Meeting in the basement of Big Horn Federal Savings Bank in Cody, 18 local men sat in a circle “AA style” to discuss the beginnings of a new grassroots organization. The hope behind “A Better Wyoming,” they said, is rein in what they see as harmful outfitter and guide regulations.

“The commercialization of our wildlife is real,” said group co-founder Tim Metzler, a former outfitter. “Anytime there’s money involved in [hunting], things seem to go sideways.”

Metzler said rules governing outfitters and guides have evolved in recent years, largely to accommodate large companies. Federal regulations and permits have allowed outfitters and guides to hunt large swaths of public lands, with competing outfitters’ areas overlapping, Metzler said. Combined with what he sees as a lack of enforcement, it results in multiple services hunting the same drainages and local hunters with no chance to hunt their own backyards.

Several in the group also suspect outfitters share information about herd movements and diminish the chance for resident hunters to harvest large game animals.

“We have to find some way to put fair chase back in the [outfitting] game,” Metzler said.

The crowd was made up of serious hunters, former and current guides and outfitters and former wildlife officials. Many shared stories underlying their grievances. They lamented the loss of gentlemen’s agreements respecting established territories and a shift from multi-day trips with hunting camps to day trips from trailheads just off the road using herd intel.

For an outfitter or guide, providing opportunities to bag a trophy big game animal can bring in thousands of dollars per hunter and places massive pressure on the companies to deliver. Metzler said he lost interest in the business because of what he considered “corruption” and policies damaging the heritage of family hunts.

“Where’s the opportunity for our kids or grandkids when you might have a day job and you can only have a week to hunt out of the whole season?” he said.

Yet the goal of the group isn’t to end outfitting and guide services. They want to protect the companies actually using their backcountry camps and operating with understanding and respect for resident hunters. And they want well defined and enforceable rules that put a halt to  companies having large swaths of land to hunt. For example, they say the current policies have resulted in outfitters with a camp in the Greybull River area being allowed to outfit day hunts as far away as Crandall and Sunlight.

Larry Larsen, who’s the Big Horn Federal market president, offered to host the meeting out of concern about wildlife commercialization and wildlife management. He hopes the group will become a strong voice in their efforts to return the outfitting business to a level that doesn’t hurt local hunters.

“We want to put together an initiative to have a voice to present to the agencies; not just one agency, but all of them,” Larsen said.

The co-founders say they concluded that the public will continue to lose in negotiations until an organization is formed, allowing the public’s voice to be heard.

“I’m to the point where I don’t even know what the rules are anymore. And I don’t know if anybody does,” Metzler said in opening the meeting. “I’m not against outfitting at all. I’ve worked for an outfitter, my nephew currently works for an outfitter and I have customers that are outfitters. I understand that he would make a living. But from what I saw this year, they’re running on top of each other, pissing each other off, and shooting animals out from under each other. It’s chaos.”

There are more than 300 outfitters in Wyoming, many working in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Many of those companies are represented by the Wyoming Outfitter and Guides Association, also known as WYOGA. While their members represent about one-third of the licensed outfitters in Wyoming, collectively they service about 75% of guided non-resident hunters who come to Wyoming to “pursue our abundant wildlife,” according to the association’s website.

Sy Gilliland, of Casper, past president of WYOGA, said issues with the changing outfitter-operations landscape — moving from camps to day use permits — is a local issue largely caused by the reintroduction of predators rather than a state issue.

“A lot of the camps in the Cody area have been heavily impacted since the introduction of the wolf,” he said in a Monday interview. “The Cody [Region] used to have a lot of viable backcountry camps that are no longer viable because there’s not enough wildlife resources.”

As camps became less profitable, Gilliland said outfitters in the region turned to day use permits to keep their businesses running. He also defends area outfitters as being in compliance with U.S. Forest Service regulations.

“I’m sure there can be some modifications, I’m sure there can be some working together, that type of stuff,” he said. “But it all starts with the Forest Service.”

Metzler thinks it’s a known problem by representatives on all sides of the issue. He also believes that, due to the large revenue streams in the industry, any positive changes will be won in hard fought battles.

Metzler expects he will most likely be chastised by outfitter friends for his opinions, but said he had to take a stand.

“I truly believe if we don’t say something, we [area hunters] are going to lose,” he said. “A war is raging out there the way it is.”

A Better Wyoming has scheduled a meeting with Shoshone National Forest representatives in early February and will report back to the group’s other participants at a future gathering. Their initial goals are to attempt to understand the rules that guide the industry and to present a unified voice to defend local residents’ hunting heritage.