BRODIE FARQUHAR Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Tuesday, October 7, 2003 12:00 am
Wyoming took a step Monday toward creating four pilot programs that would pay ranchers and farmers for "extraordinary" wildlife consumption of grass on their property.
Extraordinary damage is already defined in law as consumption or use of grass in excess of normal consumption by wildlife that took place two years prior to the damage claim.
The state's Legislative Service Office has been asked to review rules and regulations to see whether four regional pilot programs can be established for a temporary period to compensate agricultural producers.
The interim subcommittee of the Joint Agriculture, Public Lands and Water Resources and Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committees made that recommendation Monday morning during a meeting at the Oil & Gas Conservation Commission building in Casper.
Experts within the Legislative Service Office will determine whether the pilot programs can be run by the Game and Fish Department with current statutory authority or whether special legislation is needed. The committee said the Legislature should appropriate $100,000 for the pilot programs, a huge cut from the $3 million earlier suggested to finance them.
The interim subcommittee, headed by Rep. Mike Baker, R-Thermopolis, heard a presentation by Tom Bales, a co-chairman of the Wapiti Ridge Coordinated Resource Management (CRM) Group from the Cody area.
Bales proposed a pilot program that would:
- Modify the existing Game and Fish Department's "Private Lands, Public Wildlife" (PLPW) hunter management program to include compensation for providing habitat and forage by the acre.
- Count wildlife numbers and duration on native livestock forage, using existing damage regulations, process and methods.
- Measure wildlife utilization on native livestock forage.
- Establish a wildlife stewardship agreement with participating landowners in which the landowner leases native grass, crops and habitat for wildlife benefits.
Legislators acknowledged concerns raised by Casper's former state representative Dick Sadler, who blasted the proposal. Sadler said sportsmen wouldn't stand for another expensive program funded by hunting and fishing licenses. Sen. Bill Vasey, D-Rawlins, agreed that sportsmen shouldn't have to pay for wildlife damage compensation, and that it should be funded separately.
No one was able to provide an accurate estimate of the cost of pilot programs operating for three to five years and in up to four or five places around the state. Vasey hazarded a guess that it might cost $3 million. The subcommittee ultimately dropped the suggested appropriation to $100,000.
Sen. Keith Goodenough, D-Casper, asked whether the problem was serious enough to justify special legislation or pilot programs. Goodenough noted that other than anecdotal stories from a handful of Park County ranchers, there is no statewide data to indicate whether extraordinary damage by wildlife is a statewide problem.
"The ball is rolling," Goodenough said, thanks to anecdotal stories that some ranchers are on the verge of going out of business due to extraordinary wildlife consumption of forage, and that compensation would save some ranchers and be good for wildlife as well.
"Where's the proof of the problem?" he asked, adding that more data rather than anecdotes was needed.
Ken Hamilton, a lobbyist for the Wyoming Farm Bureau, asked the interim subcommittee to stay focused on compensation for wildlife damage and not be diverted by other topics, such as open space.
Yet there are opportunities to link compensation for wildlife damage to other issues, said Goodenough and Kathy Purvis, spokeswoman for Wyoming Wildlife Federation. Goodenough recommended some sort of financial means test, so that absentee "gazillionaire" ranchers wouldn't qualify for wildlife damage compensation. Purvis urged legislators to consider access for hunters as a trade-off for participation in a pilot program, though she acknowledged it would have to be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.