BLM briefs Wyoming committee on Rock Springs RMP review; public scoping expected next month

Chris Kirby, acting state director for BLM Wyoming, told the Select Federal Natural Resource Management Committee on June 19 that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has begun a targeted review of the Rock Springs Field Office Resource Management Plan (RMP) focused on special management designations that the agency believes most affect mineral development.

“The BLM signed the record of decision and the approved resource management plan for the Rock Springs field office on 12/20/2024,” Chris Kirby said in his opening remarks. He told the committee that the RMP “is currently under the new plan, which has been operating,” and stressed that the record of decision (ROD) remains in force. “All valid existing rights prior to December 20 were carried through into the new record of decision,” Kirby said.

Kirby and Kimberly Foster, field manager for the BLM Rock Springs office, told lawmakers the RMP is not preventing mineral development in the field office. Kirby reported the office has…