Wyoming
Grizzlies killed record high number of cattle in Wyoming, 2024 data shows – WyoFile
Every year is a conflict-prone year for the scores of cattle and grizzly bears that mix annually on Union Pass, but Coke Landers was especially glad to put 2024 behind him.
The run-ins started shortly after the historic Green River Drift delivered many thousands of cattle to the national forest to fatten up over the summer. By the time ranchers herded the domestic bovids off the vast 267-square-mile Upper Green River grazing allotment on the Bridger-Teton National Forest in the fall, some 94 head of cattle were confirmed to have been killed by large carnivores, he said.
“Ninety-one of them were bears and three were wolves,” said Landers, who took the reins of the Upper Green River Cattlemen’s Association from former president Albert Sommers a few years ago.
“That was the highest ever,” Landers said. “It was a record.”
That’s especially notable considering that the Upper Green has been the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s epicenter of grizzly-cattle conflict over the last couple of decades. It’s also been the site of a not-yet completely resolved legal battle about that conflict, stemming from a federal assessment that OK’d killing up to 72 Endangered Species Act-protected grizzlies due to cattle grazing on public land.
Across grizzly range in the Equality State, it was a tough year for not only bruins killing cattle but for conflict generally. Grizzlies, in turn, were killed at record rates.
The phenomenon was partially explained by the dry year, which 2024 certainly was: More than 800,000 acres in Wyoming burned. The result is desiccated vegetation and sparse berry crops that send the adaptable omnivores looking for alternative food sources. Oftentimes, they end up finding trouble instead.
Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials ran through the numbers and nature of the conflicts during their commission meeting last week in Cody.
“They’re occurring on private lands, the majority of these conflicts,” said Brian Debolt, the large carnivore conflict coordinator for Game and Fish.
Grizzly bears have stopped expanding their range in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, federal biologists say. Nevertheless, much of where they occur today is outside of what Wyoming officials believe to be “suitable habitat.”
“The amount of private land occupied by grizzly bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem — outside of suitable habitat — is bigger than the area of New Jersey,” Debolt said. “Frankly, I get frustrated.”
A graph Debolt presented showed that upwards of 60% of all verified grizzly conflicts in 2024 occurred on private property.
Another graph broke down the cause of the conflict. Cattle dominated with 188 of 242 — a whopping 78% — of all confirmed Wyoming grizzly bear conflicts attributed to domestic bovids in 2024. In order, the next largest conflict sources were pet food, livestock feed and birdseed (13 conflicts) and property damage (11 conflicts).
Grizzlies also killed a record number of Wyoming cattle, Game and Fish Large Carnivore Supervisor Dan Thompson told WyoFile.
“It’s definitely our highest level of conflict,” Thompson said. “There’s this notion that nobody’s doing anything about it. That’s not true. Those producers are doing as much as they can to reduce that conflict potential — as are we.”
About half of Wyoming’s grizzly depredations in 2024 occurred in the Upper Green. Four grizzlies there were captured and killed in response, Thompson said.
There’s been mixed results from efforts to stem the grizzly bear-cattle bloodshed on the massive Bridger-Teton National Forest allotment. Nearly a decade ago, range riders attempted an experimental herding technique to keep cattle bunched up and less vulnerable.
“The herding actually made the kills worse,” Landers said.
More recently, the Upper Green River Cattlemen’s Association tested out motion-triggered LED lights known as “flasher tags” that were fastened to calves’ ears.
“I put 250 in, and I didn’t have any calves killed with a flasher tag that year,” Landers said. “But when I pulled the flasher tags in the fall, of the 250, there were only 10 of them that were still working.”
Wyoming secured, but then lost, a federal grant that was going to allow Upper Green cattlemen to scale up the effort with more durable flasher tags, according to Thompson. He didn’t specify exactly what happened to the grant, which went away during a period of extreme turmoil for the federal workforce and grants provided by the federal government under the Trump administration.
“There’s a lot of unknowns right now, let’s put it that way,” Thompson said. “But we still figured out a way to do a pilot component to look at some of these things. We’re still moving forward.”
A new prototype of the tags, Landers said, went out on 14 calves during the 2024 grazing season.
“One of my calves with a flasher tag got killed,” Landers said, “but all of those flasher tags were working when they came home.”
In 2025, they’re going to try another design again, just not in big numbers, he said.
A few months out from the Bridger-Teton grazing season, Landers is encouraged by the relatively big snow year in the region. Snowpack readings in the Upper Green River drainage were sitting at 110% of the long-term median as of Tuesday, but a SNOTEL site up in the allotment was at 127%.
“We should have plenty of moisture and hopefully not as dry of a summer,” Landers said. “A better berry crop does make a difference.”
If an easy conflict year doesn’t come to fruition, the status quo will have to do. Although there’s plenty of carnage, the system is one that the Upper Green River Cattlemen’s Association president says is working.
“The way our cattle association has been living with the bears and the wolves — and with our state’s compensation program — is a pretty good success story,” Landers said. “Honestly, we’re living together. We’re not always getting along, but we’re living together and we’re getting it done.”
Grizzlies in Wyoming and throughout the Lower 48 continue to be managed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. A Biden-era proposal to extend that classification, which precludes grizzly bear hunting, is open to public comments through May 16.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
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Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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