SHERIDAN — Months of hard work from the Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce may be paying off.
During its Monday meeting in Cheyenne, the Wyoming Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee granted initial approval to the task force’s draft bill, which rethinks the allocation of hunting licenses for the “big five” game animals in Wyoming — moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, bison and grizzly bears.
The task force’s big five suggestions aim to increase local hunting opportunities for some of Wyoming’s rarest and most coveted animals, according to Brian Nesvik, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and member of the task force.
The task force’s approach is twofold, Nesvik said. The first is to limit big five hunting licenses to once-in-a-lifetime events: Once you receive a license for one of these animals, you are unable to apply again.
Currently, hunters who receive a big five license have to wait five years before applying for another one, Nesvik said. That five-year waiting period will still apply for those wishing to hunt cow/calf moose and bison and ewe/lamb bighorn sheep, while all other big five animals will conform with the new once-in-a-lifetime rule.
The second prong of the plan is to institute a 90-10 split for big five licenses, with local hunters receiving 90% of the licenses and out-of-state hunters receiving 10%.
Nesvik said the current splits vary per animal. Bighorn sheep, mountain goats and bison have 75-25 splits while moose are split 80-20. Grizzly bear licenses are currently set at 90-10 and would not change if the legislation moves forward.
The change would have a small but noticeable effect on the number of big five licenses available to Wyoming residents, according to task force co-chair Josh Coursey. For example, 180 bighorn sheep tags were available in the state last year with 135 going to local hunters. Under the recommended change, that number would increase to 162.
Similarly, 340 moose tags were available in the state last year with 255 going to local hunters. Under the recommended change, that number would increase to 306. Based on last year’s tag allocation totals, 27 new bison tags and 17 new mountain goat tags would be available to local hunters.
Nesvik said he didn’t expect the changes to have a major impact on local residents’ probability of drawing a tag for the big five animals, due to the already low number of tags available.
“The increased chances of drawing based on this are very small,” Nesvik said. “…But the testimony we’ve heard is that adding even just a few licenses is something.”
Nesvik said he doesn’t expect the decrease in out-of-state license allocations to impact local tourism, due to the already-low number of tags that are allocated to out-of-state residents each year.
Prior to being considered by the legislative committee, the draft bill received unanimous approval from the task force, Nesvik said. While there was limited public comment on the bill during Monday’s committee meeting, the one comment — from the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association — was supportive of the legislation.
“We’re here in strong support of the portion of the bill pertaining to the once-in-a-lifetime (license) for the big five,” said Bill Novotny, lobbyist for the association. Novotny said the association had not yet officially adopted a position regarding the 90-10 split but supported the idea “in concept.”
The draft legislation has been one of the key pieces of work of the task force in recent months, according to Nesvik. The Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce, comprising 18 members including hunters, legislators and landowners from across the state, was formed by Gov. Mark Gordon with direction from the Legislature. The task force's charge is to study top-priority wildlife policy issues facing the state related to the allocation of hunting opportunity, sportsperson access and other issues.
With legislation for the big five complete, the taskforce is now turning its attention to an even more contentious and complicated issue: the allocation of tags for more common game animals like elk and deer, Nesvik said.
“We’re going to hear some strong views, and have heard some, for 90-10 on the other species,” Nesvik said. “But we haven’t reached a conclusion on that yet or a recommendation…At the November meeting, we’re going to hear from the Wyoming Office of Tourism on the economic impacts of the change, and we’ll be deliberating it at this next meeting and probably the December meeting. I don’t expect it will be a quick discussion.”
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