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Committee reviews broader 'nonresident native' license draft; no action taken
Summary
Draft 26LSO0117 would allow nonresidents with Wyoming birth or parental ties to purchase reduced-price licenses; Game and Fish warned the draft could reduce resident opportunities and complicate licensing. The committee took no action.
The committee considered bill draft 26LSO0117, which would allow certain nonresidents who were born in Wyoming or had Wyoming-resident parents at birth to obtain reduced-price hunting licenses that the draft states would not count against nonresident license totals but could be subject to quotas.
LSO staff said the bill is similar in concept to the "come home" proposal but broader: it would apply potentially to all big-game animals and game birds and allow commission rulemaking on quotas, seasons and transport/export provisions. Dan Smith and department staff told members that because the draft does not draw from nonresident quotas it could instead reduce resident opportunities, complicate draws, and require license-accounting changes. The department described the revenue and IT consequences as hard to model, and provided illustrative numbers for certain species groups.
Public comment noted concern the draft would take licenses from resident pools and called for careful evaluation. The committee did not move the bill at the meeting.
Key outstanding issues included whether the draft should be limited in species scope (for example, to general-season deer and elk), whether a numeric or percentage limit should be placed in statute or left to commission rulemaking, and how preference points and draw pools would be managed.
What’s next: No action was taken; committee staff and members indicated there is interest in more analysis and in limiting the initial concept to simpler general-license categories before further consideration.
