Sage Grouse Implementation and Mitigation Credits

Wyo. Stat. Ann. tit. 9, ch. 19

in effect

Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 9-19-101 Sage grouse implementation team created; membership; duties.

(a) There is created a sage grouse implementation team that shall consist of members appointed by the governor as provided in this subsection and members of the legislature as provided in subsection (b) of this section. Members of the implementation team appointed pursuant to this subsection shall serve staggered terms of four (4) years. As terms of current implementation team members expire, the governor shall appoint each new member or reappointed member to a four (4) year term. The implementation team members appointed by the governor shall consist of the following members: (i) Not less than two (2) members representing each of the following interests: (A) Agriculture; (B) Mining; (C) Oil and gas industry; (D) Conservation or sportsmen's groups. (ii) Not less than one (1) member representing each of the following interests: (A) County government; (B) Wind generation and transmission industry. (iii) Not less than one (1) member representing each of the following agencies: (A) Wyoming game and fish commission; (B) Wyoming department of agriculture; (C) Wyoming department of environmental quality; (D) Wyoming wildlife and natural resource trust fund board; (E) Wyoming oil and gas conservation commission; and (F) Wyoming office of state lands and investments. (b) The sage grouse implementation team shall include one (1) member of the house of representatives, appointed by the speaker of the house and one (1) member of the senate appointed by the president of the senate. (c) The implementation team shall seek cooperation and participation from the following federal entities in carrying out its duties: (i) United States bureau of land management; (ii) United States fish and wildlife service; (iii) United States forest service; (iv) United States natural resource conservation service. (d) The governor may remove any member appointed pursuant to subsection (a) of this section as provided in W.S. 9-1-202. (e) The governor shall appoint a chairman and other officers deemed necessary from among the members. The implementation team may meet as often as deemed necessary by a majority of the implementation team or at the request of the chairman or the governor. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, members shall serve without salary but may, at the governor's discretion, receive per diem and mileage for attending team meetings in the manner and amounts provided by law for state employees. Members who are government employees or public officials shall be considered on official business of their agency when performing duties as members of the implementation team. Legislative members shall be paid salary, per diem and mileage as provided in W.S. 28-5-101 when performing duties as members of the implementation team. Remaining members may, at the governor's discretion, receive payment authorized by this subsection from the governor's office. (f) The implementation team shall review data and make recommendations to the governor regarding actions and funding to maintain and enhance sage grouse populations and sage grouse habitats in Wyoming. (g) The implementation team shall make recommendations to the governor regarding regulatory actions necessary to maintain and enhance sage grouse populations and sage grouse habitats in Wyoming. (h) Before making any recommendations under subsections (f) or (g) of this section, the implementation team shall: (i) Not less than forty-five (45) days before making a recommendation to the governor that may affect surface owners, send written notice by first-class mail to all affected surface owners that may be affected by any recommendation of the implementation team. The notice shall describe the proposed recommendations to be made to the governor and how the recommendations may affect the surface owners; (ii) Not less than thirty (30) days before making a recommendation to the governor that may affect surface owners, provide an opportunity for a public meeting for the purpose of receiving comments in not less than one (1) community where the impacted owners are located.

Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 9-19-201 Short title.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Wyoming Greater Sage Grouse Compensatory Mitigation Act."

Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 9-19-202 Definitions.

