Angi Bruce’s stint working in a newly created policy job with Gov. Mark Gordon’s team is shaping up to last only a matter of weeks.

The former Wyoming Game and Fish Department director abruptly resigned Aug. 7 and “effective immediately” took a job with the governor’s office as the newly created director of special policy initiatives. Her departure from the state wildlife agency followed a controversial two-year tenure. There are indications the resignation was involuntary: When she left, Bruce had a calendar filled with upcoming Game and Fish duties, and she took a significant pay cut, according to public records acquired by WyoFile.

Now, Bruce is on the professional move again. On Thursday, Western Landowners Alliance announced that the nonprofit had hired the Game and Fish’s first-ever female director as its chief programs and policy officer, and that she starts in late September. 

“I have had the opportunity to collaborate with Angi over the past decade,” Western Landowners Alliance CEO Lesli Allison said in a statement. “She is a big-picture thinker who also understands the politics and practical realities of getting things done on the ground.”

Bruce will oversee the alliance’s work on sustaining working lands, connected landscapes and native species in the new role. In a statement, she said her new employer is giving her the opportunity to combine her “two loves,” which are “landowners and wildlife.” 

“Growing up on a farm, I learned early on the land ethic of landowners and how valuable their contributions are to maintaining healthy wildlife populations and connected landscapes,” Bruce said.

Western Landowners Alliance, which lists a Denver address and was formed in the early 2010s, has a mission statement that seeks to advance policies and practices that “sustain working lands, connected landscapes and native species.” 

“WLA provides a collective voice, a peer network and a shared knowledge base for landowners striving to keep the land whole and healthy,” the organization’s website states. 

Well-known Wyoming resident Bob Budd, who directs the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, sits on the group’s board.  

WyoFile reached out to Allison and Bruce for this story, but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Mike Koshmrl reports on Wyoming's wildlife and natural resources. Prior to joining WyoFile, he spent nearly a decade covering the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem’s wild places and creatures for the Jackson...

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  1. So glad to see she got some more money from the state with the “new” position that was specifically created just for her. WOW. Hope the new director actually cares about wildlife.

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  2. Angie Bruce says her two loves are “landowners and wildlife.” She’s demonstrated that she puts landowners first and wildlife second. Bruce demonstrated that during a Wyoming Game and Fish Commission meeting in Lander when the Commission met to consider forwarding a recommendation to the Governor to officially establish the Sublette Pronghorn Migration Corridor. At the onset of that meeting Bruce immediately expressed her support for Jim Magagna’s request that two important migration corridor segments be eliminated from the proposal. Magagna owns lands within two of the pronghorn migration corridors, “Red Desert” and “East of Farson”. During that commission meeting, not once did Bruce defend the inclusion of the “Red Desert” and “East of Farson” migration corridor segments. The Commissioners overwhelmingly disagreed with her and included all segments in their recommendations to the Governor. I wish her well with her new job in Colorado.

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  4. Angie Bruce says her two loves are “landowners and wildlife.” She’s definitely demonstrated that she puts landowners first and wildlife second. Bruce demonstrated that during the Commission meeting in Lander when the Commission met to consider forwarding a recommendation to the Governor to officially establish the Sublette Pronghorn Migration Corridor. Angie Bruce showed up at that meeting and immediately expressed her total support for Jim Magana’s request that two important migration corridor segments be totally eliminated from the proposal. Bruce demonstrated without a doubt that she was a sell-out to landowners as she not once defended the inclusion of the “Red Desert” and “East of Farson” segments. The Commissioners overwhelmingly disagreed with her and included all segments in their recommendations to the Governor. I’m happy to hear that she’s moving on. She’s done enough damage to wildlife in Wyoming.

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  5. Angi was ineffective, should of never been placed into the director position. upper management of Game & Fish has been a clown show for quite a while now, time to clean house and re-calibrate the mission of this organization from a large landowner advocacy and closet outfitter supporter back to its roots, serving the people and wildlife of this state.

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