“I won’t speak for the body, but I would say it faces an uphill battle in both chambers,” said Brown, a freshman.

Bebout said he doesn’t think it’s likely that Washington will transfer the land but that the state should be prepared in case it happens.

He said he is unsure when he’s going to introduce the bill and to what legislative committee he would assign it.

Bebout supports the effort because the U.S. Forest Service has closed roads, decreasing hunters’ and anglers’ access, Bebout said. It takes a decade or more to permit oil and gas development and grazing, he added, which is too slow when market conditions for business constantly fluctuate.

He blames the federal government for the virtual disappearance of the timber industry in Wyoming. Federal regulations make it impossible to log, he said, and its management of land has made the West vulnerable to wildfires.

Bebout showed a picture on his mobile phone that he took from an airplane over Togwotee Pass of two sections of Shoshone National Forest.

One was brown and deadened, with trees killed by bark beetles and susceptible to wildfire. The adjacent section was verdant, with newer trees that had filled the land. It had previously been clear-cut, Bebout said.