Appropriations committee advances $16 million for large-scale wildlife habitat and invasive-grass projects in Senate File 88

The House Appropriations Committee voted to pass Senate File 88 after hearing a summary from Director Budd on a portfolio of landscape-scale wildlife habitat and invasive-grass projects that the director said require legislative approval.

Director Budd summarized the projects and the funding source during the committee meeting, saying, “We are required by law that if a project gets over $400,000 from the board that it be come back for approval by the legislature.” He described work on invasive annual grasses, conifer encroachment removal, erosion control, fence modifications, and native grassland treatments that span multiple landowners and agencies.

The projects described include work in Thunder Basin and the Bags Valley Headwaters focused on sage grouse and mule deer; the Kemmer 189 migration project to install highway fencing near Evanston to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions; a Wind Riverfront cheatgrass project involving tribal, Bureau of Indian Affairs, BLM, Forest Service and county partners; a Shirley/Seminole habitat project; coordinated invasive-grass efforts in northeast Wyoming counties (Sheridan, Johnson, Campbell and Crook); a western Wyoming cheatgrass effort focused on Lincoln County; an Upper Green fence project to preserve mule deer migration routes; a Wapiti Habitat river restoration on the Shoshone River in Park County; and a Natrona–Carbon County cheatgrass and sage-grouse habitat effort. Director Budd also told the committee these are “not general funds” but funds “in the account for this purpose” and that some of the appropriation comes from prior allocations and earnings on the trust corpus.

Committee members asked several fiscal and program questions. Representative Pendergraft asked about “leverage” figures on the slides; Director Budd defined leverage as “how much external funding we get for every dollar we spend” and said the statewide average in the materials is about $5.50 of external funding per state dollar, while specific projects (for example, Thunder Basin) have lower leverage (about $2.52 of external funding per state dollar). Budd said the package of projects the board reviewed this year included roughly 70–77 proposals, most of which were paid from the dedicated fund.

On funding sources, Director Budd said of the $16 million appropriation under consideration, “about 14 [million] probably is coming from previous allocations,” and he described $6 million of the total as intended for wildlife crossings. The committee briefly reviewed the fiscal note and, with no public testimony, moved to a roll-call vote.

The clerk recorded a roll-call vote on Senate File 88: Representatives Aleman, Angelos, Heralson, Pendergraft, Sherwood, Smith and Chairman Bair voted “aye.” The motion to report the bill as do pass carried by a 7–0 recorded vote; the committee directed that the bill be floor-managed by TRW.

Why it matters: The projects in the bill target large, cross-jurisdictional landscape work for species including mule deer, sage grouse, antelope and Yellowstone cutthroat trout, and they rely on trust earnings and prior appropriations rather than the state's general fund. The committee’s approval advances multiple conservation treatments and infrastructure projects to the next step in the legislative process.

Committee action and next steps: The committee voted to report Senate File 88 do pass. The bill will be managed on the floor by TRW, per the committee statement.

Votes at a glance: Senate File 88 — Motion: report do pass; Mover: Representative Haralson; Second: Representative Smith; Roll call: Aleman (Aye), Angelos (Aye), Heralson (Aye), Pendergraft (Aye), Sherwood (Aye), Smith (Aye), Chairman Bair (Aye); Outcome: Do pass (committee will floor-manage).