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You Still Here? Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Heinz mark

Mark Heinz

Outdoors

Some Wyoming outdoorsmen said they were surprised by the sudden resignation of Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce on Friday afternoon, amid longstanding rumblings of discontent with the department. 

There is no clear explanation as to why Bruce suddenly left the helm at Game and Fish for an appointment as director of special policy initiatives for Gov. Mark Gordon’s office, a job she started Monday. 

“I think that was a surprise to everybody. I didn’t see that one coming. I thought she would at least be there until Gordon was gone, but I guess that’s not the case,” prominent Wyoming outdoorsman Guy Eastman of Cody told Cowboy State Daily. 

“I think it was getting really bad, and she had to get out of there (Game and Fish), for whatever reason,” added Eastman, who represents the third generation of the outdoors multimedia family behind Eastmans’ Hunting Journal. 

Bruce, the department's first female director, did not respond to a request for comment Monday morning. 

Gordon picked Bruce as Game and Fish director in July 2024 to succeed Brian Nesvik, who retired that September. She started with Game and Fish in 2019 after 17 years with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

Nesvik was tapped by President Donald Trump as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last year. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"New Job Description"}]

Gordon’s office announced Friday afternoon that Bruce was resigning from Game and Fish and was set to take her new position. 

Game and Fish deputy director Eric Wiltanger was chosen interim director. 

A statement emailed from Gordon’s communication director, Amy Edmonds, to Cowboy State Daily on Monday provided a description of Bruce’s new job but no explanation why she left her old one. 

“The Director of Special Policy Initiatives in the Governor’s office will focus on leading the Governor’s key federal natural resources topics, including but not limited to grizzly bears, sage grouse, shared stewardship, and feedgrounds management. These are topics the governor has been focused on throughout his administration and has prioritized making significant progress on for the remainder of the year,” Edmonds wrote. “Bruce comes to this office with unique experience, talent and knowledge on such topics.” 

It wasn’t clear whether Bruce will retain the position after Gordon leaves office in January 2027. 

“Bruce will be responsible for working closely with our federal executive and congressional partners to ensure Wyoming continues our strong position on wildlife management, conservation, and state-led policies that benefit the people on the ground who work and live in the state,” Edmonds concluded. 

While Game and Fish has maintained an overall good reputation, Eastman said, aspects of the department’s direction have been troubling hunters and anglers, even before Bruce became  director. 

Bruce was among numerous newer Game and Fish employees from outside Wyoming and the West, he said.

“I can’t believe that they can’t bring in more Wyoming kids,” he said. “I’m not alone in thinking that, but I’m the one who will say it.”

Meanwhile, it seems that “a lot of the older, red-shirted guys” have been retiring or resigning from the department, Eastman said. 

Most recently, Cody region senior wildlife biologist Tony Mong resigned. 

He cited concerns over how the Wyoming Shooting Complex near Cody might affect mule deer habitat as one of his reasons for leaving, 

Eastman said he doesn’t have anything against Bruce personally, but rather the wider pattern of out-of-staters in the department’s leadership. 

“I think she was out of her league, coming from the Midwest, coming to Wyoming, where it’s a lot more complicated, where we have grizzlies and wolves,” he said.

Wyoming has one of the highest per capita percentages of hunters and anglers among the state’s population, which puts Game and Fish under considerable scrutiny, he said. 

While not everyone is pleased with the department’s administration, its field personnel are highly respected, Eastman added. 

“Wyoming has the best game wardens in the country, I believe, and I feel comfortable saying that,” he said. 

While it’s not unusual for Game and Fish directors to be replaced with a new governor taking office, it was highly unusual to see Bruce suddenly resign while the governor who appointed her is still in office, avid hunter Buzz Hettick of Laramie said. 

“She (Bruce) wasn’t hard to work with, or anything like that,” Hettick, co-chair of the Wyoming chapter of Backcounty Hunters and Anglers, told Cowboy State Daily.

