Wyoming
Gardner announces Wyoming County clerk candidacy
Wyoming
100 years ago, Wyoming swore in nation’s first elected female governor. This is her story.
How Nellie Tayloe Ross went from the first lady of Wyoming to the first woman governor
In the span of three months in 1924, Nellie Tayloe Ross became a widow, single mother and the first woman elected governor in the United States.
Erin Udell, erinudell@coloradoan.com
A century ago, on Jan. 5, 1925, Wyoming made history when Nellie Tayloe Ross was sworn in as its governor — making her the first woman ever elected to the office in the U.S.
Nellie Tayloe Ross had come to Wyoming with her husband, William Bradford Ross, a promising attorney and aspiring democratic politician who rose from Laramie County’s prosecuting attorney to the governor’s office when he won Wyoming’s 1922 gubernatorial race, according to the National Governors Association.
After nearly two years in office, William Bradford Ross died Oct. 2, 1924, from complications following an appendectomy. His wife ultimately took up the helm, winning a special election for the governor’s seat in the fall of 1924.
In the matter of months, Nellie Tayloe Ross went from a wife to a widow and single mom and from a politician’s wife to a politician herself.
Nellie Tayloe Ross served out the rest of her husband’s term, then was defeated for reelection in 1926. She went on to carve out a career as a public speaker and serve as the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her as the first female director of the U.S. Mint. She remained in the role for 20 years.
Catch up on all 36 of the Coloradoan’s binge-worthy history podcast episodes and subscribe to The Way it Was for more. The podcast is available on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps.
Wyoming
Should Wyoming loan or give out wildfire recovery funds? Legislature and Gov. Gordon don't agree. – WyoFile
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.
Wyoming
Wyoming lawmakers bring two grizzly bills as future of federal protection grows murky – WyoFile
Uncertainty is swirling around what will become of plans to retain grizzly bears’ federally protected status following a change of presidential administrations and an Interior secretary nominee who’s pledged to delist the bruins and return jurisdiction to the states.
What will become of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s long-awaited and heavily litigated grizzly bear proposal became even cloudier Monday, when the agency announced it was scratching already scheduled public hearings. Federal officials had planned to hold a public hearing in Cody, but that and three other meetings were nixed, “in light of the recent transition and the need for this Administration to review the recent grizzly bear proposed rule,” according to an agency notice.
It’s unclear if the meetings will be rescheduled and equally hazy if Fish and Wildlife’s draft rule is still on the table following a Trump administration regulatory freeze and shift in leadership at the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Fish and Wildlife Service provided no additional information in response to WyoFile inquiries and declined to grant an interview.
Bear bills
Meantime, Wyoming lawmakers will consider two measures that prescribe changes to the future of grizzly bear management in the Equality State.
One proposal, outlined in House Bill 186, “Bear coupons-game and fish,” would allow heavy grizzly bear hunting in 2026 and 2027 on the outskirts of current grizzly range in Wyoming. The measure would require the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to attach a free “bear coupon” to all resident elk licenses issued for areas outside of the grizzly recovery zone, located in the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Those coupon holders would then be authorized to kill a “brown or black bear or grizzly bear.”
The proposed law declares that the Wyoming Legislature “finds that grizzly bears have recovered in Wyoming and should be removed from the endangered species and threatened species list and that the state should be responsible for management.” As now written, the bill could allow for the start of grizzly bear hunting even while Ursus arctos horribilis remains protected under the Endangered Species Act, which would be a federal crime. It would take effect either 10 days after grizzly bears have been delisted or on Jan. 1, 2026, whichever comes earlier.
Rep. Bob Wharff, R-Evanston, HB 186’s lead sponsor, was unable to be reached for an interview. The all-Republican and mostly Wyoming Freedom Caucus-aligned list of cosponsors include: Reps. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams of Cody, Mike Schmid of La Barge, Nina Webber of Cody, John Winter of Thermopolis and Sens. Dan Dockstader of Afton, Tim French of Powell, Bob Ide of Casper and Troy McKeown of Gillette.
‘You go manage the bears’
Sen. Larry Hicks, a Republican from Baggs, brought the other grizzly-related measure, “Senate File 170, Grizzly bear management prohibition.” In essence, the bill would prohibit the Wyoming Game and Fish Department from using its resources to help manage grizzly bears unless the state is granted jurisdiction.
“We’re just saying [to the federal government], ‘You go manage the bears,’” Hicks told WyoFile. “We’re tired of spending all of the money doing it for you.”
Although grizzly bears have been safeguarded by the Endangered Species Act and managed by the federal government since 1973, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department handles the brunt of the day-to-day duties and has spent over $50 million on grizzly management to date, according to agency estimates. Costs are incurred, for example, when state officials head out to verify if dead free-range cattle were casualties of grizzly depredation, and by red-shirted biologists who’ve shadowed celebrity bruins to keep the animals safe.
Those types of duties would no longer be allowed, though the state senator’s proposal does provide some exceptions. Grizzly management could still occur if it’s “expressly required by statute” or needed for “public safety and welfare.”
“Compensation for grizzly damage doesn’t go away,” Hicks said. “If you’ve got a bear around people’s private property … and they’re a threat to public safety, the Game and Fish Department can still act.”
If SF 170 advances, Hicks intends to amend it. Currently, it’s written so that it would take effect immediately, but he wants to move that back two years because of the change in presidential administrations and makeup of Congress.
“It’ll say, ‘in 24 months, if you haven’t resolved this issue’ — your bears, you manage them,” Hicks said.
Senate File 170’s all-Republican co-sponsors include Winter, Driskill and Rep. Paul Hoeft of Powell.
Neither grizzly bear bill has moved beyond being introduced, though Wharff’s “bear coupon” proposal was referred to the House Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee and has until Feb. 7 to be heard there.
Conservation response
Hunting advocacy groups don’t like what they see. The Wyoming Wildlife Federation came out “strongly against” the Fish and Wildlife Service’s grizzly decision, but is leery of “emotional” responses stemming from frustration over not having management.
“These bills are a bit of a tantrum,” said Jess Johnson, the federation’s government affairs director. “I agree that we need state management of grizzly bears. I don’t believe that these bills help our case at all.”
Overzealous state legislatures, she said, are contributing to the consternation some parties have for the federal government relinquishing authority over grizzlies.
“If we could back off, let our incredible professionals do their jobs and stay at the table without this rhetorical pushback, we might be in a better position for grizzlies in the long term,” Johnson said.
Chris Servheen, a retired grizzly bear recovery coordinator for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is a delisting opponent who agreed that lawmakers aren’t helping their state’s cases.
“I do trust the state biologists, but it’s the politicians that have overwhelmed the system,” he said.
House Bill 186, he said, is an example of inappropriate, legislature-driven wildlife management that grizzly bears would face if they were delisted.
“They wouldn’t last very long,” Servheen. “We’re going back to the 1800s. These animals can’t take that kind of pressure. They will disappear. Grizzly bears are way too vulnerable.”
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