Senator’s legacy: Range protection

The late U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas worked tirelessly in the last years of his life championing a bill to put portions of the Wyoming Range off-limits to future oil and gas leasing. The legacy of Thomas — who drafted the Wyoming Range legislation in 2006 and pushed for the bill until his death from leukemia in 2007 — was finally realized this year. Originally introduced in 2007 by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Thomas’ replacement in the Senate, the Wyoming Range Legacy Act spent 18 months in Congress until its passage in March. The passage was spurred by a grass-roots coalition of area residents, conservationists, sportsmen, union labor officials, church organizations and others. The Wyoming Range Legacy Act provides permanent protection from future oil and gas development for 1.2 million acres within the scenic Wyoming Range, located on the state’s western flank within the Bridger-Teton National Forest. The bill prohibits any future oil and gas leasing, mining patents or geothermal leasing along an approximately 100-mile-long stretch of the Wyoming Range. The act also allows for conservation groups and individuals to buy and retire some 75,000 acres in the forest already leased for oil and gas development in the Wyoming Range, but only if the leaseholders are willing to sell...read more