Game and Fish examining policy change

BUFFALO — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is considering changes to its depredation prevention hunting season policy that could make it easier for private landowners to request and officials to create a special hunting season in areas where big game is damaging the landscape.
"It's been written a bit more broadly to allow any opportunity that we might see necessary to be able to implement one of these,” said Craig Smith, Sheridan regional wildlife supervisor. “There could be potential for that anywhere in the region.”
The proposed change would eliminate a lot of red tape in validating landowners' claims of damage and allow the special hunting seasons to proceed more easily. And it would streamline the process for hunters who want to participate.
An overabundance of elk in some locations has prompted landowners and livestock owners to bring the proposed changes forward, Smith said.
Jim Magagna, executive vice president  of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, who has been pushing for changes to the policy on behalf of ranchers, said that Johnson County isn't necessarily one of the areas where excessive elk populations are causing problems that led the agricultural advocacy organization to pursue this policy change. 
Still, nearly 60% of the county's lands are privately owned, according to a socioeconomic profile compiled by the Wyoming County Commissioners Association in 2018. This means that wildlife spend a lot of time on private land.
"What we're really focused on that hasn't been addressed is not so much damage as just consuming a disproportionate amount of the available forage," Magagna said. "I've got landowners that have had to reduce their cattle herds by, in one case, near 40%, because so much of the forage that he has for summer use is being consumed by elk." 
This is partly why the agency is proposing that the policy change from "depredation prevention" to "auxiliary management." 
If the regulation is changed, it would also include trophy game animals  black bear, mountain lion, grizzly bear, and gray wolf – and wild turkeys that cause any sort of damage to private landowners' property, in addition to big game. 
To Adam Teten, the proposed changes could make the existing management process more localized. 
Teten is a Buffalo resident who represents sportsmen on the Wyoming Wildlife Task Force. Game and Fish presented the proposed changes to the special hunting season regulation at the task force's July 7 meeting.
"It offers a little more flexibility for the regional game managers to really truly address some of those problems rather than it just being through maybe a specific season setting meeting or something along those lines," he said. "I think it's going to be a little more of an à la carte approach, as my understanding goes, in terms of managing some of the more regionalized local issues, rather than putting a blanket recommendation out for the entire state." 
No out-of-season hunts have been held in Game and Fish's Sheridan region, which includes Johnson, Sheridan and Campbell counties, in at least the past six years, since Smith joined the agency. He said that he believes it's been even longer than that, at least 15 years.
Game and Fish's preferred method of population management is to address overpopulation during normal hunting seasons and licensure, Smith said. But when the department cannot meet its harvest goals for any species, a special season could be the answer.
Where a normal hunting season could fail is when animals leave the ranch and are inaccessible where they'd potentially be harvested. Then, when the season closes, those animals come back and consume grass and, in some cases, cause damage to crops, livestock and any other property.
"That situation would be something that an auxiliary management hunting season would be implemented for," Smith said.
Where public wildlife and private land interface, problems can arise, Teten said.
"(Stakeholders are) private landowners and the public. Because the wildlife is the public's, it's not private landowner wildlife," he said. "The issue is that some of those critters, whether they're elk, deer, antelope, bears or mountain lions, I mean, you name it, do spend some of their time on private land." 
The proposed change would also streamline licensing for the auxiliary hunts because hunters would apply for licenses through the department's existing online licensure system. 
Game and Fish is accepting public comment on the proposed regulation change until 5 p.m. on July 31, and officials will discuss it at the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission meeting in Buffalo in September. 
Information on public comments is available at https://wgfd.wyo.gov/get-involved/public-meetings.
 
 
This story was posted on July 21, 2022.