A proposal to more than double the number of acres people must own to apply for landowner hunting tags in Wyoming would return the program to its original intent of rewarding farmers and ranchers for providing wildlife habitat, a proponent of the idea said.
As it is, the landowner tag program is increasingly exploited by out-of-staters, former Wyoming Game and Fish Commission member Ralph Brokaw told Cowboy State Daily.
Smaller properties that qualify for landowner tags are marketed exclusively for the hunting tags, tempting non-residents to buy them up essentially as exclusive hunting club properties, he said.
What’s more, as the number of landowner tags increases, Wyoming residents are being cut out of drawings for hunting tags, Brokaw said.
In some highly-coveted antelope hunting areas in the Red Desert, drawings might be going only to landowner tags, he said.
In some instances, people seeking landowner tags are after what amounts to exclusive access to those hunt areas, Brokaw said.
“You’re not restricted to just your property. If you get that tag, you get to hunt that entire hunt area,” he said.
Should Acreage Be Boosted?
Brokaw last sat on the commission during its November 2024 meeting. It was decided then that increasing the number of acres to qualify for landowner tags should be considered.
Brokaw backed that idea.
Under current rules, to qualify for tags, one needs to own at least 160 contiguous acres in a draw-only hunt area for each species being applied for, according to Game and Fish regulations.
The land must also provide food, cover and water for the species being applied for. And it must provide at least 2,000 days of use each year for the species the landowner is applying for.
What that means, for instance, is if 10 deer occupy the land for at least 200 days a year, that counts as 2,000 days of use.
Or, likewise, if 500 elk are on that land for four days a year, again, that would also count as 2,000 days.
It was initially decided to boost the requirements to a minimum 160 acres of cultivated land, or 320 contiguous acres of land, cultivated or uncultivated.
However, during the November 2024 meeting, the commission opted to take things farther – by recommending minimums of 160 cultivated acres, or 640 contiguous acres.
It was also proposed to raise the days of use requirement from 2,000 to 3,000, according to minutes from that meeting.
The commission is expected to take the matter up again during its July meeting this year.
Idea Has Critics
Some Wyomingites with smaller parcels of land that qualify for landowner tags previously told Cowboy State Daily that they worry about the changes cutting them out, along with hundreds of other smaller-property owners across the state.
One such landowner, avid hunter Nate Miller of Thermopolis, reiterated those concerns, in a draft of a letter to the Game and Fish Commission that he shared with Cowboy State Daily.
Miller worries that changing the landowner tag requirements could have the unintended consequence of fragmenting wildlife habitat.
“Quality habitat for game should be something the Game and Fish strives to hold together. However, if these licenses are lost many people will subdivide parcels to get their money back out of the properties,” he stated in the letter.
“This would disrupt major wintering and watering areas. Also, human activity would increase greatly. All of which will negatively impact the game habitat and in return population,” Miller added.
Brokaw said, the landowner tag program is straying ever-farther from the intent of giving something back to Wyoming agriculture.
Farmers and ranchers across Wyoming provide some of the best forage and cover for big game species such as deer, elk and antelope, he said.
To that end, he said he’d favor even boosting the requirements to at least 320 acres of cultivated cropland, or 640 acres of uncultivated rangeland.
The landowner tag program was never intended to sweeten property listings by having them listed as “coming with these hunting tags,” he said.
But increasingly, that’s what’s happening, particularly when land in Wyoming is marketed to out-of-staters, Brokaw said.
Miller stated that from a wildlife conservation standpoint, the quality of habitat provided by landowners is frequently more important than the sheer size of the property. So, smaller-property owners who provide top-notch wildlife habitat should also be rewarded for their efforts.
Drawing Reforms Needed?
Much of what’s at stake boils down to hunting tag drawings.
Getting hunting tags has gotten more complicated since the days of hunters going to the local hardware store and buying all of their tags over-the-counter.
Some Wyoming elk and deer hunt areas remain what are called “general tag” areas – meaning they can still be hunted with tags purchased over-the-counter at any time.
However, many deer and elk hunt areas are for limited quota draw tags only. And every antelope hunt area in Wyoming is now draw-tag only.
That means hunters must apply to enter drawings for a limited quota of tags in those areas well in advance, usually in May. They must also pay for the tags in advance.
Those who succeed in the draws have printed hunting tags mailed to them. Hunters who fail in the drawings have their money refunded, minus a processing fee.
Brokaw said that under the current system, the number of landowner tags available in a hunt area might not be specified in tag listings for that area.
So, resident hunters might think “50 tags” are available for an antelope hunt area, not realizing that some of those are already allocated as landowner tag.
The residents might apply for tags in those areas, not knowing that they face steeper odds of drawing than they thought.
Brokaw stressed that isn’t the fault of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department – which puts out hunt regulations, maps and tag availability listings during the application period.
That’s just the way the system works, so it should be changed to specify the number landowner tags in any given hunt area, he said.
Miller suggested taking it a step further, by creating an entirely separate category for landowner tags.
“How it is now, non-residents get their 16% percent of the licenses first, then landowners get theirs, finally what is remaining of the 84% goes to the resident hunters,” he stated.
“The best solution would be to put the landowner licenses independent of the quota. This assures that 84% of the quota goes to residents and 16% goes to nonresidents,” according to Miller.
How Landowner Tags Work
The Game and Fish landowner tag program allows qualifying property owners to apply for two hunting tags for each of certain huntable species. Those species include elk, deer, antelope and wild turkeys.
If general hunting tags are valid in that area, the property owner can’t apply for landowner tags.
Landowner tag holders may not sell their tags and can use only one of their tags for each species for themselves.
They can give one or both of their tags to immediate family members.
The regulations define “immediate family members” as the landowner’s parents, grandparents, lineal descendants and their spouses, or the landowner’s siblings.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
