Public deserves answers about Bruce departure

The sudden departure of Angi Bruce from her role as the director of Wyoming Game and Fish has left the public with more questions than answers.

We find that unacceptable and believe the public has the right to know not only how their money is being used, but what public employees are doing.

Last month, Bruce abruptly announced she would leave her post after two years for a newly created role in Gov. Mark Gordon’s office, the director of special policy initiatives. It seemed strange, given the governor’s term is set to expire in January and, presumably, Bruce would find herself without a job, but we weren’t given much time to dwell on the thought because it was then announced that Bruce has been hired by the Western Land Alliance and will start in October as the chief policy and programs director.

The public and media have been largely kept in the dark about why Bruce left the department. Our colleagues at WyoFile submitted a public records request that shows Bruce had a full schedule for the week immediately following her announced departure, potentially contradicting the narrative she volunteered for the new role with Gordon’s office. If this were a simple case of the executive requesting an employee’s resignation, why create an entirely new role just for that same employee to announce, shortly thereafter, that she was leaving that job, too? The optics aren’t great.

And these questions join a litany of others – did Bruce, who famously said that it was not the mission of G&F to advocate for wildlife, damage the agency? What about the morale of the remaining G&F staff? How have programs been impacted? Did Bruce struggle balancing politics and wildlife advocacy? She was at the G&F helm when the state was deliberating the location of the proposed Wyoming State Shooting Complex. The final site selection lies south of Cody, on about 2,000 acres of state land that G&F designated as crucial mule deer habitat. 

Under her direction, G&F didn’t weigh in on the proposal, as wildlife advocates said it should have, and during her tenure, the G&F commission took the unusual step of nixing both mountain lion hunting  and the shrinking of the Sublette Pronghorn Migration corridor last year.

The cloak and dagger departure of Bruce does a disservice to the sportsmen and women of Wyoming. As taxpayers, we have the right to know where our money is being appropriated – for an executive to depart a leadership position for a newly created role, at the twilight of the current administration, with little to no information offered about what she will do, or why the job’s sudden creation is necessary, is unacceptable.

While we wish the interim director of G&F well, we hope that the next governor will take steps to ensure that G&F is staffed with leadership that puts wildlife first.

Wyoming is wildlife, and we hope its champions will triumph.

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