For the second time in four decades, tribal nations and other advocates have successfully fought off efforts to close a federal office devoted to wildlife conservation on the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Mere months ago, staff were told the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lander Conservation Office was among seven federal facilities in Wyoming that were being closed as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s downsizing efforts, then led by billionaire Elon Musk. Subsequently, the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and Shoshone and Arapaho Fish and Game Director Art Lawson urged the Trump administration to reverse course and spare the office that’s been integral to the historic return of healthy wildlife populations within the Yellowstone-sized Wyoming reservation.
The lobbying worked.
Recently, the U.S. General Services Administration sent an email to the office and the property owner in Lander informing the parties that the federal government’s lease could continue at the site, according to a source familiar with the situation.
“It basically said, ‘Keep going on with the current contract,’” said the source, who WyoFile granted anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Fish and Wildlife public affairs officials weren’t able to be immediately reached for this story.
Doug Burgum, then the North Dakota governor and now the U.S. Interior secretary, speaks at a 2018 event in Bismarck. (Andrew Graham/WyoFile)But U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also confirmed the Lander office’s continued existence in a June 11 exchange with U.S. Sen. John Barrasso.
“The Lander, Wyoming, office is an important office, and we’re going to make sure that it’s staffed and able to execute … their important duties,” Burgum testified in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing.
Federal workers, Burgum added, will continue to complete their duties in person at the office, located on 1st Street in downtown Lander.
Until the Lander-based federal workers received word they could stay, they’d been anticipating losing their office next March.
Richard Baldes talks from his home outside of Fort Washakie in fall 2024. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)
The stay on the Lander Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office’s closure marks the second time in 43 years that plans to shutter the facility have failed. Back in 1982, there were efforts within the federal government to close the office, but its founder, Richard Baldes, pushed back and prevailed.
“Only because of support from the tribes,” Baldes told WyoFile last winter. “They got Wyoming congressional support [in 1982]. And the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the time was supporting this office, and the National Wildlife Federation.”
It’s unclear what other federal offices in Wyoming being DOGE’d have similarly received word of a reversal of fortune, though the Dick Cheney Federal Building in Casper reportedly also came off the chopping block. Federal agencies under the second Trump administration have often been barred from disclosing workforce and facility cuts to the public, and media inquiries typically yield no information.
Other offices told they were being closed for cost-saving purposes included the U.S. Geological Survey’s Water Science Center in Cheyenne, U.S. Attorney’s Office in Lander, Social Security Administration facility in Rock Springs, Mine Safety Health Administration Office in Green River, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration office in Cheyenne.