Federal officials finalized new land-management guidelines Friday for 3.6 million acres of southwest Wyoming, prescribing future management for beloved landscapes like the Red Desert and the Little Mountain region.  The move comes only weeks before President Joe Biden will leave office and only hours before a possible federal government shutdown. It drew a strong response from Gov. Mark Gordon, who accused the Biden administration of ignoring feedback from the state. Revisions to the resource management plan for the Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Field Office were 13 years in the making. On Friday afternoon, the federal agency published a “record of decision” document, closing the door to additional changes. “I’ve worked for BLM-Wyoming for over a decade … and the Rock Springs RMP has always been something that’s been ongoing,” Deputy State Director for Communications Brad Purdy told WyoFile. “It does feel very nice to get that across the finish line. We can have some good resource management in that area that isn’t from 1997.”  Spring green up hits Little Mountain, one of the southwest Wyoming features within the Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Field Office. (Steven Brutger) The resource management plan cemented by the decision is unchanged, Purdy said, from what the BLM proposed in the final environmental impact statement, released in August.  The revision leaves 70% of the field office available for fluid mineral extraction. Highly protected “areas of critical environmental concern,” meanwhile, increased from 226,000 acres in the old plan to 935,000 acres in the just-updated one. Mule deer and pronghorn migration routes are safeguarded under the revised plan by the state’s policies, which are more permissive of development than what BLM proposed in its draft environmental impact statement. Gordon had asked for a number of changes last week via an administrative appeal. Those requests were rejected by BLM Principal Deputy Director Nada Culver “immediately” before the decision was published, according to a statement from the governor’s office.  “While it is not surprising that Wyoming’s comments were figuratively dumped in the trash,” Gordon said, “it is disappointing that despite years of collaborative work between state agencies, impacted counties, concerned citizens, and interest groups, all Wyoming is left with is this parting shot from the Biden Administration.”  Gov. Mark Gordon in Cheyenne in August 2024. (Madelyn Beck/WyoFile) Gordon decried the BLM for hastening the record of decision out the door before incoming president Donald Trump takes office Jan. 20. Gordon will sit down with the Wyoming Attorney General to determine if the record of decision meets the Wyoming Legislature’s conditions for certification of the Kelly Parcel sale, he promised in a Friday statement.  Located 100 miles away from the BLM field office within Grand Teton National Park, the 640-acre state-owned Kelly Parcel became intertwined with the Rock Springs plan update by the Wyoming Legislature. The budget passed during the body’s 2024 session enables the federal government to acquire the parcel from the state, but only under certain conditions related to rights-of-way and energy development in the Rock Springs plan decision.  The governor committed to “reviewing and pursuing all the options we have to claw back this misguided ROD.” Among the options GOP lawmakers have considered is using the Congressional Review Act to overturn the land-use plan — which would be a novel use of that oversight tool. “With President Trump in office, former [North Dakota] Governor [Doug] Burgum at the head of the Department of the Interior, and a Republican Senate and House,” Gordon said, “I am confident that we will have the ability to finish the job and right a course that has been so far off track over the last four years.” U.S. Sen John Barrasso — who’s slated to become the second most powerful GOP senator next Congress — declared the Rock Springs decision a “misguided and malicious midnight rule.”   “Given that Wyoming Governor Gordon just submitted his review of this plan … it is clear that the Department of the Interior did not seriously consider or respond to his concerns. I look forward to working with President Trump to repeal this disastrous plan.” The Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Field Office, which spans 3.6 million surface acres, is in red. (BLM) In 2023, the draft stage of the plan revision sparked outrage from many Republicans in Wyoming, who worried the plan leaned too far toward conservation at the expense of industrial activity. Major changes were made following the backlash in the early stages of the revision process. “Between the draft and final, we had an extraordinary amount of public comment, interaction with cooperators, interaction with the governor’s office,” Purdy said. “That allowed us to put together a really good final EIS. After we put that together, and we looked at everything, we didn’t see any reason to make any changes to the [decision].” An analysis led by environmental groups found that 85% of the recommendations from a Gordon-appointed task force after the draft stage were included in the final Rock Springs plan, which carried over unchanged to the decision.  Conservationists cheer, industry fumes Wyoming’s conservation community celebrated the end of the longstanding land-use dispute and urged elected officials to leave it alone.   “I want to thank the Bureau of Land Management for honoring the wishes of our communities and adopting a plan that will help conserve Little Mountain’s mule deer for years to come,” Muley Fanatic Foundation President Josh Coursey said in a statement. “Now, we must move forward. It would be a great disservice to the hunting and angling community of southwestern Wyoming if we tried to undo this plan.”  The Oregon Buttes Wilderness Study Area, located within the Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Field Office, in June 2014. (Sam Cox/BLM-Wyoming Flickr) Julia Stuble, who directs the The Wilderness Society’s state office, applauded the BLM for protecting wildlife habitat and cultural sites like the northern Red Desert and Big Sandy foothills. “While we are dismayed the BLM did not close crucial stopover sites in antelope and mule deer migration corridors to oil and gas drilling,” she said, “this plan is nonetheless a good-faith effort to provide durable guidance that balances conservation, access to outdoor recreation and energy needs.”  Alec Underwood, program director at the Wyoming Outdoor Council, declared in a statement the now-completed plan “clearly reflects local residents, industries, and expert analysis in pursuit of the balance of multiple uses that the BLM was established to manage.”  “Areas beloved by hunters, hikers, and recreationists of all kinds are protected,” Underwood said. “Moreover, continued trona mining and energy development will persist in appropriate locations and with the right safeguards in place.” A Sublette Herd pronghorn sizes up an intruder in its habitat within the confines of Jonah Energy’s Normally Pressured Lance gas field in August 2023. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile) Industry representatives, however, blasted Friday’s earlier-than-expected decision.  “It is not surprising that the anti-oil and natural gas Biden Administration would drop a 550-plus page final Record of Decision for the Rock Springs RMP on the Friday before Christmas with one foot out the door and a government shutdown looming,” Petroleum Association of Wyoming Vice President and Director of Communications Ryan McConnaughey told WyoFile. “The BLM has consistently ignored input from the natural gas and oil industry, state and local governments and concerned Wyoming citizens in an effort to push this ill-conceived plan across the finish line before they leave office.” The decision document for the Rock Springs Resource Management Plan can be read below. BLM’s response to protests, which was completed on Thursday, is also available for review. -WyoFile staff writers Katie Klingsporn and Dustin Bleizeffer contributed to this story RSFO_ROD and ARMP_20241220_ADA_FinalDownload The post Biden administration finalizes Rock Springs Plan without further changes appeared first on WyoFile .