Among rank-and-file Wyoming hunters, there’s an impression that Game and Fish has started to favor landowners and outfitters, he said, adding that he didn’t blame Bruce personally for that.

Like Eastman, he said Game and Fish field personnel remain highly respected, but many hunters question the direction of department administration. 

“There’s been this shift away from doing what’s best for wildlife and best for people,” he said. 

Game and Fish should focus on thriving wildlife populations, and not only for hunters and anglers, but also for wildlife viewers, birdwatchers, and the like, Hettick said. 

Outfitters have also watched shifts in Game and Fish with some trepidation, said Dustin Stetter of Dubois, president of the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association.

“As an industry, we’re sorry to see so much of the old guard leaving all at once,” he told Cowboy State Daily. 

Stetter said he doesn’t blame Bruce for that. 

“I liked Angi personally. She was good to work with,” he said. 

Angi bruce 8 11 26

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Angi Bruce's Resignation As Game and Fish Director Catches Sportsmen By Surprise | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wyoming sportsmen said the sudden resignation of Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce came as a surprise despite some misgivings about the department's direction. Bruce, the department's first female director, now has a job in the governor's office. 

Angi Bruce's Resignation As Game and Fish Director Catches Sportsmen By Surprise

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Wyoming Life

Sports

Another Wyoming woman is leading the herd in 

Lindsay Woods of Jackson is one of the 43 riders participating in the Mongol Derby 2026, a 620-mile horse race in Inner Mongolia. As of Monday, she’s made her move and is poised to win it all.

 as "a washed-up Pony Clubber now cowgirlmaxxing in Wyoming" on the Mongol Derby website. She put a positive spin on her prospects, saying that if she does get "lawndarted" by a semi-feral Mongolian horse, "she might at least get a nose job out of it."

“I came to compete with the variables within my control and hopefully have a couple giggles with the things that aren’t,” Woods said in a video filmed before she started the arduous race. “I’m really looking forward to coming off the start line, seeing a little carnage. I’m excited to see what the steppe’s got in store.”

Dozens of friends are supporting her from afar. Nobody’s heard from Woods since the race started Aug. 4, but the updates they’re getting are extremely promising.

“She’s one of the toughest, most positive women that I know, and she is a top-notch equestrian,” said Amberley Baker with the Jackson Pony Club. “She is in it to win it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Race So Far"}]

According to the Mongol Derby’s official website, Woods was 

She and Rangna Roux from South Africa, pushed beyond Horse Station 15 to “some extra kilometers between themselves and their closest rivals.”

 puts Woods at Horse Station 19, with Roux and Laura Van Laar of the Netherlands. Only six stations remain between Woods and a potential first-place finish.

[{"type":"text","text":"Woods’s friends and family are extremely excited about her progress."}]

“Nobody wants to jinx it,” Baker said. “It’s like the Super Bowl of horse races. She’s been in the lead for a few days now, but we don’t know if she’s teamed up with the other riders. Everyone at the barn has seen how much she's put into this, both physically and mentally.” 

Baker and her daughter have been taking riding lessons with Woods for years. Many other young women in the Jackson Pony Club are eagerly following her progress, confident she has what it takes to succeed, she said.

“I would say she's inspiring the next generation of endurance riders,” Baker said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Dangerous Derby"}]

The Mongol Derby follows the "postal route" established by Genghis Khan across the Mongolian Steppe in 1224. Horse messengers used the route so the leader of the Mongol Empire could communicate with the far-flung corners of his conquests.

Today, the Mongol Derby holds the record for the longest multi-horse race in the world. Participants ride "semi-wild" Mongolian horses between 25 stations along the 620-mile route.

Riders change horses every 25 miles, which amounts to 25 horses for the entire race. They can only ride for 11 hours a day, or they incur penalties that affect their time and place in the highly competitive 10-day endurance race.

the Mongol Derby. She split the victory with fellow rider and now lifelong friend Willemien Jooste of South Africa in July 2022.

