was 0% contained with strong winds producing large growth of the blaze that has already consumed over 9,500 acres. Pre-evacuation orders are now in effect for areas around Togwotee Pass to include Brooks Lake Lodge. Near Buffalo, the House Draw Fire is also 0% contained and has burned over 165,000 acres. You can check the Interagency Incident Information System (also known as InciWeb) to get the latest status on all active Wyoming wildfires. Pray for rain and less wind folks!
Moving on, it has been a rough week for weather across Wyoming. On Monday, August 20th Devils Tower National Monument was pummeled by 5 inches of golf-ball sized hail (with some reportedly as large as baseballs), 1.5 inches of rain, and 80 mph wind gusts! The storm left a landscape of mangled trees and infrastructure in its wake. Read all about the devastating storm and its aftermath in this Cowboy State Daily news story.
On Thursday, August 22nd, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon released a formal statement expressing his disappointment over the content of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) recently released Final Rock Springs Resource Management Plan (RMP). [You may recall Close to Home 307 reported on the controversial Draft Rock Springs RMP last fall. You can read my November 3rd, 2023 post here if you like.] The Rock Springs RMP determines how 3.6 million acres of surface estate and mineral rights across 5 Wyoming counties will be managed for the next decade. Here’s a snipped from the Governor’s statement: “Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the FEIS [final environmental impact statement] for the proposed Rock Springs RMP does not meet Wyoming’s expectations of durable, multiple use of public lands… make no mistake, the State of Wyoming will be filing protests where our comments were disregarded.” Stay tuned!
That’s all for today buckaroos! Thanks for reading, have a great week!
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