9-MILE LAKE—Initially, Jay Benson was OK with the idea of taking out some white pelicans to protect the Alco Rod and Gun Club’s pricy stock of put-and-take trout.
Often during the summer, he said, a few dozen of the hefty native piscivorous birds rafted out on the club’s exclusive 9-Mile Lake outside of Laramie to take advantage of the easy salmonid meals. Targeting a few pelicans seemed “reasonable.” He’s on the club’s governing board, and he even voted to sponsor a federal permit allowing the club to kill some of the birds, which are ordinarily protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
But attitudes took a turn after watching pelicans get chased around and shot up, one week after another.
“This is a neighborhood, and we know there’s a lot of people — ourselves included — that get tired of all the shooting,” Benson said from his kitchen in mid-September.
Spread across Benson’s kitchen table were three sheets of paper detailing the pelican hunting and killing. Generated by Pam Benson, Jay’s wife, the log described who was there, how many rounds were fired and how many pelicans were killed or crippled. It only documented the occasions she witnessed first-hand.
“It’s 6 in the morning until 9 at night,” Pam Benson said, “and sometimes it’s multiple times a day.“
Many of the residents whose properties circle 9-Mile Lake are largely on the same page, tired of the pelican-killing activities. Others are supportive of the Alco Rod and Gun Club’s efforts to protect the stocked rainbow, brown and golden trout that inhabit the manmade lake on the Laramie Plains — a water-filled former rock quarry once mined for glassmaking. High on the list of supporters are the men whose names appear on the federal permit, authorizing them to kill pelicans.
“I’m the president of the club and I feel I have a fiduciary responsibility to the members, first and foremost,” Mark Rozman said from his home.
Every four years, he said, the club spends around $100,000 on hatchery-raised fish — and the pelicans have earned his ire by damaging the carefully curated fishery.
“They eat fish,” Rozman said. “I like fish.”
Neighborly divide
Judging by neighborhood talk, it’s clear that relations have taken a toxic turn. Rozman described the pro-pelican crowd as “crybabies,” contending they’ve called the sheriff on him “10 or 15 times.” Neighbors have filed for restraining orders against the gun club president. Surreptitious monitoring of each other has become the norm.
Longtime 9-Mile Lake resident Tom Bustinduy lamented the change: “It’s not the family-oriented, friendly lake that it used to be,” he said.
Rozman said that he’s willing to talk it out, but that neighbors won’t come to the table.
“Because they don’t like the truth,” Rozman said. “They want to paint their own picture: ‘There’s a little pretty pelican sitting on my fence post kind of thing.’”
Rozman has come to view the flocks of migratory pelicans as a savvy, hard-to-kill seasonal scourge that have ruined the fishing and menaced other species, even ridding 9-Mile Lake of its entire population of goslings because they’re so voracious. Pelican numbers have exploded, he said.
Hazing and hunting pelicans isn’t easy, said Pete Kontaxes, a fellow gun club member who helps Rozman with shotgunning the big birds.
“We’ve got them trained so well now that if they see a white truck, they go paddling out into the middle,” Kontaxes said. “Past 40 yards, you can shoot them all you want — BBs will bounce off of them.”
Jay Benson sees it differently. Some birds that get hit, he said, are sustaining injuries and even slowly dying.
“Several times we’ve seen them wound birds,” he said. “Sorry for the description, but they’re flopping while going down the lake.”
It’s unclear how common nuisance pelican killing is in Wyoming. Alco Rod and Gun Club’s permit, which allows up to 30 pelicans to be killed, was approved by the Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional migratory bird permit office. WyoFile requested but did not obtain records from the office before this story was published.
In 2017, pelicans were identified as a “species of greatest conservation need” by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department because their breeding range in the state is limited and little is known about their population. Historically, there have been two larger breeding colonies in Wyoming, one at Yellowstone Lake and another at Pathfinder Reservoir. Although classified as “uncommon,” numbers are on the upswing according to the most recent account of the species in Wyoming.
Uncommon, but increasing
Pelican numbers have been increasing and new breeding colonies have been documented — and continue to be found in the state, biologists wrote. But counts of fledged birds and the sizes of the new Wyoming colonies are unknown.
In other parts of the United States, pelicans have been considered problematic for commercial fisheries. According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture technical report, they’re “perceived as nuisance wildlife by aquaculturists and sport fishermen because of their predation of farmed fish or sport fish prized by anglers.”
Pelicans have keyed in on catfish farms in the deep south and affected native cutthroat trout and other recreational fisheries in southern Idaho, where adult nesting birds have “increased dramatically,” according to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s pelican management plan. That plan established population objectives for colonies at Blackfoot Reservoir and the Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge — and it calls for some lethal actions, among other strategies, to achieve those goals.
Although they can be a nuisance, pelicans are among the largest birds in North America, they’re visually striking and even awe-inspiring.
“The first time I saw pelicans, I just stopped my car,” said Laramie resident Donal O’Toole. “I couldn’t believe I was actually seeing pelicans.”
It’s not a species the Ireland-raised veterinarian associates with North America, let alone the Laramie Plains. O’Toole has paid attention to the 9-Mile Lake pelican dispute, and his sense is that there could be a more forgiving response to managing the damage caused by the big birds.
“Just going out and killing them does not seem like a good solution,” he said.
