WIR grows membership, offerings in South Dakota

Key Takeaways

Taking inspiration from the presidents chiseled into Mount Rushmore, the Western Interstate Region restored its executive team to four members during its 2025 conference held May 20-23 in Pennington County, S.D.

After filling the last five months of Stevens County, Wash. Commissioner Wes McCart’s term, Mono County, Calif. Supervisor John Peters was sworn into his own term as WIR president, with Fremont County, Colo. Commissioner Dwayne McFall as first vice president and Klamath County, Ore. Commissioner Derrick DeGroot added to the team after being elected second vice president. Carbon County, Wyo. Commissioner John Espy will serve another term as immediate past president.

The conference draws Western state counties that contain significant portions of federally owned land, for which they mostly provide services but cannot levy a fair-market property tax. WIR counties often include significant acres owned by the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. Many serve as gateway communities, which swell in population in-season, and face challenges like a dearth of attainable housing. Others were once home to large-scale resource extraction, including timber and minerals, and are searching for economic development strategies to replace good-paying jobs and an economic base. Others are exploring the potential for energy generation and export.

WIR continued work on a monument of its own, the National Center for Public Lands Counties, now in its second year of operation. The center held a panel discussion on intergovernmental cooperation in forest management — featuring a nine-speaker lineup — and two training sessions for county officials navigating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The NEPA training sessions will be available on the center’s Knowledge Hub.

“Just in this conference alone, I think we’ve had a lot of people open their eyes and see the work that’s being done,” McFall said. “This center is the only entity in the country that focuses solely on public lands issues. That’s their mission to talk about, to create a think tank for public lands counties. NACo does focus on public lands, but there wasn’t the capacity to put that emphasis on it like the National Center can.”

Along with workshops, speakers like South Dakota State Investment Officer Matt Clark and networking opportunities, the conference offered tours and insight into Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, South Dakota State University’s West River Research Farm and Pennington County’s Care Campus, which offers culturally informed behavioral health solutions.

New member

Is the Western Interstate Region primed for growth?

You betcha.

Having passed its three-year probationary period, Minnesota was accepted into WIR as an associate member. With roughly 7% percent of its land managed by the federal government, the Gopher State’s counties, particularly those in the north, are finding kindred spirits among WIR members. Nebraska, also a new recruit, is in its second year as a probationary associate member.

Recognizing a public lands leader

Terry Wolf was taking a work call away from the area during a General Session when his colleagues tried to get him back in the room. Upon arrival, he learned he was being honored as winner of the Dale Sowards Award as the region’s outstanding public lands official.

A 22-year veteran of the Washakie County, Wyo. Board of Commissioners,  Wolf has been a participant in the Big Horn Mountain Country Coalition for the Bighorn National Forest.

“In Wyoming, when we talk about elected officials, we have outriders, we have show horses, and we have work horses,” Espy said. “He has worked to bring industry and federal agencies together in local working groups.”

In a letter to the WIR membership, past WIR President Joel Bousman, a former Sublette County, Wyo. commissioner, credited Wolf with recruiting him into both WIR and NACo’s Public Lands and Energy, Environment and Land Use policy steering committees.

“Getting together, the camaraderie that you have when you come in here and what you’ve learned from others is a really neat thing and you can take that back home to your counties and just, it’s a benefit to everyone across the board,” Wolf said. “I tell people as I go around the state of Wyoming, you don’t realize what’s out there until you get involved and the things that you can learn from others, what you can do for your local cities and towns in your county and your county and then just at a statewide level, just really an amazing thing.”

Federal wildfire changes loom

Wildfires remain a constant threat in public lands counties, but changes in the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service, with a new administration in place, may offer new potential for more aggressive firefighting.

 Mike Zupko, executive director of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council, gave WIR members some insight into potential reforms. 

The council is a 24-person intergovernmental committee that supports the implementation of the Federal Fire Management Policy.  It includes two county officials — Duchesne County, Utah Commissioner Greg Miles and Yakima County, Wash. Commissioner Amanda McKinney. 

Zupko said that although promising technological improvements in firefighting were on the horizon, including in aviation, federal short-term priorities would likely focus on finding and creating efficiencies.

The Forest Service announced plans in early May to reorganize the agency in the coming months, and Zupko said he saw an opportunity for states and counties to step up into the changes, particularly with more openings for good neighbor authority and shared stewardship agreements, through which counties are contracted to do work on behalf of the federal government.

“Step in and help manage your forest more aggressively or look at different ways to extract their resources and create some industry or some different opportunities in your county,” Zupko said.

He noted the possibility of a singular federal fire response agency in some proposed legislation and the president’s budget request. 

“If I read my tea leaves, I would say it’s probably going to move in some form or fashion,” Zupko said. “The speed at which it moves when they're trying to have a new agency set up, what that looks like — is it just suppression? Is it just interface? does it include prescribed fire mitigation? those are all part of the conversations.”

He noted that it’s important for counties to consider what has and hasn’t worked for them, so that not everything is reorganized at the loss of effective programming.

“I think some of the resource ordering that we have actually works more efficient than some folks give it credit,” he said.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum released a memo May 20 stressing the need for the federal government to partner with state, tribal and local partners to coordinate wildfire response.

The lone county vet

Randy Deibert is one of a kind. 

The state senator is the only former county commissioner in the South Dakota Legislature, which usually boasts at least three or four at a time. The boundaries of his district match the lines for Lawrence County, where he served for seven years.

“When you become a legislator, if you go in as a county commissioner, you’re very well prepared,” he said.

The legislative session lasts 40 days, and in 2025, 560 pieces of legislation moved through the capitol, 210 of which became law.

“We are truly citizen legislators, because we do that in 40 days, and we go back to regular jobs,” Deibert said. “And those of us, like in this room, that dedicate a lot of our time to our jobs, as commissioners or supervisors, or whatever elected role you have, we know that we’re not doing it for the pay. I estimate I spend about 50% of my time being a legislature, and that’s about 5% of my income. You’re not in it for the money and it’s certainly not the glory.”

Deibert argued that a background in county government was particularly valuable for legislators from rural states.

“It’s not unusual, as a county commissioner, to have a conditional use permit hearing with 200 people in the room,” he said. “And in a small county, you learn very quickly how to deal with those people, and that pays dividends when you move up in the legislature, because you’re used to dealing with people that aren’t really happy.”

He credited former commission colleague Daryl Johnson for teaching him how to manage crowds. 

“He was chairman, and we’d have a very informed (and lively) crowd, and he could put them in their place, gracefully and with no disrespect. There’s real talent to that. Not everybody has that.” 

Diebert said that a little bit of research about fellow legislators’ districts offer the opportunity to bond over an issue their constituents are facing, particularly if that conversation cane be seasoned with the local government experience that lends some insight.

“It’s a way to find common ground and build relationships,” he said.  

He recently pointed out to a colleague who represented Perkins County that their town of Lemmon was the same size as Lawrence County’s Deadwood.

“Once you say that to that person, you have their attention, and then you can talk about your district,” Diebert said. 

“You have the experience, you know how to deal with other government agencies. You know how to coordinate, collaborate, cooperate with the government communities.”