Overpopulated elk herds damage rangeland, but who should pay the cost?

House Bill 60, “Excess wildlife population damage amendments,” passed on third reading in the House on Tuesday and through the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources committee in a 4-1 vote Friday.

Damage from elk, which migrate in herds, eating rangeland grass along the way, “has reached the point where it has caused ranchers to significantly reduce the size of their livestock herds,” Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, said before the committee Friday.

“That is a clear economic loss. Every rancher that I know, virtually, is happy to provide some habitat for our wildlife. It is part of what we value. But it is beyond control,” Magagna said.

“The state of Wyoming is depriving me the opportunity for profitability,” Juan Reyes, a southeastern Wyoming rancher who told the committee improperly managed elk herds have decimated his grasslands, told the committee Friday.

“That is a mouthful, but that is how I feel about it,” Reyes said.

HB 60 also requires WGFD to develop an elk management plan, but some opponents say that is already underway. Further, reimbursements from HB 60 could have a “devastating effect” on Game and Fish dollars. Others worry about the impact it would have on longstanding partnerships between landowners, sportsmen and the department.

“It is a problematic bill that hasn’t been thought out enough,” Josh Metten, Wyoming field manager with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle this week.

State law currently provides for damages from wildlife to private property owners, but not those specifically geared toward elk overpopulation and rangeland grazing, Brian Nesvik, director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said Friday. Nesvik acknowledged that a real problem with overpopulation exists, and that there are landowners who have been significantly affected.

The ‘heart of the bill’

This week in the House, Speaker of the House Albert Sommers, R-Pinedale, said he had heard “a lot of pushback” about the bill. He proposed an amendment to delete a section of HB 60 requiring Game & Fish to develop a plan to reduce elk herds in every area over objective to better target Game and Fish resources.

“There are areas in Western Wyoming where I think this (requirement) would be the wrong path to go,” Sommers said. “I am bringing this as a way to pull this bill back and get more support out in the country.”

Rep. Barry Crago, R-Buffalo, said Sommers’ amendment removed the “heart of the bill.”

“This is the part we are actually trying to address, the overpopulation of elk in areas where we can’t get to them for various reasons,” Crago said. “What this is saying is, (Game and Fish) Department, we need a plan. You haven’t given us a plan. We need a plan.”

The rest of the bill, Crago said, deals with how the state will compensate landowners who are suffering because of an excess elk population. The Game and Fish Department estimates Wyoming’s elk population to be about 109,000. Over the last five years, elk damage claims have increased by 42% statewide, according to the department.

“In Eastern Wyoming and central Wyoming, it is a huge problem,” Crago said on the House floor.

Sommers’ amendment failed.

How the elk population exploded and how to fund the reimbursement

Hunting is the primary mechanism Game and Fish uses to manage big-game populations. When elk populations exceed objectives, changes to elk hunting season structures may involve increasing license quotas, establishing general seasons, extending seasons or issuing late-season cow/calf licenses. These methods aim to increase hunter harvest, with a focus on the reproductive portion of the population — cows.

Rep. Trey Sherwood, D-Laramie, attempted another amendment to HB 60 on the floor this week that would stipulate only landowners who allow unrestricted access through the state’s Access Yes program be eligible for compensation. Her amendment also failed.

Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, said that in order to provide what Sherwood’s amendment required on his ranch, he would have to provide access through five different landowners’ property. He continued that it would create a financial hardship, as he does allow hunting on his land, but uses those fees to recoup his own damage costs.

Sherwood responded that encouraging neighboring landowners to allow hunting access would be a good thing.

“Part of the reason we are in this problem of overpopulation is that if you, as a landowner, are the only one providing access, the wildlife know where to hide. They know where to hide where the hunters are not,” she said.

Jessi Johnson, government affairs director for the Wyoming Wildlife Federation, asked the senators Friday to allocate funding for the reimbursement.

“You are asking for dollars from the Game and Fish without providing any more dollars,” she said Friday, adding that reimbursement payments could instead be used in the department’s operating budget.

“We could be using this money to go forward and do these solutions in the five-year plan that they already have in place,” Johnson said. “We are taking directly from the department’s ability to do that by continuing to pay out damages.”

The Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee did pass an amendment proposed by Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, to appropriate $5 million from the state’s general fund to Game & Fish for reimbursement payments. HB 60 will have to go to the Appropriations Committee with an added fiscal note and be debated on the Senate floor next week.

Elk are a very adaptable species that can live in many environments, out-competing other animals, and the herds need to be managed, Metten said, but HB 60 goes against a spirit of cooperation between Game and Fish, landowners and sportsmen.

“I don’t think that this bill will solve the problem, and while the appropriation from the general fund reduces the harm that this bill could do to the Game and Fish budget, it doesn’t reduce the harm that this policy can do in terms of incentivizing partnerships we need to address elk overpopulation,” Metten said.