Senate Appropriations Committee meets new State Lands director Stacia Berry

Stacia Berry, the state lands director, introduced herself to the Senate Appropriations Committee and described her background in agriculture, law and state government, saying she intends to focus the office on “customer service, collaboration, and common sense.”

Berry told the committee she is a fourth-generation Wyomingite, raised on a family ranch that raises registered horned Hereford cattle and that she benefited from career and technical education and FFA; she said those experiences shaped her public-facing approach. “I got to serve as national FFA secretary, which took me in one year to 40 different states, Japan, Puerto Rico, and Mexico,” Berry said, describing early public-speaking experience that has informed her work.

Berry said she earned degrees at the University of Wyoming and attended Colorado State University before returning to the University of Wyoming College of Law. She described a legal career focused on water and natural resources with attorneys Harriet Hageman and Kira Bridal and said she later served seven years as deputy director at the Wyoming Department of Agriculture, supervising division supervisors across roughly an 80-person agency. “I’ve been able to see how state agencies work both from the outside and from the inside,” she said, adding that the perspective helps her “bring balance to some of the work” at State Lands.

She told senators she continues private-practice work at the Cook Law Firm doing civil litigation, natural-resources and water work, and estate planning. Berry said projects she worked on at Agriculture included the hemp program and an ARPA-funded Wyoming meat processing expansion grant.

On priorities for the State Lands and Investments board and office, Berry summarized three aims: better customer service to make the office more welcoming to people who interface with it; collaboration across the Legislature, the governor’s office and the State Lands and Investment Board; and a practical, common-sense approach to decisions. “My hope…is that I can help create a welcoming atmosphere for those that want to interface with the office to open lines of communication,” she said.

Committee members welcomed Berry’s background in agriculture and legal training and encouraged her to examine existing oil-and-gas and other leasing rules where members believe some regulations may be “antiquated” or in need of modernization. Berry said she was open to reviewing leases and rules when stakeholders raise concerns.

The committee concluded the introduction by inviting ongoing communication between the director’s office and legislators.