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Wyoming Wildlife Natural Resource Trust leaders brief TRW committee on funding, leverage and endowment proposal
Summary
Members of the Wyoming Wildlife Natural Resource Trust (WWNRT) introduced the board, summarized the trust’s portfolio and said the fund is just over $200 million and leverages roughly $5 for every $1 it spends. Board members described a proposed endowment model to stabilize future spending.
The Wyoming Wildlife Natural Resource Trust Fund board introduced itself to the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife & Cultural Resources Committee, describing the agency as a nine‑member working board that has funded more than 1,200 conservation projects across the state.
"We have a 9 member board that actually is a working board and the entire staff of the WWNRT is here as well, myself and Hillary Wasserburger, who is our grants manager," board speaker Bob Budd told the committee at 00:01:16.
The board said the fund surpassed an early goal of $200 million and currently sits in the roughly $200 million range: "we're just a little over 200,000,000 ... I think, 2 0 5 ballpark," Budd said at 00:04:00. He also described the trust’s leverage: for every dollar the trust contributes, projects bring roughly five dollars in additional funding from partners, including nonprofits and private landowners.
The trust described a proposed statutory change that would convert part of the corpus to an endowment model with a 4 percent spending policy; under that proposal, excess earnings would revert to corpus principal to protect the trust against inflation and maintain funding into the future. "There is a bill working its way through the system that will create an endowment model for the trust that will put a 4% spending policy and then any excess would revert back into the corpus the trust so that we're hoping to inflation proof it," Budd said at 00:03:50.
Committee members encouraged colleagues to attend the trust’s field visits and review grant activity in their districts. Representatives asked for clarification on trust size and leveraging; Budd answered that the trust has reached the $200 million goal set in earlier decades, is just over that mark now, and has historically leveraged as much as 6.5 to 1, but currently averages about 5 to 1.
The session was informational; no committee action was taken on the presentation.
