Wyoming expands Good Neighbor Authority, state forestry to deliver majority of federal timber sales this year

Wyoming State Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service told the Select Committee on Federal Natural Resource Management that the state’s Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) program is accelerating forest-management work on federal lands and supporting local timber industry recovery and wildfire-risk reduction.

Kelly Norris, Wyoming State Forester, said the division manages roughly 263,000 acres of state forest lands and sold 4 million board feet last year. She said state forestry will supply a much larger share of federal timber offerings this year through GNA: "We are expected to sell 59% of all U.S. Forest Service timber volume in Wyoming," Norris reported. The state has also collected roughly $2.2 million in receipts that can be reinvested in projects.

Norris outlined two pilot landscapes—one in the Big Horn National Forest and a second on the Bridger‑Teton National Forest (the LeBarge area, which she said contains an estimated 17 million board feet)—designed to provide multiple years of predictable timber flows. The Bridger‑Teton pilot is expected to include both small (5–10 acre) sales to help grow local contractors and larger timber work to stabilize supply.

The committee also heard from Chad Hudson, acting deputy regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service Mountain Region, who said the Bridger‑Teton National Forest expects roughly 10.2 million board feet this year (5.6M contract volume plus 4.6M fuelwood) and that statewide USFS production could reach about 85 million board feet in 2026 with GNA accounting for approximately 59%.

Both witnesses emphasized that NEPA and planning are the primary bottlenecks to moving projects quickly. State forestry said it is contracting NEPA surveys in some areas to reduce delays and has used federal funding to hire GNA staff and build a predictable pipeline for industry. The committee learned that the state received $4.9 million in federal funding tied to shared stewardship, and that the state’s new forest health grant program (funded with $3.5 million in state funds) received 31 applications requesting about $12.27 million with $11.46 million in matching funds from applicants across 15 counties.

Lawmakers pressed officials about market demand, the types of timber products that can be produced (sawtimber, post-and-pole, fuelwood) and workforce capacity. Officials said they expect existing mills to diversify and new smaller contractors to develop if the state guarantees a multi-year pipeline of smaller sales. Committee members asked LSO and the Forest Service to provide a historical timeline of timber output and causes for past industry declines to help develop policy responses.

The committee also requested that the governor explore a shared‑stewardship-style agreement with the Bureau of Land Management and asked LSO to draft a letter requesting that the governor and federal officials evaluate that possibility.

Next steps: state forestry and USFS will provide more detailed output timelines and market analysis; LSO will draft the governor-request letter on BLM shared-stewardship options and the committee will receive reports on the forest health grant selections.