CHEYENNE — When Brian Nesvik was trying to get his first job with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, he had to compete with about 250 applicants for a couple of temporary positions.
Now the agency has to engage “a continual, year-long recruitment process” just to stay fully staffed, Nesvik told Cowboy State Daily.
Nearly 30 years later, he heads the entire department.
As he prepares to retire Sept. 11, Nesvik sees recruitment as one of the agency’s biggest challenges going forward.
But he doesn’t want Wyoming Game and Fish to dial back on its expectations for employees, which make it what he regards as a top-tier wildlife management agency.
“We’re not going to lower our standards,” he said.
Decades Of Service To Wyoming
Nesvik began his career with Game and Fish in 1995 and was appointed as director by Gov. Mark Gordon in 2019.
He previously served the agency in various positions, including as a game warden, regional wildlife supervisor and chief game warden.
Nesvik also served with the Wyoming Army National Guard for 35 years before retiring at the rank of brigadier general. He commanded troops on two combat tours in Iraq and Kuwait.
Nesvik, 54, said he decided that now is the time to retire because the director’s job comes with a huge amount of pressure and responsibility. It’s important to bring in someone fresh on a regular basis.
“I think you’re more effective if you’re in there for a short stint,” he said. “I didn’t want to get to where I wasn’t effective anymore.”
He said he’s not sure about his long-term plans. For now, he’s looking forward to ranching on property that has been in his wife’s family for generations near Glendo.
He’s set to be replaced as Game and Fish director by Angi Bruce. She’s now the agency’s director of external affairs and will be the first woman to lead Game and Fish.
Elk, Elk Everywhere
Early in Nesvik’s career, Game and Fish was primarily focused on getting hunters access to bag mule deer and pronghorn (antelope). Those were the big game animals in abundance at the time.
But that’s changed. Now elk are the species that hunters can’t seem to bag fast enough.
Particularly in southwest Wyoming, deer and pronghorn herds suffered devastating winterkill during the brutal winter of 2022-2023. Some of those herds are still struggling to recover.
Meanwhile, elk herds ballooned. In eastern Wyoming, ranchers are upset about an overabundance of elk gobbling up forage before their cattle can get to it.
Hunters also frequently complain that they can’t get enough access to elk herds holed up on private property.
That’s left Game and Fish in somewhat of a tight spot.
Nesvik said one challenge is a growing number of “non-traditional landowners” who frequently come from out-of-state to buy property.
Unlike traditional ranchers, some of the new landowners don’t mind having elk on their property, and aren’t keen on letting hunters in to shoot the elk.
In some places, ranchers will welcome hunters. But as soon as the first couple of elk are shot, the others get wise and go hole up on neighboring properties where hunting isn’t allowed, Nesvik said.
Game and Fish is trying to strike a balance. In extreme cases, agency personnel or contractors can be sent to kill numerous elk on a particular ranch.
“That rubs sportsmen the wrong way,” and understandably so, Nesvik said. Game and Fish likes to use that option only as a last resort.
In recent years, Game and Fish has launched auxiliary management seasons for elk. Those hunts take place on private property before or after traditional hunting seasons.
Nesvik is also optimistic that Type 8 elk hunting licenses, which are rolling out this fall, will help hunters trim herds. Those allow hunters unlimited tags for cow or calf elk, usually on private property.
Game and Fish has also helped open up new areas for hunter access, such as the Mule Creek Ranch in northern Albany County, Nesvik said.
The Daniel Wolf Debacle
Nesvik guided the agency during some of its most challenging times in recent memory, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the more recent controversy over the mistreatment of a wolf in Daniel, Wyoming.
The pandemic was a time of extreme pressure, Nesvik said, because every decision he made came with broad implications for the health and safety of his employees and the public.
Then came a firestorm of global controversy over the capture, torture and killing a wolf in Daniel.
Daniel resident Cody Roberts ended up forfeiting a $250 bond on a charge of illegal possession of a live wolf, which many thought was too small a penalty.
Nesvik said that when news of the incident broke, he expected people to be angry because Wyomingites and out-of-staters alike hate seeing an animal suffer.
What he didn’t see coming was severe backlash against Wyoming Game and Fish.
“That incident involved some bad behavior and bad decisions by one individual. And a lot of people were really passionate and really upset about it,” Nesvik said.
But some “wanted to blame the department (Game and Fish) and I didn’t see that coming,” he said.
Nevertheless, Game and Fish has a track record of successful wolf management in Wyoming, Nesvik said.
Moving forward, there might be some needed policy change in regard to letting an animal suffer, rather than killing it quicky, he said. But otherwise, Wyoming’s predator policy is working, and likely won’t undergo any major revisions.
‘Our Game Wardens Aren’t Cops’
Part of the reason that Game and Fish is having trouble finding new recruits, especially for game wardens, is its expectations for employees.
Law enforcement is just one part of what game wardens do, and many applicants are interested in only that part of the job.
A Wyoming game warden must be a “jack of all trades” and be willing to help with wildlife management, public relations, conservation education and more, Nesvik said.
“Our game wardens aren’t cops,” he said.
That’s why, although game wardens are required to wear body cameras in some states, that likely won’t happen in Wyoming, he said.
Grizzlies, Invasive Species And Budgets
Nesvik said he’s particularly proud of how Game and Fish has stepped up and been “run like a business” since it quit receiving money from the Legislature’s general fund in 2017.
The department has had enough cash to pay for big, one-time expenditures, such as building a new regional office in Cody, he said.
For the foreseeable future, Game and Fish’s budget appears to be in great shape, Nesvik said.
Regarding some other topics, Nesvik said he remains adamant that grizzly bears in the Lower 48 should be delisted and managed by Game and Fish and other state agencies.
“The science” backs that up, even though grizzly delisting has frequently become a political subject, he said.
Nesvik said he’s confident that at some point, Wyoming’s grizzlies will be delisted. Whether there will be a hunting season for them will be up to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission.
Nesvik said he thinks the commission will likely approve a “limited” hunting season for grizzlies.
He added that Game and Fish must remain diligent about invasive species.
So far, through a lot of hard work and help from the public, Game and Fish has kept zebra mussels out of Wyoming. That’s a good thing because those mussels could be devastating to native fisheries and agricultural irrigation.
He hopes Game and Fish keeps up its all-out “war” on invasive cheatgrass, which can push out native grasses that wildlife and ranches depend upon.
Cheatgrass “is like cancer,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
