GREEN RIVER - Wyoming's Game and Fish Commission will consider appeals from 10 western Wyoming ranchers operating in the Upper Green River area who are seeking approximately $35,000 in compensation for cattle and sheep losses attributed to grizzly bears.

The commission will begin hearing the appeals at 10:40 a.m. when it meets Monday in Casper.

The Upper Green River Valley Cattlemen's Association ranchers will ask the commission to reconsider the compensation being offered by the Game and Fish Department for cattle and sheep losses attributed to grizzly bears.

The ranchers asked the department for a total of $34,500 as reimbursement for cows killed by grizzly bears in the Upper Green River grazing allotments near Pinedale in Sublette County, and for sheep killed by grizzly and black bears on grazing allotments within the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

The claims were submitted last fall and the department, after investigations, decided to disallow three of the claims and to pay just $5,500 in total compensation for the other claims.

The commission will also consider appeals from two Kaycee ranchers who are objecting to the compensation offered by the department for sheep killed by mountain lions in Johnson County.

Under Wyoming state law, the commission is required to compensate people who suffer property losses to wildlife categorized as "trophy game" or big game animals.

Grizzly bears in Wyoming are classified as trophy game, but are currently protected under provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Association members have long complained that the agency doesn't pay enough compensation for livestock killed by endangered species such as grizzly bears. Ranchers say they are shouldering the burden of federal management of the grizzly bear in Wyoming with little or no compensation from the state.

The commission has been seeking for years a fairer and more equitable way to pay for damage claims that will satisfy both the agricultural community and the sportsmen who basically foot the bill.

Since 1999, the Game and Fish has been using an unofficial formula to determine compensation while the regulations concerning damage claims have been under review.

The formula pays 167 percent of the value of every calf or lamb confirmed killed by grizzly bears. The extra 67 percent is designed to make up for deaths that cannot be conclusively tied to bears.

In September, the commission got a first look at the department's draft overhaul of the damage claim regulations. The draft rules called for continued use of the 167 percent factor.

The agency had hoped to take the new rules out for public comment, but commissioners decided to table the move until legal issues regarding whether or not the Legislature alone has the power to alter the payment formula is worked out.

In late 1999, Riverton rancher Dan Ingalls submitted a damage claim totaling $908,000 for various calves and cows killed by bears. But his claim also included requests for an estimated loss of lifetime production and income and for lost future sales of bull semen.

The commission immediately rejected the lost production claims, however, because state law does not allow consideration of claims based upon loss of lifetime production and income.