When a task force of lawmakers and appointed citizens decided last summer where best to locate a state-funded destination shooting facility, they chose a picturesque 3-square-mile tract of state land nestled into the Absaroka Range foothills. Their rationale, in part, was that the site evoked wild Wyoming. 

Rolling hills blanketed in sagebrush, the location is home to elk, mule deer, pronghorn and sage grouse, among other species. It boasts spectacular views of high peaks leading to the Yellowstone plateau and, off to the east, the Bighorn Basin. Bisected by Sulphur Creek, the site feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere despite being just an 8-mile drive from Cody. 

Those same attributes concerned Wyoming’s wildlife managers, according to an agency review of the proposal acquired by WyoFile through a Wyoming Public Records Act request. 

Seven days before the 12-member task force voted 8-4 in favor of the location, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department issued a memo that effectively recommended the complex go elsewhere. Specifically, Habitat Protection Supervisor Will Schultz asked that it be moved outside of “core” sage grouse habitat and “crucial” range for struggling mule deer, which exhibited “high use” of the site throughout the year according to GPS collar data. Pronghorn and elk also used the 2,036-acre property, which is slated for development into a world-class shooting operation, and is expected to draw gun enthusiasts from far and wide.

“Ground-disturbing activities and extensive human presence can result in the disturbance or displacement of wintering big game and loss of habitat, potentially impacting the viability of local populations,” stated the July 15, 2024 letter signed by Schultz.

One week later, the state agency’s concerns surfaced as the task force voted.

“Is this cleared for that wildlife aspect?” Republican Rep. Pepper Ottman of Riverton asked her fellow members. “It looks to me as though that is still a concern. What would that look like, to alleviate that concern? I’m not sure. That is of grave concern.”

Nobody attempted to answer the questions.

‘Of grave concern’

Ottman, who’s no longer on the task force, voted with the minority for the runner-up site, near Gillette. She told WyoFile in an interview that she asked about the wildlife concerns because she wanted to get ahead of them — and wants the Wyoming State Shooting Complex to be successful. 

“I’m going to support the decisions that were made,” Ottman said. 

No one other than Ottman, including the agency itself, raised Game and Fish’s wildlife concerns with the Cody site to the task force. Nor did the state agency’s review of the alternative Campbell County site, which detailed far fewer concerns with wildlife, make much of an appearance in the debate. Publicly, there has been little to no discussion about requests to avoid the crucial mule deer range and the Oregon Basin sage grouse core area, or of any other wildlife-friendly guidance that’s been issued for the Park County shooting complex site, where construction crews could break ground as soon as July.

Powell resident Greg Mayton, who spent 14 years working for Wyoming Game and Fish, said that the wildlife concerns were minimized because of a “top-down push” that has kept the agency’s Cody Region personnel muzzled. 

“It wouldn’t look good,” Mayton said, “if Game and Fish was against this site.”

WyoFile’s attempts to talk with regional personnel were not successful — an in-person inquiry at the Cody office in early May prompted a phone call from the agency’s Cheyenne headquarters.

An avid hunter, Mayton is among the few Park County residents who’ve spoken out against the shooting complex. The former aquatic invasive species biologist has spent ample time hunting elk and mule deer and looking for shed antlers on the selected state land, which abuts a much larger expanse of Bureau of Land Management property west of Highway 120 between Cody and Meeteetse. He feels local residents have to unfairly subsidize a commercial enterprise they might not want in the first place. 

“We have to pay for it three times,” Mayton said. “Through county money I’m paying to build the road, through Game and Fish dollars, and then through all the state tax dollars.” 

Wildlife managers were more forward about their concerns earlier in the Park County site-selection process, according to Andy Quick, a former Cody town councilor. 

“They were going to pursue a different area north of town [near Skull Creek] that was really a bad idea,” Quick said. “That was a designated elk parturition area. The Game and Fish was a little more vocal about that one.” 

Like Mayton, Quick isn’t a fan of the planned commercial operation, which the Wyoming Legislature funded to the tune of $10 million last session. The allocation required some last-minute maneuvering after the supplemental budget, which included funding for the complex, unexpectedly died. 

“It’s just going to fracture more habitat and it’s just one more step in the wrong direction, as far as I’m concerned,” Quick told WyoFile. “I think recreation and hunting are also going to lose out. I know that the state land can be managed as de facto private land, which is inherently a problem in and of itself.”

There’ve been several more visible scuffles of late over industrial and commercial use of state lands. Those include opposition to a gravel pit just outside of Casper, a lawsuit over a commercial wind farm in Converse County and a fight over a glamping operation at the foot of the Tetons that has spurred calls for reform and possibly legislation. 

The Wyoming State Shooting Complex has so far advanced with comparatively little controversy, at least in public. Quick, the former Cody town councilor, said that he was well in the minority among local elected officials. 

“I was probably the only one that was against it,” he said. 

A defense

Former Park County Commissioner Lee Livingston, who works as a big game outfitter, championed the project. He helped shepherd it through the county board, and was a part of the county working group that helped prepare a 241-page proposal pitching a complex south of Cody. Livingston told WyoFile in May that Game and Fish gave the location the “green light.”

“I think anywhere you go in Wyoming, you can call it habitat,” Livingston said. “Overall, I think it’s probably about the best location it can be in that Cody area.” 

Other project proponents made similar contentions. Nephi Cole, a Sheridan-based lobbyist for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said it’s hard to find a location in Wyoming that doesn’t have wildlife impacts. He also expressed hope that species would adjust to the gunfire, infrastructure and human activity likely soon to be added to the Absaroka foothills.

