Kim Dean and her husband raised their three children to love hunting on their home turf in the Newcastle area.
But as the children grew to adulthood, one moved away to Minnesota and another to South Dakota.
Coming back home to hunt has proven frustrating for them, Dean told Cowboy State Daily.
Nonresident hunting tags in Wyoming can be difficult to draw and are considerably more expensive than resident tags.
For example, a full-price nonresident elk tag costs $672 in the regular draw, while a resident full-price elk tag costs $57.
Dean got to thinking whether anything could be done to help people who grew up in Wyoming, and hope to return to hunt with their families.
When she found out about Montana’s “Come Home to Hunt” and “nonresident native” hunting tag programs, she wondered if a similar program could work in Wyoming.
Those programs offer hunting tags to people born in Montana, but who moved away, at prices that aren’t as cheap as resident tags, but still much less pricy than regular nonresident tags.
Montana created “a space in the middle” for native nonresident hunters, Dean said, and she’d like to see Wyoming do likewise.
2026 Legislative Bill In The Works?
She reached out to legislators, including J.D.s Williams, R-Lusk. Williams brought the idea before the Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee on Friday.
Williams, who doesn’t sit on that committee, told Cowboy State Daily that he might sponsor a bill calling for Wyoming nonresident native hunting tags.
However, he’d rather the bill be sponsored by Travel and Tourism. Committee-sponsored bills typically move faster and have better chances of passing that individually-sponsored bills, he said.
Williams said that judging by the reactions he’s gotten so far, such a bill might have good odds of going before the 2026 legislative session.
Dean said she’s spoken with other legislators and Wyomingites and has gotten favorable reviews.
“I think it would benefit Wyoming to bring these kids back here to hunt,” she said.
How Montana’s Programs Work
Williams said that Montana’s Come Home to Hunt and native nonresident hunting tag can serve as a basic template, but Wyoming doesn’t need to replicate what another state has already done.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has the expertise to help lawmakers draft a bill that will work best for Wyoming, he said.
Montana’s Come Home to Hunt Program is for nonresidents who used to live in Montana, regardless of whether they were born there.
To qualify, they must be sponsored by a resident Montana hunter who is a relative.
That native nonresident hunting tag program is open only to people who were born in Montana.
The programs offer qualifying hunters enticing discounts on tag prices. For example, a regular Montana general nonresident elk combination license costs $1,078.
The Come Home to Hunt and native nonresident elk combo licenses are $539.
‘Wyoming Exports 70% Of Its Youth’
Wyoming is a great place to grow up hunting, Williams said. But many young adults move away, frequently for job opportunities.
“Wyoming exports 70% of its youth,” he said.
With many of the state’s elk herds well above the Game and Fish’s objective numbers, bringing former residents back to Wyoming for elk hunting would be a great idea, he said.
“Most people I’ve talked with out-of-state children say their children want to come back to hunt elk. Anytime we can encourage elk harvest, I think that’s a good thing,” he said.
Dean said she and her husband long to share hunts with their out-of-state adult children, and their children.
“I’m hoping that the time is right” for a bill that would make it easier for native nonresidents to come back and hunt in Wyoming, she said.
“And this isn’t just for us. I’ve got to believe that there are other families like ours, who want to see their children and grandchildren come back to hunt,” Dean added.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
