Wyoming
Wyoming’s Urban Badgers Follow Prairie Dogs Into Towns
Wyomingites are used to wild animals of all sorts wandering into their towns, and are generally tolerant of it. But when badgers start showing up on the streets, most folks draw the line.
“People don’t like them, which is understandable, because badgers have that reputation for being mean,” critter catcher Jerry Lewis of Casper told Cowboy State Daily.
“People just get nervous about badgers. It’s kind of like with bats, people get really nervous about bats, too,” added Lewis, who owns RKR Nuisance Wildlife Control.
But after catching a couple of these furry tanks in Casper, Lewis said he thinks badgers don’t really deserve their bad reputation.
“In my opinion, a badger is as mean as you make it. A badger would just as soon run as be messed with,” he said.
Just don’t corner one, Lewis warned.
“Once they’re cornered, they’ll lay flat, and they’re just nothing but teeth and claws after that,” he said.
Rawlins Rocking With Badgers
Rawlins has had some urban badgers hanging out around town for several years now.
On social media chatter boards, residents will occasionally post news of sightings, along with warnings for people to watch out for their dogs, cats and kids — in case of badger aggression.
Even so, resident Alana Engel said she doesn’t mind the badgers, which are big, burrowing members of the weasel family.
Engel said she’s aware of at least a couple of badgers that have taken up residence in a subdivision near the edge of town.
As far as she’s concerned, the badgers are doing a public service by trimming down the prairie dog population.
“It’s in an area right where you’d expect to see a badger,” she said. “I walk my dog up there, and I’ve seen badgers up there once in a while.”
While others seem worried about the badgers, Engel said she and her dog have never had a run-in with them, only encountering them at a distance.
“There’s not any drama. If you leave them alone, they leave you alone,” she said. “There’s lots of prairie dogs for them to eat, so they’re getting enough food, they’re getting enough water.”
Caught Snoozing
Lewis said one badger he caught in Casper “was really mellow.”
Some residents called him after they found a badger fast asleep in a tiny passageway between a shed and a fence.
It was an easy job, Lewis said. He just set a trap at one end, poked the badger with a pole to wake it up, and “he ran right into the trap, because he had nowhere else to go.”
Lewis doesn’t kill the animals he traps. He has a “catch-and-release” policy.
So he took the badger a long way out of Casper to the edge of a prairie dog town and set it loose. He figured that it would be way too busy hunting and gobbling down prairie dogs to amble back toward Casper.
Another badger he caught was a bit more cantankerous.
When they feel threatened, badgers might try to escape by digging. And that’s just want this badger had done, trying to work its way under a privacy wall between two properties.
“When I got there, his butt was still out of the hole. So I hit him in the butt with my catch pole, and he turned around and hissed at me, and I was able to get the catch loop around him,” Lewis said.
“You’ve got to get that loop all the way over their front legs,” he added.
As with the other badger, Lewis took the irritated critter out to the prairie dog town and set it loose.
‘I Get Stuck With The Fricken’ Skunks’
While badgers haven’t been active in Casper this year, “It’s been bumper year for racoons,” Lewis said.
“I don’t know why. Apparently, nothing has been killing them, and they’ve been having a lot of babies,” he said. “I’ve been pickup up whole family groups. They’ve been getting into people’s yards, tearing things up, tipping over bird baths. Just acting like brats.”
He’s been critter catching part-time since 2012, and hopes to eventually retire from his day job so he can go full-time in the nuisance wildlife business.
It’s a specialized skill, to the best of his knowledge, Lewis said, and there’s only one other certified critter catcher in Wyoming.
It’s an important niche between city animal control and Game and Fish wildlife control, he added.
“Metro can’t deal with wild animals any more, for the most part,” he said. “And Game and Fish will only deal with the big animals,” he said. “They get the mountain lions and the bears, and I get stuck with the fricken’ skunks.”
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
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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