“Other large ranges, they’re typically fairly non-invasive, believe it or not, for wildlife,” Cole said. “They accustomize to it, they don’t view it as a hindrance. You end up getting deer, antelope and elk all over ranges, to the extent you have to move them for competitions to make sure that they’re not around targets.”

Baggs Republican Sen. Larry Hicks, whose 2023 legislation spearheaded state planning and funding for a Wyoming State Shooting Complex, said he has witnessed the harmony between wildlife and recreational shooting at Colorado’s Cameo Shooting Complex. 

“They got bighorn sheep, mule deer on the shooting range,” Hicks said. “Chukars all over the place.” 

Hicks expects something similar in Park County. Long-range shooting on the state site’s west end — there are plans for mile-long targets — are “probably going to have almost no impact” on wildlife, he said.   

“That’s not going to be an everyday, ongoing type of activity,” he said. “Seasonal use makes a difference. We can work around some of that just by event scheduling. We’ve got to put together a mitigation plan.”

Glenn Ross, who chairs the Wyoming State Shooting Complex Joint Powers Board, said that Wyoming’s concerns about wildlife impacts have been considered from the get-go and baked into the plans. 

“Our planning with our site has been making every attempt to be wildlife friendly,” Ross told WyoFile.  

Wildlife impacts, he said in a follow-up email, were a “primary consideration” in selecting the more southern Park County site before the local working group submitted its formal application to the state in June 2024. That proposal does include some wildlife-focused plans. 

For example, core sage grouse habitat, which covers about a square mile of the site, would receive “minimum development” to avoid exceeding the 5% threshold authorized by Wyoming’s policy for the embattled bird, which is particularly sensitive to noise.

Mule deer, whose designated “crucial” range covers almost the entire 2,036-acre site, would be accommodated by adjusting management west of a ridgeline during the winter, “minimizing the overall impact.” 

“Mule deer, although quite adaptive to human presence, still need areas of shelter and forage in the critical winter months,” Park County’s application stated.

Elk and pronghorn, meanwhile, would be encouraged to stick around. “Because having these species on site can be of tremendous value to our customers, the complex will recognize that value and work to operate the facility in harmony with these species,” the planning document reads. 

Next steps unclear

A month before a likely groundbreaking — Ross expects to receive the $10 million authorized by the Legislature in July — it’s unclear what actually will be required to minimize harm to wildlife along 3-plus square miles of the Absaroka front. 

Although wildlife managers’ site review of the Park County location is printed on Wyoming Game and Fish Department letterhead and addressed to an outside legislative task force, the document was described as “internal department correspondence” when it was conveyed to WyoFile via a records request. It’s not considered an “official project letter,” Game and Fish officials said. 

“We have not submitted any formal comments on the Cody shooting complex,” Wyoming Game and Fish Chief Warden Dan Smith told WyoFile. “And we haven’t been requested for any [comments].”

The Office of State Lands and Investments will decide whether Game and Fish formally comments, he said. 

“It’s up to them,” Smith said, “whether they request us to make comments on their project.”

Because the Wyoming State Shooting Complex is set to occupy state trust land, the permitting authority is the Office of State Lands and Investments. Its oversight board, the State Board of Land Commissioners, has already approved the Cody complex, according to Melissa DeFrantis, a public information officer for the state agency. 

“They’ve approved going forward with it,” DeFrantis said. “We will take the lease to them once it’s complete.” 

The State Board of Land Commissioners consists of Wyoming’s five statewide elected officials: Gov. Mark Gordon, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Treasurer Curt Meier and Auditor Kristi Racines.

Until the board approves the lease, the draft version and its contents — such as wildlife stipulations — are not considered public information, DeFrantis said.

“We don’t know what the negotiations may be,” she said. “A draft, it really wouldn’t benefit you right now.”

The Office of State Lands and Investments had a different interpretation of what triggers a formal Wyoming Game and Fish Department project letter. Those are typically prepared by default for state land leases, DeFrantis said. 

But DeFrantis also said she was unaware if Game and Fish would formally review the Wyoming State Shooting Complex’s lease near Cody. 

“I can’t say, I’m not drafting the lease,” she said. “But I can say that that’s generally the process, and I don’t know why we would avoid that.” 

The Office of State Lands and Investment’s lead on the project, Cody Booth, did not return a phone call requesting an interview. 

If Wyoming Game and Fish does proceed with a formal review and the requested stipulations mirror those in its existing site review, the Wyoming State Shooting Complex could be saddled with significant restrictions that inhibit its construction and operations. 

Because the project isn’t being moved outside of the core sage grouse area, construction and development “should not occur” between March 15 and June 30 in that designated core habitat and within 2 miles of a nearby non-core area lek, according to Game and Fish’s existing guidance.

Furthermore, Game and Fish asked shooting complex proponents to develop “a noise mitigation plan” so gunfire doesn’t compromise an occupied core-area lek that’s three-quarters of a mile south of the complex.

“Research has indicated that the declines in male lek attendance in response to increased noise are immediate and sustained,” the state’s letter stated. “Further, sage grouse do not appear to habituate to increased noise levels over time.” 

Crucial year-round range used by the Upper Shoshone Mule Deer Herd could impact shooting complex operations even more if requested wildlife stipulations are heeded. The herd has struggled mightily: The estimated 6,850 deer in the herd fall more than 40% short of the herd’s 12,000-animal population target, according to Game and Fish’s latest assessment. 

Because the complex wasn’t relocated outside the “crucial” deer range, which overlapped almost the entire site, Game and Fish’s instruction was to “avoid ground-disturbing activities and extensive human presence” from Nov. 15 to April 30. Mule deer-friendly practices, in other words, could theoretically shutter the destination shooting complex nearly six months a year.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.