"The ride itself is really about physical fitness, not necessarily horse ability," Griffith said. "You need to be a good rider, but it's really about physical and mental endurance. You have to be prepared for 10 days of long hours in the saddle. If you're mentally prepared for that, you can do anything."

[{"type":"text","text":"Physical and mental fortitude is critical, but it can only do so much."}]

The Mongol Derby is notoriously treacherous. Riders have gotten lost and injured, sometimes to the point that they can't continue.

[{"type":"text","text":"One rider has already dropped out of the 2026 race due to an injury."}]

Griffith said she met with Woods a few times before she departed for Mongolia and shared what wisdom she could, mostly about equipment, the horses, and strategy.

“I tried to give her all the knowledge I could, but her race will be different than mine,” she said. “It will be her own race with her own challenges.”

Having followed her entire journey to this point, Griffith said Woods is “doing wonderfully, so far.”

“With some good luck and good horses, I think she should continue to do really well,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Strength And Strategy"}]

Woods did everything she could to prepare for the Mongol Derby when she got one of the highly coveted spots in the 2026 race, Baker said. She said she rode through the Wyoming wilderness at every opportunity.

“She was out on her mustang pretty much daily, putting in the miles in the mountains to get ready for this race,” Baker said. “I encouraged her to rest, recover, hydrate, and sleep before she left, because she was training very hard.”

Griffith said one key element to a successful race is strategy. With the limitations imposed on riders, they have to outthink as well as out-ride the other participants.

“I would say the most difficult part was trying to balance wanting to be competitive and ride as quickly as you could, while trying to balance the health and welfare of the horses," she said. “The ‘semi-feral’ horses have been ridden plenty, but they’re grumpy and might bolt or gallop off, so picking the right horse is important.”

If anyone rides past 7 p.m., they incur a 2-minute penalty for every minute beyond it. After careful planning and “an agonizing walk,” Griffith and Jooste crossed the finishing line at 6:52 p.m. on July 31, 2022, with eight minutes to spare.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It’s stressful, adventurous and lots of fun,” Griffith said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"In It To Win It"}]

Because of the intensity and remoteness of the Mongolian Steppe, nobody’s heard from Woods. Baker, Griffith, and others are clinging to every update on the Mongol Derby’s website and live map, along with any Instagram posts.

“I expect her to finish in a few days,” Baker said. “She could be done in two days.”

Having a partner is a good strategy for a successful race, but that’s another thing nobody knows about Woods’ progress. She might have teamed up with Roux and Van Laar, or she could be riding solo.

According to Griffith, having a partner can be “pretty fluid”, depending on the person and the horses.

“I think it is easier to ride together if you can, but it’s also hard to stay together,” she said. “Your horse might pulse down at the same rate, or you might be ready to leave, or somebody might get a penalty.”

The landscape itself is a constant challenge. That’s why Griffith said one of the most important factors is also one that nobody can control or prepare for.

“You need a fair bit of good luck,” she said. “What if you get a penalty? What if your horse goes lame? What if you get bucked off and lose a horse? There are just so many variables in the steppe that you can only do so much.”

Still, that might be where Woods has an inherent advantage. The Mongolian Steppe is rugged, dangerous, and treacherous, but not dissimilar from where Woods lives and has been training.

“Mongolia itself is a lot like southern Wyoming with its rolling hills and breaks, but it's covered with grass instead of sagebrush," Griffith said. "The terrain is super similar. The temperature is very, very similar. The nights are chilly, but the days can be hot, and the weather blows through quickly. For Wyoming riders, there’s comfort in that terrain.”

Finishing the Mongol Derby is enough of an accomplishment, but everyone following Woods knows how tenacious she can be. 

Regardless of the success of her strategies and alliances, Baker is excited for Woods, as are Griffith and all the people cheering her on from afar. She’ll be hailed as a hero when she returns to Wyoming, no matter what, they say.

“No matter how it turns out, she'll make Wyoming proud, but she’s in it to win it,” Baker said.

