The controversy over whether farmers and ranchers should be able to sell their landowner hunting tags is up for another debate before Wyoming lawmakers.
Opinions on the matter apparently haven’t changed since a bill that would have allowed landowners to sell their tags was pulled during the 2025 session, amid a firestorm of pushback from hunters.
The Legislature’s Joint Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee recently voted to sponsor a similar bill during the upcoming 2026 session.
It’s a budget session, meaning that bills will need a two-thirds majority to pass.
Sen. Tim French, R-Powell, doesn’t sit on that committee, but he’s been an outspoken supporter of the idea.
He told Cowboy State Daily that despite the steep odds, he’s reasonably optimistic that the bill might have a chance this time around.
“Joint committee-sponsored bills tend to do a little better,” he said.
However, Wyoming Wildlife Federation (WWF) spokeswoman Jess Johnson told Cowboy State Daily that she doesn’t expect hunters to budge from staunch opposition to transferable landowner tags.
“Culturally, it’s just not going to fly in the state of Wyoming, for hunters,” she said.
Origins Of The Program, And Controversy
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s landowner hunting tag program began in 1949. The program is intended to reward landowners for providing forage, water and habitat for wildlife.
It allows qualifying landowners to acquire tags for deer, elk, antelope or turkey, without having to enter public draws for those tags.
Under current regulations, landowners may give tags to immediate family members, but they may not put up for sale on the open market.
Other special hunting tags, the Wyoming commissioner tags and governor’s tags, may be auctioned off, with the proceeds going back to wildlife conservation, or toward non-profit Wyoming charity organizations.
Those tags regularly fetch prices of $20,000 or more. It’s thought that if landowners could sell their tags, they might attract similar bids.
Some have argued that it’s an unfair double standard, that the commissioner and governor’s tags may be raffled or auctioned off, but landowner tags cannot be sold.
However, many hunters have pushed back against allowing landowners to sell tags. As they see it, that would amount to monetizing Wyoming’s wildlife for the benefit of specific private parties.
High-Dollar Hunting Tags
Johnson said WWF, and hunters in general, recognize landowners’ contribution to wildlife, and think they should be rewarded for it.
But allowing landowners to sell their tags to the highest bidders would be the wrong way to go about it, she said.
“The outcome (rewarding landowners) is something we agree on. The road to get there is where we disagree,” she said.
French reiterated the concern that if hunting and conservation non-government organizations (NGOs) can generate revenue through the sale of commissioner’s tags, it’s only fair that landowners should be able to do the same.
NGOs might oppose it over worry that competition from landowner tags on the open market might drive down bids for the commissioners’ tags, he said.
Johnson said there’s no fair direct comparison between NGOs, as groups representing widespread conservation interests, and landowners reaping a private profit from hunting tag sales.
If there is concern over how the profits from commissioners’ tags are being spent, WWF is willing to provide public records, and other hunting and conservation groups would likely do the same, she added.
Easing Tight Margins
As a farmer, French said he’s eligible for landowner hunting tags for antelope and elk.
Having the option of putting such hunting tags up for sale could help landowners stay afloat in markets with thin profit margins, he said.
And that would ultimately be a good thing for wildlife as well as for hunters, who have a vested interest in abundant wildlife, French said.
“If they (farmers and ranchers) can sell a tag, and it keeps them in business, then they can continue to provide habitat for those animals,” he said.
“If they hit hard times and they can’t sell their landowner tags, they might be tempted to sell and subdivide their land,” he added.
Other Options
Johnson said that hunters and landowners essentially want the same thing, including “big, connected landscapes” rather than land and wildlife habitat carved up into subdivisions.
However, selling landowner tags runs counter to Wyoming’s precedent according to the North American model of wildlife management, under which wildlife is a public trust, she said.
Selling the tags would turn wildlife into a private profit enterprise, as hunters see it, she said.
And it would just deepen rifts between hunters and landowners, she said.
It’s the sort of thing that “pits sportsmen and women against landowners,” she said.
There are other ways landowners could be compensated, Johnson said.
One might be an expansion of the landowner coupon program. Some tags for hunting on private property include a coupon that hunters can “tear off” and give to the landowner when they shoot a big game animal, she said.
Property owners can turn the coupons in to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for compensation.
‘Meaningful Conversation’
Though some of the debate over selling landowner tags might be recycled, it’s still an important conversation to have, Wyoming Stock Growers Association executive vice president Jim Magagna told Cowboy State Daily.
The stock growers support the general idea of transferable landowner tags.
However, it needs to be done in such a manner that no one side or the other ends up feeling burned, he added.
“While we generally support the bill, we’d like to see more work done on it,” he said.
Landowner tags are transferable in some neighboring states, but usually according to certain qualifications, and not just a free-for-all open market sale, he said.
One way to get hunters on board might set up landowner tag sales in such a way that could tie in public hunting access, he said.
The topic of whether landowner tags should be transferable isn’t new, Magagna said.
“I’ve seen it go on for years and years. Every time it comes up, there’s support for it from landowners, and there are certain groups who say, ‘no way.” But I think there’s some room for meaningful conversation,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
