Accomplishing little more than an extension of the debate over proposed legislation to allow Wyoming landowners to sell their hunting licenses for profit, the Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Cultural Resources Committee's Wednesday meeting at Northwest College turned contentious as Sen. Tim French, R-Powell, one of the committee's co-chairs, argued with a number of people opposed to his views, especially in landowners having the ability to sell landowner tags.

Officials for organizations who worked to help kill a bill to allow sales of landowner tags this past legislative session were those receiving the bulk of his ire. Since 1949, qualifying landowners have received a limited number of deer, elk, antelope, and turkey tags that they can use or gift, but not sell. Some legislators contend tag sales, which could bring in thousands of dollars each, could help buoy family operations that are also important habitat to big game animals. Wildlife groups counter that monetizing the public’s game animals crosses a line and it could hurt sales of Wyoming Game and Fish Commission and governor's tags, which are given to charitable organizations to raise funds for their nonprofit organizations.

The sale of landowner tags could bring in tens of thousands of dollars for each property, money French said would buoy landowners who provide habitat and resources for wildlife. Wyoming began issuing landowner tags in 1949 and, since 2020, 17,883 landowner tags have been issued — about 3,577 per year for the past five years.

If the tags sold for as much as commissioner and governor's tags, each could bring in between $10,000 and $20,000 each. Currently, the only tags that may be auctioned or raffled are donated to nonprofit organizations by Game and Fish commissioners and the governor. Since 2020, 310 commissioner tags have been donated to charitable organizations, raising about $7.7 million, and 150 governor's hunting tags were donated, raising more than $9.1 million for charities and non-governmental organizations such as Trout Unlimited, Back Country Horsemen, Wyoming Disabled Hunters — to name a few.

Governor and commissioner licenses are valid in any hunt area except areas with a quota of 10 or fewer licenses for moose, bighorn sheep or wild bison.

No love lost

French was terse with Wyoming Wildlife Federation spokesperson Jess Johnson, cutting her off as she spoke of options to assist landowners that don't include landowners selling their tags. As she spoke, French asked if she was willing to sit down with landowners to hear why they need to sell licenses to help them stay afloat.

"We had that conversation this [past] session. We were willing to sit down and it went nowhere," she told him. "So I'm here saying, let's not hash this out again, and let's find a better idea."

Johnson said she has several ideas on how to better help fund struggling ranchers and farmers without resorting to the sale of the tags, which she likened to selling wildlife owned by the residents of Wyoming. She told the committee that legislation allowing the sale of tags is a "nonstarter" with the outdoor sports enthusiasts the federation represents.

Next up in opposition to the proposal was Wyoming Chapter of the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers lobbyist Sabrina King.

"I think we probably need to stop," French told King, demanding she end her comments while she spoke from the podium.

"It's obviously you do not support the landowners being able to stay in business. But thank you for your comments," he told her before moving on to others with public comments.

Later French again chastised the groups who he said refuse to negotiate on landowners being able to transfer or sell their tags.

"If that's your position, that's a wrong position. Absolutely wrong on their behalf. I can't get it, but it's wrong. It's not trying to compromise and work with the people who provide that habitat," French said.

French also tangled with Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, over whether the issue should be assigned to the Ag Committee rather than the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee (TRW).

"It does not belong to TRW. It belongs in Ag, because we're talking landowner tags," French said. "Who are the landowners? The big percentage are ag people. So I think Management Council was wrong, and I'll never support it being anywhere other than Ag."

Provenza said the issue was rightfully assigned to TRW due to the number of committee members in the Ag Committee that could possibly profit from a law allowing landowners to sell their tags. As the law stands, landowners with 160 or more contiguous acres of land used by big game are eligible for landowner tags.

"I believe seven, maybe more people on this committee have 160 acres or more of land," Provenza said. "This issue has been contentious today, in part because there's a lot of personal ties to this issue, a lot of financial ties to this issue. So part of my concern is that TRW would be a better committee for this because you don't have half a committee that owns land that's going to be able to sell landowner tags for tens of thousands of dollars."

Provenza is also a member of TRW. Several people stood at the podium in favor of allowing landowners to sell their tags, including Executive Vice President of the Stock Growers Association Jim Magagna and Park County landowner Brian Peters, French's son-in-law.

After Peters presented his statement about damages due to wildlife, the difficulty qualifying for Game and Fish damage payments and the debate over selling tags, French mocked the assumption that the sale of landowner tags would harm or bring down the price of governor's and commissioners' tags handed out to charitable organizations.

"God forbid we devalue those commissioner tags that are sold. You know, we don't do that," he said slyly.

Then he asked Peters if he supported the sale of landowner tags.

"I do believe there should be some transferring of the tags, whether it be internally, further passing it in a family or even spot selling these licenses. I understand there's a whole battle with the commissioner tags, and there's a lot of great things that come to that, but the landowners that support these wild animals, 24/7 365, I think, says a lot," Peters responded.

New regulation proposals

Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Angi Bruce was on hand to testify, bringing with her Chief of Wildlife Dan Smith and Deputy Chief of Wildlife Craig Smith. Bruce started by saying the importance of landowners’ contributions to habitat and forage is not lost on the department.

"The department is very much aware, as well as our commission, of the value of these landowners’ licenses and why they're in place — recognizing the importance of landowners and private lands as they contribute to wildlife, especially providing forage to big game," she said.

She then explained how Gov. Gordon in 2021 assigned a wildlife Task Force; 18 members on that task force representing various stakeholders across the state, including four legislators. The purpose of that task force was to look at social economics, license allocation, who licenses go to, who should get the licenses and residents versus nonresidents allocation.

They debated extensively through the 18 months landowner licenses, particularly, how many license should landowners get and who qualifies as a landowner. After working on it they provided recommendations to the commission, Bruce told the committee members. The commission spent the next three years working on the issue, even organizing a landowner license workshop. The issue was on the agenda at several commission meetings. Then in November they asked the department to put a proposal out on what qualifies a landowner to get the licenses.

"We also have a great concern about our mule deer population. In particular, we also saw great declines in our antelope population after the bad winter of '22 and '23 and so when we have population declines, there are less licenses to give out," she said. "Looking into the future of what those license look like, there's anticipation that this will continue to be a problem, and may be a growing problem. There is some areas of the state, over the last five years where a hunt area for a particular species, all of the license have gone to landowners without the common sports person having the opportunity to draw. And so the commission is very aware of this issue and looking at ways to work through it and address it."

Some of the changes proposed after the three-year process includes moving from a landowner qualifying with 160 contiguous acres, as it currently stands, to either 160 contiguous acres of cultivated land or a minimum of 640 contiguous acres of land. They also proposed to change from 2,000 days of use to 3,000 days of use, said Dan Smith.

"For example, if you have 50 deer for 60 days, that's 3,000 days used. So if you have 150 [deer] out for 20 days, that's 3000 days of use," Smith said. "Over my career in the last 10 years we've been nonstop talking about this conversation. It's a difficult conversation. It's a complicated issue."

The Game and Fish Commission will take up the issue again at their July meeting in Casper.