Lindsay woods plus closeup 8 10 26

<title>Jackson Woman On Track To Win 620-Mile Mongol Derby | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Jackson's Lindsay Woods was one of the top three riders Monday and is poised to win the Mongol Derby 2026, the longest and most arduous multi-horse race in the world. If she wins the 620-mile marathon, she'll become the second woman from Wyoming to do so.

Jackson Woman On Track To Win 620-Mile Mongol Derby

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Laramie County’s sheriff says the public records lawsuit two Freedom Caucus-aligned Cheyenne residents have filed against him is at least partly a political maneuver – and that his investigation of the February “CheckGate” controversy has “stirred the hornets’ nest.”

Colorado-based firm Lichter Immigration and its investigator Kevin Lewis 

 against Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak and his office June 30.

The lawsuit accuses Kozak’s office of wrongly withholding body camera video and information that a Mexican national, Mario Fabian Valenzuela Robles, needed for his ongoing immigration case.

The plaintiffs through their attorney Drake Hill filed a Thursday motion asking Laramie County District Court Judge Robin Cooley to hold Kozak in contempt of court. They allege Kozak’s office hasn’t obeyed Cooley’s order to turn over documents pertaining to Robles.

“The situation presented here creates the potential for the sheriff to face serious legal consequences, including contempt of court charges, as in this motion, fines, or removal from office,” the filing says.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak bristled at the filing and cast the case’s motivation as dubious."}]

He told Cowboy State Daily on Friday his office has turned over the body camera video, which he indicated was initially withheld to ensure it could be released according to the narrow provisions allowed in public records law.

As for other documents, Kozak said his counsel, Laramie County Attorney Mark Voss, had already conferred with the plaintiffs and worked out a time extension, since the search terms the plaintiffs requested returned around 7,700 generally irrelevant emails.

[{"type":"text","text":"The documents were originally due Aug. 5, court documents say."}]

“It’s confusing to us why this contempt motion was filed when there was an agreement we could go beyond the deadline date, when the search criteria was so large,” Kozak said Friday.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak took a stronger stance in a Saturday email."}]

“It is clear to me that the motive behind the motion and original court filing was, at least in part, to discredit the Sheriff’s Office for political reasons,” he wrote, adding that he hopes Cooley will “take appropriate action” if the plaintiffs’ filings were “misleading or unethical.”

“If the Court does not impose sanctions against the plaintiffs, I will consider filing a complaint with the Wyoming State Bar,” he added.

[{"type":"text","text":"Cooley has set a hearing for Oct. 16."}]

In response to Kozak's statements, Lewis said the sheriff is shifting blame. 

"Rather than trying to blame others, he should focus on doing his work and complying with the Court’s order," said Lewis in a Monday email. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The Presentation"}]

Kozak said several members of the Laramie County Conservative Coalition warned him that would happen, and they gave him a copy of an email notice of a meeting Wyoming Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ann Lucas, R-Cheyenne, dispatched.

Cowboy State Daily asked Kozak to extend the outlet’s interview invitation to the anonymous members. They declined, he said.

The email in question, which Kozak sent to Cowboy State Daily, shows a July 9 letter from Lucas previewing “a very interesting program for this coming Sunday” for the Laramie County Conservative Coalition.

“Cindy Hill and Kevin Lewis will discuss the recently filed lawsuit against Sheriff Brian Kozak,” the email says. The email also recounts details of the case from Cowboy State Daily’s reporting.

Cindy Hill is Drake Hill’s wife. She’s also the former state superintendent of public instruction, whom the Legislature tried, unconstitutionally, to remove from office, and who waged an unsuccessful defamation case against former legislator Tim Stubson.

“These allegations point to issues regarding civil rights,” says the email. “This subject is guaranteed to stimulate conversation. Don’t miss it.”

Cindy Hill did not respond by publication to a Monday-morning request for comment.

Kozak pointed to his decision to launch an investigation into “CheckGate.”

That was the Feb. 9 incident in which Teton County activist Rebecca Bextel, who’s now the Constitution Party nominee in the governor’s race, handed out campaign checks to Freedom Caucus members on the floor of the state House of Representatives – two days before they were set to vote on a bill she’d championed.

