On the cusp of the fall hunting season, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s busiest time of year, many Wyomingites have questions about the department’s present and future, especially since the sudden resignation of Director Angi Bruce on Aug. 6 amid longstanding rumblings of discontent.
Game and Fish Commissioner Rusty Bell on Friday declined to discuss details of Bruce’s departure, saying it was a “personnel matter.”
“Angi did a great job for us,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It’s time to move forward; we don’t have time to look back.”
To that end, Game and Fish has scheduled a virtual press conference for 4 p.m. Monday to give a state of the agency update. The department says the focus be on the transition to interim director Eric Wiltanger, the agency’s former deputy director.
It was unclear Friday how much will be revealed about Bruce's departure and transition at that time.
“The event on Monday will give media a chance to hear from Interim Director Wiltanger and get to know his priorities and goals for the agency moving forward,” a Game and Fish spokeswoman said in an email to Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
'Nobody Got Fired'
Some have speculated that Bruce was given an ultimatum to resign by Gov. Mark Gordon, who appointed her in 2024, and that she was offered a soft landing when he announced Aug. 7 that she would join his staff in a newly created director of special policy initiatives position.
Former Gov. Jim Geringer told Cowboy State Daily on Friday such ideas are probably wildly off-base.
Although governors appoint Game and Fish directors, people overestimate how much authority they have over the position, said Geringer, who was governor from 1995-2003. Essentially, he added, the governor has none.
“The director of Game and Fish is solely under the administration of the Game and Fish Commission,” Geringer said.
About the only way a director could be fired, he added, would be through a majority decision by the commission.
He doubts that’s what happened with Bruce.
His inclination is that “nobody got fired; it was just a mutual agreement,” Geringer speculated, adding that once Gordon got wind of the change he likely said, “I’m not going to let this chance pass me by” to recruit Bruce to his office.
Like Bell, Commissioner Fonzy Haskell also declined to comment on Bruce’s resignation, citing it as a personnel matter.
He told Cowboy State Daily that he expects Bruce to thrive in her new job.
“She is really, really good at policy,” Haskell said, adding that he’s optimistic and enthusiastic about the Game and Fish Department’s future.
Bruce's new job entails “leading the Governor’s key federal natural resources topics, including but not limited to grizzly bears, sage grouse, shared stewardship, and feedgrounds management,” according to a statement for Gordon’s office.
“The governor is thrilled to have Angi onboard,” Amy Edmonds, spokeswoman for Gordon’s office, told Cowboy State Daily on Friday.
Edmonds declined to comment on whether Bruce’s position will extend past Gordon’s tenure, which ends in January.
Game and Fish Autonomous
Before Geringer was governor, he served in both chambers of the Wyoming Legislature, from 1983 to 1994. During that time, the Legislature streamlined the governor’s cabinet structure, he said, but Game and Fish and the Wyoming Department of Transportation remained essentially “autonomous” under their respective commissions.
Both agencies remain almost entirely self-funded and autonomous to this day, Geringer said.
Thus, he added, It would be up to the Game and Fish to explain to the public the circumstances leading to Bruce’s resignation, he said.
Whether that will happen Monday is unclear.
Edmonds said Game and Fish is solely in charge of the press conference and she didn’t know any details. The governor’s office is not involved, she added.
Uncertainties aside, Bell told Cowboy State Daily said he’s confident Game and Fish is ready for the upcoming hunting seasons.
“Around the country, and around the world, we have the best department and the best wildlife agency,” Bell said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
