![]() ![]() I mean, we have elk-damaged fences 50 yards from the house. “I’m not an expert, I don’t know all the details of Game and Fish,” he said. “And I came to this country because of socialism.”Īnother Wheatland-area rancher, Don Willis, was less aggressive in his criticism of the state agency. “That’s a taking,” the Cuban-born Reyes said. Wheatland-area rancher Juan Reyes charged that Game and Fish was “depriving landowners the opportunity of profitability.” The elk expanded beyond the reintroduction area, he said, “kind of like when they put the wolves in Yellowstone.” “When these elk were put in, nobody said anything to us,” Farthing testified. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)Ĭharlie Farthing, who ranches in the Iron Mountain Herd’s range, told lawmakers that, although they’re a native species, elk were absent on his family’s rangeland until the mid-1970s, when the state transplanted animals from the Yellowstone region. Longtime Wyoming Stockgrowers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna testifies at a June 2023 meeting of the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Natural Resources Management Committee in Rock Springs. I’m not the chairman, but I think we should exercise better discretion.”Īt the Torrington meeting, longtime livestock industry lobbyist Jim Magagna and several cattle ranchers spoke about their frustrations with elk before Game and Fish’s Smith presented data, the agency’s perspective and what’s been attempted so far. “It wasn’t a topic that was presented to, it wasn’t presented by anybody and it’s kind of TRW’s purview. “If I was the chairman, we would not have taken this on,” Sen. Not every Agriculture Committee member agreed with the decision to wade into the topic. “The ag committee is a little less concerned with that.” ‘Unable to move policy along’ “The problem is you’ve got committees that work with certain agencies and they are trying to not get crosswise with them because they work with them constantly,” he told WyoFile. But the 15 lawmakers on the committee heard rancher testimony about elk and are drafting bills to address the issue because some of its leadership felt that the normal avenue for elk-related bills - the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee - was “unable to move policy along to get these numbers down,” Eklund said. In fact, the Wyoming Legislature’s Management Council did not task the Agriculture Committee to address overpopulated elk or help landowners cope with them. The barrage of elk management ideas were not only unconventional vis-a-vis game laws and ethical hunting standards, they also came from a committee that doesn’t often deal with wildlife policy. ![]() “It’s just not something that the public is going to stomach,” he said of leaving dead elk to decay. ![]() Smith explained to Eklund, for example, that Wyoming law prohibits wanton waste of game meat. “Can they just be gunned, and let the coyotes take care of the carcasses?” John Eklund Responding to one suggestion after the next, he told lawmakers their ideas were illegal. “Has any of that been contemplated?”Ĭraig Smith, the deputy chief of wildlife for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, offered the same answer to each inquisitive legislator’s brainstormed solution to overpopulated elk herds in eastern and central Wyoming. “Is there any way you could sell the meat to help recoup some of the costs for the landowners?” she said. Cheri Steinmetz (R-Lingle), floated another option for handling all the potential meat in places like the Laramie Mountains and Iron Mountain, where elk populations are double to triple the state’s objectives. The Agriculture Committee’s other chair, Sen. John Eklund (R-Cheyenne), a committee co-chair, questioned whether elk killed from within inflated herds need to be processed: “Can they just be gunned,” he asked, “and let the coyotes take care of the carcasses?” Bob Davis (R-Baggs), a fellow committee member, lofted out another aerial idea: Why not suspend the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s drone prohibition to give hunting guides the upper hand in locating wapiti. John Winter (R-Thermopolis) at a meeting of the Wyoming Legislature’s Select Natural Resources Management Committee in Rock Springs in June 2023 (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile) ![]()
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