But the lame-duck Senate session set to begin Monday is a great opportunity for Wyoming's Republican senators, Mike Enzi and John Barrasso, to press for two pieces of legislation important to the state.

One is the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, which would prohibit any new oil and gas leasing, mining patents or geothermal leasing in a 100-mile-long stretch of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. It would also allow conservation groups to buy and retire existing energy leases. The bill is sponsored by Barrasso, based on legislation that the late Sen. Craig Thomas was working on at the time of his death.

The other bill is the Craig Thomas Snake Headwaters Legacy Act, which would protect 387 miles of rivers and streams in the Snake River drainage under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Both bills are contained in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which includes 150 separate measures passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Wyoming measures have the support of a unique coalition of conservation organizations, sporting groups, and union and trade organizations, as well as Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

The omnibus bill is a true bipartisan effort, almost evenly divided between measures sponsored by Republicans and Democrats. Its passage would show a willingness to answer the call of Obama and congressional leaders to end the partisan gridlock.

The 150 bills in the package represent the efforts of senators from many states. It includes 15 wilderness bills from eight states: California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, New Mexico, Michigan, Virginia and West Virginia. These measures would protect a total of nearly 2 million acres of new wilderness. They include protection of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range, Oregon's Mount Hood and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

In addition to the Snake River in Wyoming, the act would protect rivers in California, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona and Massachusetts by designating them wild and scenic rivers.

There is also support to act on the omnibus bill in the House, where it should have the backing of retiring Rep. Barbara Cubin of Wyoming. President George W. Bush has indicated he would sign the legislation.

It's too risky to wait until the next session to pass the omnibus bill. First, there's no guarantee that the bill will re-emerge intact in the next Congress. Some of the authors of the legislation either retired or weren't re-elected, and their replacements won't be as familiar with the omnibus bill.

There is also the chance that the new Congress will want to open up portions of the bill, perhaps jeopardizing carefully worked-out compromises that had pushed the legislation to the brink of passage.

There's been too much positive work on the omnibus bill to squander this golden opportunity to protect our public lands. Congressional leaders need to make sure it gets to Bush's desk.