WHEATLAND—Standing in the Platte County Agriplex on Monday afternoon, Bob Budd likened the governor’s fire recovery plans to the easy exchange of cash for cattle between two ranchers. 

“I want to buy your bull. You want to sell your bull,” Budd said. “We agree, and I drive off with the bull.”

Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, used the example to describe a grant program developed by Gov. Mark Gordon to assist landowners dealing with the destruction caused by Wyoming’s historic 2024 wildfire season. 

Of the 810,000 acres burned across the state, about 70% were privately owned or state lands. As such, Gordon asked the Wyoming Legislature for $130 million to help landowners restore grasses, replace fences and rebuild private structures, among other things. 

Gordon, Budd and Jennifer Doering with the state’s Office of Land and Investments traveled Monday to Wheatland, Gillette and Sheridan for informational meetings about the program. 

“It shouldn’t be a long, drawn-out process,” Budd said at the Wheatland meeting, adding that providing the funds through grants was the path of least resistance. 

Back at the Capitol, a different plan was brewing that involved loans. Rather than providing grants to landowners to bolster their recovery efforts, lawmakers want to spend less money and they want to be paid back. 

Conflicting approaches

The Joint Appropriations Committee reduced Gordon’s fire recovery funding recommendation last week to $100 million, and voted to make the money available through loans rather than grants. 

“I have grave concerns about a loan program for fire restoration and recovery,” Gordon said in a Tuesday press release. “I understand the Legislature’s intent with the proposal, but there is a lack of understanding of the circumstances on the ground. We need a program that is flexible and responsive to your needs. A loan program does not do that.”

Meanwhile, supporters of the loan system say it ensures landowners have skin in the game. 

Rep. Abby Angelos is a Freedom Caucus Republican from Gillette, near where some of the worst fires burned. She brought the motion to the Appropriations Committee to move the funding to a loan system. 

“The loan is a way of recognizing that this is the people of Wyoming’s money, and we are accountable to them for it,” Angelos previously told WyoFile. 

Senate President Bo Biteman, a Ranchester Republican, also told reporters last week that grants are “just giving money away.” Sheridan County, where Biteman lives, was also hit hard by the fires.

As outlined by the Appropriations Committee, the loan program would include a 2% interest rate with a maximum term of 20 years. It would be administered by both the Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust and the Office of State Lands and Investments. The State Loan and Investment Board would be tasked with giving final approval of any loan. 

The committee also voted to have the program cover all catastrophic natural disasters, not just wildfires.  

Public meetings 

“I’m inherently a little distrustful of grants,” Platte County Commissioner Ian Jolovich said at the Wheatland meeting. “But then, on the other hand, a loan is an interesting idea, but I can guarantee ya I’m not interested in it.” 

Jolovich was one of about 50 members of the public at the meeting. Jaron Frederick, a rancher whose operation northeast of Guernsey was impacted by the Haystack Fire, also spoke up.

“There aren’t any better stewards of the land than the ranchers, because we care about our property and we want to … be able to hand it down to a future generation,” he said. “So we want to do the right thing.”

Frederick’s operation was also hit by the Tracer Fire in 2006, the effects of which are still being felt today with cheatgrass and fallen timber, he said. 

“I don’t know any rancher that’s looking for a handout, but it’s nice to have resources available to help us,” Frederick said. 

In Sheridan, more than a hundred people showed up, including Johnson County Commissioner Bill Novotny. 

“There are members of the Appropriations Committee from heavily impacted fire communities. I hope they’ll go home over the [President’s Day] break and talk to their producers, because my producers do not want loans,” Novotny told WyoFile on Wednesday. 

The House Draw Fire charred about 175,000 acres in Johnson County — about the same size as the cities of Denver and Salt Lake combined. And the local government has been in the process of exhausting all of the available federal assistance, Novotny said. 

As currently drafted, Wyoming’s recovery funds would only be available once landowners have exhausted federal assistance. 

But that process in Johnson County was upended this week, Novotny said, when about $2 million in federal assistance was yanked out from under the county after the Trump administration paused disbursements appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. 

Johnson County agricultural producers are simply not in a position to take out another loan, Novotny said. 

“They cannot put themselves in second position with the state in first position,” he said. “These folks have already borrowed money for operating lines so that they can find additional pasture. They don’t have that ability right now.”

Both the Senate and the House will begin budget deliberations as soon as Friday, and Novotny is confident there will be an amendment to revert the program back to grants. 

In the meantime, he said he’s grateful for his local lawmakers — Sen. Barry Crago and Rep. Marilyn Connolly, two Buffalo Republicans — who have both brought back-up bills to restore fire suppression funding as well as the governor’s original request.