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Wyoming Legislature’s interim topics are set. Here are the big ones.

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Wyoming Legislature’s interim topics are set. Here are the big ones.


The Wyoming Legislature solely convenes for a matter of weeks annually. However state lawmakers are working even once they’re not gathered collectively on the Capitol. They meet in committees across the state to look at points that will produce future laws.

The Wyoming Legislature’s Administration Council not too long ago permitted the matters that legislative committees will take up in the course of the interim session, with some panels shifting gears and others persevering with previous work.

The interim is the time between now and subsequent yr’s common session. Throughout that interval, the committees will hear from the general public, consultants and different lawmakers on a few of the most urgent points within the state.

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Committees are made up of lawmakers from either side of the aisle and each chambers of the Legislature. There are roughly 10 standing committees that deal with giant, statewide points. There are additionally a variety of choose committees and process forces that deal with extra particular points corresponding to Wyoming’s water provide.

Right here’s what to search for because the interim session will get underway. A full record of interim matters could be discovered right here.

Firms and Elections

In the course of the previous yr, the Firms Committee devoted appreciable time to election reform and redistricting. However neither topic is a key focus this time round.

That’s to not say they received’t be examined in any respect. The committee’s fifth precedence is to check election adjustments corresponding to open primaries and ranked-choice voting. Notably, crossover voting, the apply of re-registering as a voter of a distinct occasion on major election day, will not be on the record. An try and ban crossover voting, backed by former President Donald Trump, failed within the funds session.

The committee will even look at redistricting insurance policies and procedures for the long run.

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Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, informed the Star-Tribune that he plans to begin engaged on a invoice to deal with main points with the reapportioned map handed final month. If Yin and his colleagues resolve to deliver a invoice to alter the state’s map, the committee will likely be open to listening to the problem, mentioned Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, who helps to supervise the committee.

Additionally on elections, the committee will revisit the state’s electioneering regulation in mild of a latest ruling by Skavdahl that it “chills speech.”

As its second precedence, the committee will discover the shortage of workforce housing in Wyoming, together with “sources of the issue and the social and financial impacts created by it.”

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Members will even take a “holistic” have a look at liquor legal guidelines as an entire. Municipalities are promoting liquor licenses for exorbitant costs, so the committee plans to look at whether or not it’s essential to create a course of to set charges for the retail liquor licenses at honest market worth.

Judiciary

The Judiciary Committee will deal with its ordinary tasks like reviewing latest courtroom opinions, along with 9 different matters.

The committee will evaluate drug-treatment courts throughout the Division of Well being and weigh whether or not placing these courts underneath the judicial department would “enhance the efficacy and utilization of therapy courts in Wyoming’s communities.”

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Additionally underneath the substance abuse umbrella is the problem of drug use throughout being pregnant. Rep. Ember Oakley, R-Riverton, introduced a invoice within the 2022 funds session that may criminalize the usage of managed substances throughout being pregnant. Because it stands, this isn’t a criminal offense. Oakley sees this as a “hole” within the regulation. Others, like legal professional and Judiciary Committee member Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, have their doubts.

Members will even weigh whether or not adjustments are wanted to the 24/7 sobriety packages that function in 5 counties. Broadly, this system administers breathalyzer or drug assessments to some people who find themselves charged with drug or alcohol crimes.

Coming into into this program is a requirement of pretrial launch.

Critics take situation with many elements of this system, arguing this system is unnecessarily burdensome and imposes powerful necessities on members who haven’t been discovered responsible of a criminal offense. Proponents say this system is efficient at holding folks from utilizing whereas out on bond.

The ACLU of Wyoming challenged the constitutionality of Teton County’s model of this system, and the matter was argued earlier than a federal decide final week. A ruling is anticipated this week.

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In different committee enterprise, regulation enforcement requested the panel think about whether or not an enhanced prison penalty needs to be enacted to assist shield susceptible individuals and professions.

