CASPER — The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission on Tuesday rejected hugely unpopular changes to the state’s landowner hunting tag program.
The decision came after the commission listened to hours of testimony from dozens of landowners and hunters who showed upto the commission’s meeting to lobby against the rules.
The proposed changes included raising the required number of acres to qualify for landowner hunting tags from 160 to 640, which would have cut out a lot of small property owners.
Nearly everyone spoke against the proposed changes.
Mirroring what many others said, Dusty Porter talked about land his family has owned in the Casper area for 52 years that providesvital habitat for elk and other species.
While small, their property also provides public hunting access, he said.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Muddy Mountain Hunter Management Area (HMA) relies on his family’s property and their neighbors, Porter said.
“We aren’t the problem, but we will be the collateral damage if you move forward with this proposal,” he told the commission.
The number of animal use days would have been raised from 2,000 to 3,000. Landowners also would have been required to have at least 20% ownership of a property to qualify for hunting tags.
Came A Long Way
North Carolina resident Calvin Brodie traveled to Casper to attend the meeting and told Cowboy State Daily that he was “very pleased” with the result.
He owns about 400 acres in the Rock Springs area that qualifies for landowner tags and is excellent elk habitat.
Brodie said that changing the acreage requirements would have been arbitrary and “unfair” to the owners of smaller properties.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department previously recommended that the commission not change the requirements for acreage, ownership percentage and animal use days.
Landowner tag holders can currently give their tags to direct family members, and the department recommended that be extended to stepfamily members in blended families, which the commission approved.
Following the advice of legal counsel, commission President Ashlee Lundvall and commissioner Fonzy Haskell recused themselves from the vote.
Prior to the meeting that morning, they attended a breakfast organized by landowners opposed to the proposed changes.
The commission also declined to accept a check that some landowners presented as a donation to the Game and Fish Access Yes program.
Hot Topics Unresolved
The commission’s ruling still left two controversial points related to landowner tags unresolved.
The first is whether landowners should be able to sell their hunting tags.
The second — whether there should be a cap on the number of landowner tags included in hunting tag drawings — remains the thorny, unresolved matter.
Each of those would require a change in state statutes, which is beyond the commission’s authority. Only the Wyoming Legislature can do that.
Those topics might come up during the Legislature’s 2026 session.
Porter’s cousin, Mike Porter, told Cowboy State Daily that he was pleased with the commission’s decision.
But he acknowledged that there was still work to be done regarding whether caps should be placed on landowner tags.
There seems to be widespread support for that idea.
Commissioner Rusty Bell said that putting a cap on landowner tags could resolve some pressing issues with the program.
In some hunt areas, landowner tags account for a significant percentage of hunting tags available for the draw, squeezing out other hunters, he said.
There’s also concern about possible abuses, such as landowner tags essentially being used as corporate perks.
Outfitter Sy Gilliland, who served with Bell on the Wyoming Wildlife Task Force, told the commission that such abuses happen.
Some companies offer rotating one-year, 1% ownerships in certain properties so the holders of that 1% can get landowner hunting tags, he said.
“That is a fact, that is happening,” he said.
“All you have to do is give somebody 1% ownership of that property for a year and you’ve sold that tag,” Gilliland said. “That is a fact.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
