Trustees review major revisions to parks rules, including bow‑fishing exemption, firearms buffer and penalty framework

Natrona County Parks Board of Trustees members spent the bulk of a meeting reviewing proposed amendments to the county parks rules and regulations, focusing on exceptions for bow fishing, the definition and enforcement of buffer distances for projectile use, penalties for abandoned property and the practical limits of enforcement given current staffing.

The board discussed a change to section 13 to explicitly allow bow fishing and spear fishing “where and when permitted by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department,” and to add an exclusion that would permit bow fishing beyond a shorter buffer distance around developed public‑use facilities. Parks Director Michael Brown said the draft aims to “adopt what [Game and Fish] regulate and reformulate” to avoid internal contradiction between sections that both prohibit and allow bow fishing. Brown added the department would rely on Game and Fish distances unless the board decides a different yardage applies.

Trustees pressed over the right buffer size. One trustee recommended keeping the 400‑yard buffer used elsewhere for firearms but allowing a smaller buffer…