Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust marks 20 years, details fire-response funding and treatment urgency

Bob Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, told the Select Natural Resource Funding Committee on July 30 that the trust is marking its 20th anniversary and has placed about $1 billion worth of conservation work on the ground in Wyoming since it began.

The trust’s work leverages other funding, Budd said: the state’s roughly $150 million contribution has been matched at roughly five- to six-to-one by landowners, local conservation districts and federal partners. “In the last 20 years, we have now reached a point where we've placed a billion dollars worth of conservation on the ground in Wyoming,” Budd said.

Why it matters: Budd and board chairman Steve Meadows told the committee the trust now evaluates projects at a landscape scale rather than as isolated, single repairs. That larger scale matters for wildlife, grazing and tourism, and it changes how the trust prioritizes and manages…