Multiple legislators and the entire Wyoming Senate condemned the act, but the House of Representatives cleared its involved members of bribery and misconduct after an in-house investigation.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak said his criminal investigation into the matter is still ongoing."}]

“The Sheriff’s Office’s recent search warrants in the CheckGate investigation have clearly stirred the hornets’ nest,” he said in his email. “There also appears to be a connection between Lewis and Hill through their involvement with Honor Wyoming and the Freedom Caucus, some members of which are reportedly subjects of the Checkgate investigation.”

Kozak added, “It is unfortunate to see this type of political activity in Wyoming, especially when I am upholding conservative principals (sic).”

“However,” the sheriff continued, “it will not discourage me from doing my job. I will gladly take the criticism and political pressure if it allows my deputies to perform their duties without political influence.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Lucas in a Monday text message to Cowboy State Daily countered."}]

She wasn’t involved in CheckGate in any capacity and doesn’t see a connection between that investigation and “an education community meeting about immigration law and the Constitution.”

[{"type":"text","text":"“Calling this political isn’t accurate,” added Lucas. "}]

She said at the July 12 meeting in question Lewis walked meeting attendees through the case and the surrounding legal issues. Lucas also said she’s not involved in the legal case and attended the talk only for the education.

[{"type":"text","text":"Here Kozak volleyed back."}]

“Have you ever heard of a (litigant) doing that before – a public meeting on a case they’re representing an immigrant on?” asked the sheriff. “Seems a little weird.”

Lucas had said in her text that the group has invited Kozak to speak and he’s done so twice. He said he’s never gone to one of their events and never been invited.

[{"type":"text","text":"‘That’s A Lie’"}]

Lewis said in a Friday phone interview that the sheriff’s office did not secure an extension for handing over documents.

“That’s a lie, right,” said Lewis. “And Kozak’s counsel set the due date for compliance … So there’s no extension. No request for extension. No communication about extension.”

Lewis emphasized that a judge’s order should be taken seriously and said that Kozak has “simply ignored the deadline of the court order.”

As of Friday, Lewis said, plaintiffs were still waiting on documents from the sheriff’s office.

[{"type":"text","text":"Cowboy State Daily asked if this case has political implications."}]

“I’m not commenting about politics. I’m working for an attorney in Colorado,” said Lewis, before promptly saying he had to leave the call.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lewis expounded in a Monday email. "}]

"We had to sue (Kozak) for evidence and he waited until the day of an emergency hearing to provide only partial evidence," said Lewis. "Then we had to bring a motion for his contempt of the Court Order, and then he did not provide a complete response to what the Court has ordered." Lewis asserted that as of Monday, Kozak has not complied with the order. 

"The Sheriff’s excuses are ridiculous.  He was sued for not doing what he was clearly required to do under the law.  Now he has violated the Court’s Order, purely and simply," he said, adding that Kozak "invents motives."

Drake Hill, whom Cowboy State Daily emailed Friday and Monday, had referred the outlet to Lewis for comment. 

Kozak noted correctly that Drake Hill and Lewis are both linked with Honor Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"Bextel is too."}]

The 2026 business filing for Honor Wyoming lists three directors: Carol Armstrong, Thomas James Anderson, and Blair Maus. They all list their addresses as the same location on Columbia Drive in Cheyenne – which Laramie County mapping records in turn list as Lewis’s property.

Drake Hill represented the group at a November meeting of the Wyoming Legislature’s Management Council.

Lewis was a lead staffer under Superintendent Hill, and Lewis and Drake Hill 

Bextel has worked as an organizer for Honor Wyoming, and in a 2024 Facebook post called herself an “active volunteer” for the group.

Bextel did not respond to a Monday-morning text message request for comment by publication.

Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak says the lawsuit two Cheyenne politicos are waging against him is at least partly political in nature, and tied to his investigation of the 'CheckGate' controversy. Recent search warrants have "stirred the hornets' nest," he said.