Landowners won’t be able to claim all the tags in certain big game hunting areas under a bill a legislative committee forwarded to the Wyoming Senate floor on Tuesday.
Senate File 25 would enable the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission to limit the number of landowner hunting licenses issued in deer, elk, and antelope hunt areas.
There have been rare instances of every hunting tag in a limited-quota area going to landowners, Wyoming Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce told the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee.
There is concern that such instances could become more common, she said.
Committee member Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, said such an instance happened in his district. It was after the harsh winter of 2022-2023 devastated antelope herds.
The number of antelope hunting tags was cut that fall as a result of the massive winterkill. Because landowners were first in line for tag drawings, they claimed all the antelope tags that fall in one hunt area, Hicks said.
“That unit is 65% to 70% public land, and 100% of those (antelope) permits went to landowners,” he said.
What Should The Percentage Be?
Limiting landowner tags has been discussed for years.
The Wyoming Wildlife Task Force and Game and Fish Commission floated the idea of landowner tags being limited to 20% of all tags issued in limited-quota big game hunt areas.
Agricultural groups, such as the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, have suggested a 40% limit.
The Game and Fish Commission doesn’t have the authority to impose a limit on landowner tags. That requires a change in state statute; hence, the matter ended up before the Legislature.
SF 25 would give the commission the option of setting limits. As currently written, it doesn’t specify a percentage of tags for landowners.
During discussion before the committee Tuesday, it was suggested that the Game and Fish commission have the leeway to decide the percentage limit on a case-by-case basis, depending upon the circumstances in any particular hunt area.
Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, noted that the bill doesn’t mandate limits, it grants the commission the authority to consider landowner tag limits.
Game and Fish Commissioner Rusty Bell told the committee that limiting landowner tags in some area is a matter of fairness to hunters.
“It’s not fair to have an area where 100% of the tags go to landowners,” he said.
Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna said there is concern among landowners about the bill being too vague and broad.
“Some (Game and Fish) commission at some point in the future could say, ‘We’re just going to eliminate all landowner licenses,’” he said.
Hicks suggested an amendment clarifying that “under no circumstances” could landowner licenses ever be eliminated in a hunt area.
The committee passed that amendment.
Elk Blowing Through Fences
Game and Fish initiated the landowner hunting license program in 1949 to reward farmers and ranchers for providing habitat, forage and water for game herds.
Under the program, qualifying landowners can put in to draw two hunting tags for certain species, if they own property in limited-quota hunt areas.
Sen. Tim French, R-Powell, doesn’t sit on the Travel Committee, as a Park County farmer.
He said he qualifies for elk and antelope landowner tags and doesn’t want the landowner tag program to lose sight of the sacrifices that farmers and ranchers make.
“When you have somebody shoot at a group of 350 elk, and they come roaring toward you (your property) — and I’ve had this happen many a time — they just blow the fences apart,” French said.
He said elk also gobble hay from his fields and track in seeds that sprout into invasive cheatgrass.
Any reform of the landowner tag program should focus on easing the tension between hunters and landowners, he said.
‘Absentee Landowners’
Farm Bureau spokesman Brett Moline testified in favor of keeping the limit on landowners at 40%
Hicks asked Moline about concerns over “absentee landowners” buying property in Wyoming and using the landowner tag program to essentially create private hunting clubs.
“We’re seeing an increasing number of absentee landowners in the state of Wyoming,” Hicks said.
“I can show you a number of real estate advertisements out there where that’s how they sell these things: Guaranteed two elk tags. Guaranteed this, guaranteed that,” he added.
Moline said addressing that matter probably falls outside the purview of SF 25.
“That problem, for lack of a better word, has been going on for years,” he said. "I’m not sure how to fix it."
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
