Lander - With the dry conditions and local U.S. Forest Service and county fire restrictions, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is banning open fires on all Game and Fish Commission-owned and administered lands within the Lander Region.             These lands include Red Canyon, Ocean Lake, Sand Mesa, Whiskey Basin, Inberg/Roy, Chain Lakes, Morgan Creek and Red-Rim Daley Wildlife Habitat Management Areas (WHMAs), and Spence and Moriarity Wildlife Management Area, as well as the following Public Access Areas (PAA): Little Middle and North Fork Popo Agie, Luckey Pond and all Wind River PAAs near Dubois.  Habitat and Access Supervisor Brian Parker said, “As long as the dry conditions continue across Wyoming, the potential for human-caused fires, including catastrophic fires threatening Commission-owned and administered lands is very high.”             Parker continued, “The effects of wildfire can conflict with the wildlife and wildlife habitat purposes of the Game and Fish Commission-owned lands.  Therefore, the Department has instituted the fire ban to follow suite with current Fremont County fire bans.”             The following acts are prohibited on all Wyoming Game and Fish Commission-owned and administered lands:

• Building, maintaining, attending or using a fire, campfire charcoal grill, coal or wood burning stove.
• Smoking except within an enclosed vehicle or building, a developed recreation site, or while stopped in an area at least three feet in diameter that is barren or cleared of all flammable material.
• Fireworks are always prohibited on Wyoming Game and Fish Commission lands.

           For more information on the fire ban on Wyoming Game and Fish Commission lands contact the Lander Region Wyoming Game and Fish Department Office at 307-332-2688.  

- WGFD -