CASPER, Wyo. — Dispersed camping is available at a large section of what is now public land that the Bureau of Land Management recently acquired from the Marton family southwest of Casper.
The 35,670 acres the BLM acquired, mainly from offshore royalty revenues through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, also opens up access to about 30,000 acres of previously inaccessible federally owned land and about 10,000 acres of previously inaccessible state-owned land, according to Kevin Christiansen, manager for the BLM High Plains District.
“You can camp there now,” Christiansen told members of the public at the new Natrona County Outdoor Recreation Collaborative’s meeting Wednesday evening. “You are the landowner now.”
The land purchase is the largest in Wyoming in BLM’s history and includes 8.8 miles of North Platte River access. Christiansen said the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will be working to remove private property signage along the river and that he personally was out removing “no trespassing” signage from the land itself last week. Due to the area’s size, there may be some private property signs that have yet to be removed, he said.
The BLM is initially managing the newly acquired land under policies already in place for other nearby BLM land, but the agency will engage in a process to establish management policies specific to the area. An area on the west side of the property touches other BLM land that has a high concentration of fossils and there will be some protections related to that, Christiansen said.
Most of the area falls under the BLM’s Bates Hole Management Area, where policies are in place that aim to protect soils, prevent erosion and improve wildlife habitat. Some of the area is also winter crucial range for pronghorn, mule deer and elk, and specific protections related to that could become part of management policy for the area, Christiansen said.
The Marton family retained ownership of their homestead along the river, so Christiansen noted that area is not public. The family also holds a grazing permit to continue ranching in the area. There could potentially be some seasonal restrictions related to the ranching in certain pastures of the public area, he added.
There is a county road that runs through the property and there are a lot of two-track roads. Which of these roads get maintained or improved awaits the conclusion of the land use planning effort that will begin in the coming months, according to Christiansen.
The BLM will be reaching out to tribes for input as the agency works to decide what to do with the area.
“Twenty-six tribes have traditional ties that are federally recognized in this area,” Christiansen said. “We’ll reach out to them and ask them what the cultural significance is to them.”
That outreach to tribes is also happening for other land near Casper acquired by the BLM in recent years. The agency acquired what is now the Rim Rock Historic and Recreational Area in 2018. The ~650-acre property is home to the site of the Battle of Red Buttes, though exactly where the battle occurred remains uncertain, Christiansen said.
The BLM eventually plans to have an interpretive trail in the area and envisions the property as a kind of extension of the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, he added. The agency’s plans for development of the property is still a work in progress as the BLM is trying to give tribes more opportunity to weigh in. Christiansen said some tribes have been inundated with requests from various agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, slowing their ability to respond.
The newly acquired Marton property does not touch the Rim Rock area as it is a little further west, about 25 miles from Casper. The BLM is working to publish new maps to help the public understand nuances of the area. Christiansen noted that the red area shown on the following map was not part of the acquisition as that is oilfield property that wasn’t owned by the Marton family:
A member of the new Natrona County Outdoor Recreation Collaborative suggested the collaborative write a letter to the Marton family to thank them, with the deal opening up more public access in the area.