The committee spent many hours final interim on juvenile justice and ended up getting a committee-sponsored invoice handed on the subject. Juvenile justice will not be on the agenda for the committee this time round, however lawmakers will hear an replace on the invoice.

Income

The Income Committee will proceed a lot of its work from earlier interim periods.

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Members will look into property taxes as their high precedence. To that finish, the committee will look at property tax reduction packages, taxes on second properties and different matters.

“The valuation of individuals’s properties are going up like loopy across the state and persons are very upset about that,” mentioned chairman of the committee Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander. “They usually don’t perceive how their dwelling can go up a lot however the authorities says they’ve much less cash.”

The committee will as soon as once more look at learn how to stabilize the state’s Okay-12 training funding stream. A lot of the varsity funding comes from risky oil and gasoline federal mineral royalties, which the previous Wyoming superintendent of public instruction mentioned quantities to roughly $150 million annually.

And as soon as once more, Medicaid enlargement is on the record.

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Case mentioned he’s “anxious” to get it launched for debate on the ground. The Income Committee’s Medicaid Enlargement invoice was not launched within the 2022 funds session as a result of behind-the-scenes conversations revealed that there wouldn’t be sufficient votes for it to achieve success. Some proponents initially wished to see it launched whatever the vote depend, whereas others nervous it might hurt future enlargement efforts if it failed on the primary vote.

The Income Committee additionally plans to look at how the state may generate income off of sure, presumably nefarious, belief funds dubbed the “Cowboy Cocktail.”

Because of weak oversight and the state’s sturdy privateness legal guidelines, rich folks from throughout the globe have began to funnel their cash right into a particular type of belief fund right here, the Washington Submit reported final yr.

These secretive belief funds include a Wyoming-based belief with nested non-public corporations. The Submit referred to this as a “Cowboy Cocktail.” Case mentioned he doesn’t plan to provide laws on the subject fairly but; the subject remains to be within the exploratory part.

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Training

The Training Committee will proceed its work on scholar literacy charges, as many youngsters within the state nonetheless lag behind their acceptable grade-level studying.

“After grade three, [teachers] assume that the coed can learn, and that’s not all the time the case,” mentioned committee chairman Sen. Charlie Scott, R-Casper.

Members will even sort out the problem of recruitment and retention of college district personnel. When touring round speaking to lecturers, co-chairman Rep. Jerry Paxton, R-Encampment, mentioned that retention of lecturers was the “hottest matter.”

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The committee will particularly discover learn how to keep aggressive with trainer salaries. However the dialog is not going to be restricted to instructional employees. The state can also be struggling to rent and preserve college bus drivers, whose salaries will even be examined, the chairmen mentioned.

Whereas wage is vital, Paxton is anxious that there’s an excessive amount of “non-teaching work” for lecturers.

The Legislature tried to move a number of payments this previous session that may have added to trainer workload or modified the way in which they educate.

“The largest wrongdoer in including duty to lecturers is perhaps us and the legal guidelines that we move,” Paxton mentioned. “We have to be cognizant shifting ahead.”

Journey, Recreation and Wildlife

The committee that oversees recreation in Wyoming is focusing first this interim on avenues for increasing public trails and pathways. Doing so, some hope, would enhance tourism in locations corresponding to Cheyenne and Casper.

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The ever-controversial Sinks Canyon by way of ferrata — Italian for “iron street” or “iron manner” — got here up as nicely, however the climbing challenge is in the end not on the committee’s interim matter record. No members voted in favor of it, mentioned Sen. Affie Ellis, R-Cheyenne, the committee’s chairwoman.

A by way of ferrata can come in numerous varieties, but it surely’s meant to aide climbers by way of metal rungs within the rock face. Proponents view the by way of ferrata as an financial alternative with a small footprint that received’t danger the park’s ecology, whereas opponents argue it’s perilous for wildlife.

Whereas committee lawmakers don’t seem to have a lot enthusiasm, some within the public do.

