Wyoming lawmakers heard an update Aug. 29 from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department on proposed changes to the states landowner hunting license rules, and moved to have Legislative Services Office draft bills to address the policy debate.

Director Angie Bruce told members of the Legislatures Agriculture, State and Public Lands & Water Resources Committee that after months of public meetings the Game and Fish Commission withdrew three of its most controversial proposals and accepted only narrower changes.

"We recommended not going forward with three of the items that they proposed," Bruce said, summarizing the commissions decision after a full-day meeting and wide public comment.

Why it matters: landowner licenses affect how many limited-quota elk, deer and pronghorn tags end up with private landowners rather than the public draw. Lawmakers and hunting groups say the issue has grown more contentious as land sales, corporate ownership structures and high demand for limited tags have put pressure on Wyomings allocation rules.

What the department reported
- The department and commission will leave the basic acreage and animal-use rules in place: landowner qualification remains at 160 contiguous acres for the forms discussed at the July meeting, and the department removed the proposal to raise animal-use days from 2,000 to 3,000.
- The commission accepted two modest changes: it expanded the definition of "immediate family" to include stepparents and stepchildren, and it added a requirement that the department review and verify landowner license qualifications at least once every five years.

"They changed the definition of immediate family member to be expanded to include step parents and step children," Bruce said.

Chief Game Warden Dan Smith described the public outreach that preceded the commissions decision: eight regional meetings, about 150 attendees at the central commission hearing and 380 written comments overall. "Of those comments, 266, or 70 percent, were opposed to those recommendations," Smith said, adding that only 9 percent of comments were in favor.

Points of contention
Lawmakers and stakeholders focused on three recurring concerns:
- Transferability and corporate structures. Several committee members and witnesses said people were buying small corporate interests or subdividing parcels to obtain landowner tags. Smith said the commission considered a proposed 20 percent ownership threshold (up from 1 percent) but backed away because in some family corporations no owner held 20 percent.
- Grandfathering 160-acre holdings. Some lawmakers urged grandfathering existing 160-acre qualifying parcels if new rules were adopted; others worried grandfathering would preserve perceived unfair allocations.
- Caps and fairness in limited-quota areas. Lawmakers and sportsmen cited hunt areas where a majority or all limited quota tags had been allocated to landowners in recent years. Commissioner David Bell told the committee the task force and commission had repeatedly returned to a cap as a potential tool: "The cap continued to come up as the best solution," he said, describing the idea as a way to ensure hunters who enter the public draw still have a reasonable chance.

"The landowner transfer tags is not off the table, but we are trying to have discussions with all of the stakeholders," Senator Patrick Pearson said during committee discussion.

Lawmakersresponse and next steps
After extended discussion the committee directed LSO to prepare two bill drafts for the groups next meeting: one narrowly to allow the Game and Fish Commission to limit (cap) the number of landowner hunting licenses issued in a limited-quota hunt area, and a second bill to consider transferability, eligibility criteria and other related changes. Committee members agreed to return with drafts they could formally work.

The committee recorded the intention to draft legislation but did not adopt final statutory language at the meeting. Several lawmakers said they want stakeholder conversations to continue before any bill is finalized.

Background and numbers
The department highlighted the long history of landowner license regulation and extensive recent public engagement. Officials said the Game and Fish Commission spent a day on the topic in July and heard from roughly 25 landowners and constituents during the public hearing; the department said it would begin re-evaluation of existing licensed properties within two to three years and had committed to reevaluate all landowner-qualified properties within five years.

Ending
Lawmakers left the meeting with a directive to LSO and a clear signal that both the commission and the Legislature will continue working on rules that balance landowner interests, habitat incentives and access for public hunters. The committee scheduled further deliberations once bill drafts are available.