(a) As used in this act: (i) "Additionality" means the benefits of a compensatory mitigation measure that improve the baseline conditions of impacted resources and their values, services and functions in a manner that is demonstrably new and would not have occurred without the compensatory mitigation measure; (ii) "Avoidance" means avoiding an impact completely by not taking a certain action or part of an action; (iii) "Compensatory mitigation" means replacement, substitution or enhancement of ecological functions to offset anticipated losses of those functions caused by impacts to the greater sage grouse; (iv) "Credit" or "mitigation credit" means a defined unit representing the accrual or attainment of ecological functions or services for the greater sage grouse at a mitigation site or within a mitigation program; (v) "Debit" means a defined unit representing the loss of ecological functions or services for greater sage grouse at a specific mitigation site or within a mitigation program; (vi) "Durability" means the effectiveness of a mitigation measure is sustained until the direct, indirect and any other residual impacts of an action on the habitat and population of the greater sage grouse are fully remediated; (vii) "Ecological function" means the ability of an area to support vegetation and fish and wildlife populations; (viii) "Effects" mean changes in the environmental conditions that are relevant to the greater sage grouse. Direct effects are caused by an action and occur at the same time and place. Indirect effects are caused by an action but occur at a later time, at another place or both; (ix) "Habitat assurance" means assurance that compensatory mitigation is adequate to reliably abate threats to greater sage grouse populations and habitat and is adequately offset by more security for habitats and populations where threats have been removed or abated; (x) "Habitat vulnerability" means actions that occur in highly vulnerable or limiting habitat types that make it more difficult to replace those habitats; (xi) "Landscape support" means an area encompassing interacting ecosystems and human systems that is characterized by a set of common management concerns; (xii) "Minimization" means minimizing the impact to habitat and populations by limiting the degree of an action and its implementation; (xiii) "Mitigation" means all actions to avoid, minimize, restore and compensate for ecological functions; (xiv) "Performance audit" means an audit conducted to evaluate a mitigation credit provider's compliance with this act and the rules promulgated by the board of land commissioners for the mitigation credit system to ensure that the provider is meeting required habitat, landscape and ecological targets necessary for the continued provision of ecological functions and services for purchased credits; (xv) "Permitting agency" means the state agency that authorizes a project or action that uses compensatory mitigation credits as mitigation for unavoidable residual impacts associated with the project or action; (xvi) "Replacement" means a physical and biological metric that will replace an impacted acre with an equal or greater amount of habitat where threats have been removed or abated; (xvii) "Service area" means a geographic area within which adverse impacts to greater sage grouse that occur may be mitigated or compensated through credits; (xviii) "Take" means to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect or to attempt to engage in that conduct; (xix) "This act" means W.S. 9-19-201 through 9-19-204.

Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 9-19-203 Compensatory mitigation; guidelines.

