Bill > HR1472

This bill creates several new wilderness areas, national conservation areas, special management areas, and motorized recreation areas in Wyoming, while also releasing certain wilderness study areas from further wilderness consideration. Specifically, the bill designates five new wilderness areas: Encampment River Canyon, Prospect Mountain, Upper Sweetwater Canyon, Lower Sweetwater Canyon, and Bobcat Draw, totaling approximately 20,412 acres of federal land. It establishes the Dubois Badlands National Conservation Area (4,446 acres) and the Dubois Motorized Recreation Area (368 acres), and creates multiple special management areas including Bennett Mountains, Black Cat, Sweetwater Rocks, Fortification Creek, Fraker Mountain, North Fork, and Cedar Mountain. The bill requires the Secretary of the Interior to develop travel management plans for these areas, restricts new road construction and permanent infrastructure, and allows for continued grazing and limited motorized vehicle use. It also withdraws these lands from most forms of appropriation, mining, and mineral leasing, with exceptions for directional drilling of oil and gas resources. Additionally, the bill mandates studies for potential new motorized recreation areas in Fremont, Hot Springs, and Washakie Counties and establishes a Fremont County Implementation Team to assist with land management. The overall goal is to balance conservation, recreation, and local land use needs in Wyoming.

Agriculture and Natural Resources

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1472/all-info