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“It’s a major situation,” mentioned Case, who represents Lander, which is simply minutes away from Sinks Canyon. “In my group, persons are very indignant about this.”

Appropriations

The Appropriations Committee is coming off a giant interim and funds session, as members needed to assemble and move two vital budgets: the principle funds, which is reworked each different yr, and a funds to allocate federal funds the state was awarded via the American Rescue Plan Act.

The budgets included pay raises for state employees, which was certainly one of Gov. Mark Gordon’s high priorities this previous session as he sought to deal with recruitment and retention challenges. For the 2022 interim, the committee’s high precedence is monitoring the distribution of those raises.

Minerals, Enterprise and Financial Growth

The Minerals Committee’s No. 1 precedence is a broad one: “power points.”

The Committee plans to listen to from the Oil and Gasoline Conservation Fee on the implementation of latest legal guidelines and laws pertaining to drilling and spacing models. Members will even discover acquiring agreement-state standing from the USA Nuclear Regulatory Fee for regulating sourced supplies and thorium. And at last, lawmakers will look at the event of hydrogen as an power supply in Wyoming.

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Persevering with its work from final interim, the committee will discover carbon-sequestration points, together with points with carbon dioxide storage.

Labor, Well being and Social Companies

In Cheyenne Rep. Sue Wilson’s 12 years within the Legislature, the well being committee has not examined maternal well being in Wyoming. That’s going to alter this interim, because it’s the committee’s first precedence.

This matter is partly related to the Judiciary Committee’s work on substance use throughout being pregnant. In the course of the 2022 funds session, lawmakers realized that there’s a extreme lack of knowledge surrounding what number of infants are born to moms who use medication.

The committee will even examine the “advantages of extending postpartum Medicaid protection for extra months.”

In Wyoming, pregnant ladies are a few of the few who qualify for the federal program.

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Tribal Relations

The Choose Committee on Tribal Relations will look at whether or not the state’s tribal members could possibly be exempt from on-line gross sales taxes. Members are already exempt from gross sales tax on in-person purchases on the reservation, and certain needs to be exempt from on-line purchases underneath current regulation.

The U.S. Supreme Court docket has already dominated on sale tax exemptions for tribal members, however these choices occurred earlier than the existence of on-line retail. That is the primary time lawmakers will significantly discover the problem, mentioned Ellis, chairwoman of the Tribal Relations Committee and member of the Navajo Nation.

Whereas tribal members are exempt from paying gross sales tax on in-person purchases on the reservation, it’s not an ideal course of.

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The regulation “actually places the burden on the retailer to take a look at the client and determine whether or not they’re Indian or non-Indian and resolve whether or not or to not gather the tax,” she informed the Administration Council.

“So after we add on-line gross sales that will get difficult,” she mentioned.





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Wyoming

100 years ago, Wyoming swore in nation’s first elected female governor. This is her story.

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100 years ago, Wyoming swore in nation’s first elected female governor. This is her story.


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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.

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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.

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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.



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Should Wyoming loan or give out wildfire recovery funds? Legislature and Gov. Gordon don't agree. – WyoFile

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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. 

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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. 

Gov. Mark Gordon received a briefing on the Pleasant Valley Fire on Aug. 2, 2024. (Courtesy Governor’s Office)

“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.”

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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. 

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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.

The House Draw Fire charred about 175,000 acres in northern Wyoming. (Chris Kirol)

“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. 

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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. 

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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.

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Wyoming lawmakers bring two grizzly bills as future of federal protection grows murky – WyoFile

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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.    

Tracks are left behind by grizzly 399’s subadults in the snow on Signal Mountain. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)

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.

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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, at the Wyoming Legislature’s 2025 general session in Cheyenne. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile)

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.” 

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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.” 

Sen. Larry Hicks, R-Baggs, at the Wyoming Legislature’s 2023 general session in Cheyenne. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)

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. 

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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. 

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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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