By Colin Tiernan
Douglas Budget
Via Wyoming News Exchange
DOUGLAS — Hunters fear the loss of prime hunting grounds. Residents worry about the safety implications on Boxelder Road and the sheer eyesore it will cause.
Dave Banzhaf doesn’t want to live next to it.
“I’m not interested in having a hard rock gravel pit right on my property line,” Banzhaf said. “If they put a gravel pit in there I probably couldn’t give my property away.”
Banzhaf’s house is located in the middle of the Duncan Ranch, south of town. He says that when he bought the house his understanding had been that the ranch would be preserved for agricultural and recreational purposes. The Duncan Ranch is state land, and adjoined by county property.
The Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments has leased the land to Knife River, a construction company based in Casper, for sand and gravel exploration. According to Banzhaf, exploration for the project began a little over a year ago. While Knife River still has to receive a host of permits from the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, the Wyoming Department of Transportation and Converse County, it appears likely the company will receive them if the project is greenlighted by Knife.
Assistant Director of Wyoming State Lands and Investments Jason Crowder described the project as “likely to reach production.”
Petition Begins
With the memory of the Hackalo Quarry – a gravel pit that scarred a large swath of the mountainside south of I-25 several years ago – still fresh in his mind, avid hunter Chris Lamb has led a petition against this gravel pit. According to Lamb, the petition already has more than 600 signatures.
“We’re well on our way,” Lamb said.
Banzhaf mentioned that the majority of the signees live along Boxelder Road, but individuals from Rolling Hills and Casper have also signed.
Lamb said that he has only spoken to one person who supported the development of the pit.
“Everyone else who I’ve talked to or spoken to about it thinks it’s a horrible idea,” he said.
Lamb explained that the public land that makes up the Duncan Ranch is “phenomenal” hunting ground and important mule deer wintering habitat. He fears that the size of the project will destroy that habitat. The largest of the three proposed pits is 547 acres.
“It’s state land that we’re going to lose,” Lamb said. “The general public and non-landowners, we’re losing access to land every year by the thousands of acres . . . We’re just losing opportunity for any recreational use, not only hunting, but anything.”
For Lamb, the gravel pit makes it harder for those who don’t live on hunting grounds to get into the field.
“It’s not fair for the non-ranching community, for the guys like me who don’t own a ranch that are depending on Wyoming state land, BLM, National Forest, to be able to go out and hunt and fish,” he said. “I mean we’re losing it fast.”
The Office of State Lands and Investment’s job is to generate income on state land, while maintaining other uses like recreation, Assistant Director Jason Crowder explained, but he doesn’t feel that the pit will take away an excessive amount of public access lands. In fact, he believes that public access has increased over the years.
“While it (hunting) may not be able to happen on that specific acre that’s being produced, we’re not closing down the whole ranch to recreation,” he said. “Not only that, we’re not contemplating that Knife River will be developing the whole ranch at once, it’s likely that they’ll be doing maybe up to five acres at a time.”
Safety Concerns
Residents also worry that the heavy loads necessitated by the gravel pit will make the road dangerous for two reasons: Firstly, Boxelder Road is a school bus route. Secondly, it’s ill-equipped to handle large vehicles.
Banzhaf doesn’t feel the road will work for the trucks.
“The first three miles of (Boxelder Road) are so narrow, it forces you off the pavement,” Banzhaf said. “It’s too narrow . . . That’s going to be a real safety hazard in our opinion.”
Lamb concurs.
“The road is already crap,” Lamb said. “It’s not in good shape at all.”
The Converse County commissioners agreed that a bridge on Boxelder is too narrow and will have to be rebuilt if the project proceeds.
Banzhaf insists the road would still be unsafe.