(a) The compensatory mitigation credit system required under this act shall be established to allow for development to be conducted in a manner that recognizes and achieves an order of avoidance, minimization and where appropriate and authorized by the permitting agency, compensatory mitigation to ensure the long-term sustainability of greater sage grouse populations and habitats. (b) The board of land commissioners, after consultation as appropriate with the department of agriculture, the department of environmental quality, the game and fish department, the oil and gas conservation commission, the department of transportation and the Wyoming wildlife and natural resource trust account board, shall adopt rules for the establishment and administration of a compensatory mitigation credit system for greater sage grouse in Wyoming, including rules for evaluating ecological functions, services and values. The rules shall at a minimum provide for: (i) Science-based criteria under which mitigation credits may be obtained, including provisions that consider additionality, durability, replacement, direct and indirect effects, habitat assurance, habitat vulnerability, occupancy, proximity, access to seasonal habitat and other landscape and habitat needs for the greater sage grouse; (ii) Establishment of a compensatory mitigation oversight group to consist of representatives of the department of agriculture, the game and fish department, the Wyoming wildlife and natural resource trust account board and the office of state lands and investments to evaluate and provide technical review using the criteria established under paragraph (i) of this subsection and, where appropriate, recommend certification of any mitigation credit provider seeking approval under this act. The group may request assistance from any state, local and federal agency to review credit provider applications and other mitigation measures; (iii) The service area for the use of compensatory mitigation credits, provided that mitigation shall take place within the state of Wyoming; (iv) The length of credits to be used and sold, provided that any term credit shall be sold for the period of the expected impact. Credit term expiration before restoration of the impacted location to suitability shall require the party responsible for the mitigation to purchase additional credits or negotiate a credit contract extension. Credit mitigation shall remain in place until the impact to the habitat of greater sage grouse is restored to suitability. Any term credit sold under this act shall be for a period of not less than five (5) years; (v) Criteria for the use and sale of compensatory mitigation credits, including specific compensatory mitigation debit requirements for impacts to greater sage grouse core and non-core population areas, that insure equivalence and parity between debit and credit calculations; (vi) Criteria for other forms of mitigation, including operator-offered measures and operator-offered restoration credits, in accordance with subsection (f) of this section, and measures for reduced or eliminated take; (vii) The review process for and approval by the board of land commissioners of recommendations submitted by the compensatory mitigation oversight group established in paragraph (ii) of this subsection; (viii) Requirements for the maintenance and submission by the board of land commissioners of records concerning ecological function and greater sage grouse habitat losses and credit and debit accounts for each mitigation credit provider; (ix) Requirements for long-term monitoring, management and maintenance of lands associated with mitigation credits obtained under the credit system including monitoring of impacts to sage grouse habitat to ensure that the impacted location is returned to full suitability before a credit purchaser is relieved of liability for mitigation of the impact; (x) Requirements for periodic financial and performance audits to be conducted on each mitigation credit provider authorized to offer credits and any purchaser of term credits under the compensatory mitigation credit system created by this section. Audits shall be conducted only to ensure that the mitigation credit provider or purchaser are in compliance with the requirements of this act and any rules promulgated for the mitigation credit system; (xi) Eligibility criteria for mitigation credit providers, including a requirement that a mitigation credit provider shall be a resident of or authorized to conduct business in Wyoming; (xii) Requirements for financial assurance associated with compensatory mitigation credits obtained under the credit system, provided that the financial assurance requirements are sufficient to address: (A) Any corrective measures which a mitigation credit provider or their successor in interest is required to take to ameliorate any material injury or adverse impacts to the land or habitat used for compensatory mitigation for which credits are offered that materially impairs the conservation objectives of that land or habitat; (B) The bankruptcy or financial failure of a mitigation credit provider authorized to offer credits under the compensatory mitigation credit system; (C) Maintenance, monitoring and management costs. (c) Every conservation easement used to serve as a credit under this act shall bind the parties thereto to an agreement that provides that the state of Wyoming is a third-party beneficiary to the easement solely with the contingent rights to enter onto the land subject to the easement for inspection and to enforce the terms of the easement if the grantee fails to enforce any of the terms of the easement. The state shall have the right to access a mitigation credit provider's financial assurances in order to address any of the occurrences specified in W.S. 9-19-203(b)(xii). (d) Upon the purchase of a credit from a mitigation credit provider approved under this act, the purchaser's obligation for mitigation represented by that credit shall be transferred to the mitigation credit provider for the term of the credit. (e) The board of land commissioners shall certify any habitat conservation bank that has been certified and approved by the United States fish and wildlife service as meeting or exceeding the requirements of this act until the earlier of: (i) The federally approved habitat conservation bank is approved under the rules promulgated pursuant to this act; or (ii) July 1, 2023. (f) In lieu of or in addition to the compensatory mitigation credit system provided in this act, an operator may perform compensatory mitigation measures in a service area that includes the same or reasonably equivalent properties in Wyoming to the lands where impacts occur and receive credit from the board of land commissioners for those measures. The operator shall retain responsibility for the mitigation measures for the entire period of the expected impact. The operator shall not delegate the responsibility for the mitigation measures except to a mitigation credit provider upon approval by the board of land commissioners. (g) No person shall have the right of eminent domain for compensatory mitigation activities specified in this act.

Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 9-19-204 Compensatory mitigation; fees; accounts.

(a) The board of land commissioners may create an account exclusively for each mitigation credit provider. The board may accept funds for deposit into each account as part of the financial assurances required under rules adopted by the board of land commissioners pursuant to W.S. 9-19-203(b). The board shall manage the expenditure of funds within each account. Funds within each account shall be invested by the state treasurer as authorized under W.S. 9-4-715(a), (d) and (e). (b) The board shall collect a fee of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500.00) from each mitigation credit provider for creating an account as provided by subsection (a) of this section. An account established pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall be subject to an annual fee of one percent (1%) of the account's balance for the annual administration, operation, reporting and accounting of the account. The board shall assess and collect the annual fee on the date set by rule during each year in which the account is in existence. The board shall collect the annual fee by deducting it from the balance of the account. (c) Each mitigation credit provider shall pay supervisory fees to the board of land commissioners as set forth in the rules and regulations of the board. The supervisory fees shall provide for the costs of audit and other supervisory actions of a mitigation credit provider approved under this act. The fees shall be established by rule of the board and shall be adjusted to assure consistency with the cost of audits. (d) Fees collected under this section shall be credited to the mitigation credit fund which is hereby created. Funds within the mitigation credit fund are continuously appropriated to the department and shall only be used for purposes of this article.

Source: WY Statutes (Official Site)URL: https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title09.pdfFetched: 10/4/2026