The Alco Rod and Gun Club’s permit does require that Rozman and Kontaxes exhaust their other options.
“Lethal take is not to be the primary means of control,” the permit states. “Active hazing, harassment and other non-lethal techniques must continue in conjunction…”
Pam Benson acquired the permit via a Freedom of Information Act request and shared it with WyoFile. The club president, she said, was unwilling to share it voluntarily — or disclose how many birds he could, or has, killed.
Rozman declined to share the tally of pelicans he and Kontaxes have killed with WyoFile. The reason he cited is that relations have soured so significantly, and that neighbors would use the numbers to micromanage his operations — and they’d “cry about it, too.”
“Game management is an adults-only activity,” he said.
Last March I happened by 9 Mile Lake and had the good fortune to see 12+ mature and juvenile Bald Eagles perched on the newly melting ice “fishing”. I personally had no idea that the lake was artificially stocked and was fascinated by the adults teaching their young how to fish. This group of eagles remained on 9 mile lake for days until the ice was gone. Were these protected species hazed or threatened? I think we should know. This lake is has created a stop for all manner of avians and other creatures I am sure. This needs to stop. How can fishing just feet from the highway be enjoyable or considered sporting. This needs to stop.
The story talks about how the pelicans allegedly consume goslings. But it does not comment on how The Shootist was shooting into the geese, majorly upsetting them and not allowing them to produce hatchlings. I was watching, so this is first hand knowledge. He does not care about spooking the neighbors livestock at all. He does not care if he wounds the birds. I was told by Game and Fish that the waters belong to the public, as does the birds using those waters. It makes no mention of all the other shorebirds, wading birds and waterfowl that he has managed to get rid of from the lake. This was a great lake for bird watching before this activity started happening. They turned 9 Mile Lake into a private slaughterhouse shooting gallery. That is totally not right. It has greatly decreased the value of my property. He should have to pay for that decrease! Also for the several veterans living in this community, the shooting gallery is incredibly difficult for the people with PTSD! He does not care where he shoots from, private land or not. But don’t dare let anyone else get within 10 feet of the lake or they go for trespassing. Totally WRONG! We don’t get to benefit from their stinking fish, but why does this very small group of people get to do anything they want to their own liking, and the rest of us have no say so? Do you know what it is like to love watching and photographing the birds, and then find 5 dead birds on your property over last winter? Pretty horrifying to see the waste. He does not even eat what he kills! The club is the big crybabies about their very expensive, exclusive little fishing club!
Brenda, go kill some more Horses. Have you looked at your home lately? Your property value is YOUR responsibility! PRIVATE PROPERTY LAWS TRUMP YOUR FEELINGS AND LIES! EVERY TIME! BA BYE.
The article in Cowboy State Daily reported that they had killed nearly a hundred. Why if their permit was for 30? Why kill a protected species of migration g birds for just a few people that pay to have access to that pond? All summer I have only seen a small handful of pelicans in the Laramie Plains Lakes, where before I saw lots of pelicans. If they restock their lake with fish that entice pelicans then they should put a huge net up to keep the pelicans away. It makes me sad to think that just a few people can take away the pleasure of bird watchers and also nearly eliminate an entire group of pelicans. Last week I saw one lone pelican none of our lakes. Is he supposed to migrate all by himself? Thanks for reporting this story Wyofile.
What’s next a permit for seagulls? 10/4/24. 8 mile lake stocking small fish. as soon as he fish truck left 8 seagulls started gobbling up the bite size fish.soon 30+ seagulls were on the lake eating one fish after another . I went down to the lake and the seagulls would swim out to the middle of the lake.swimming back to where the fish were stocked as soon as I left .I did this several times.they we’re here for two days. They were stocked to see about winter kill.
I left.
Do they eat what they kill?
Over the years, I’ve shot a lot of elk and pronghorn, and a fair number of waterfowl. And you can count me among the crybabies, as it bothers me that Mr. Rozman and Mr. Kontaxes send wounded birds flapping down the lake, because either they don’t know how to make clean shots, or they don’t care to. That’s not game management, Mr. Rozman. Game management is based on biology, as Amber Travsky understands. Try learning it.
I have fished the Laramie Plains Lake for 50 years. There are fish and all those lakes and there’s some very nice fish in those lakes and there has always been pelicans. For these guys with this private lake to be shooting pelicans is jaw dropping to me it is totally ridiculous. Maybe the gun club should stick to shooting and give up fishing there is no way they should’ve been allowed to shoot a single pelican. Seagulls over there, get fish too, so do hawks and eagles These people are disgusting
First off let me say I’m an avid bird watcher. Second let me say we are blessed in Wyoming to live where we do, and thirdly is it so important to kill a bird that’s only doing what it is driven to do to sustain itself? I have watched pelicans, cormorants, diving ducks, and sea gulls all working together at the same time chasing schools of shad on a lake all at the same time. One time I stopped at Ft. Laramie and walked over the old iron bridge and watched an incredible school of fish below the bridge being herded by a flock of pelicans. I like to catch a fish once in a while just like any other fisherman but sometimes you just have to realize that some birds are better at than you.
Colorado resident here. Pelicans are present on many ponds and reservoirs all summer. Considering the needed consumption to sustain an animal the size of an adult pelican, the number of fish eaten annually undoubtedly has a negative impact on recreational sport fishing. Half jokingly I have said there should be a bounty on the darn things. Realistically, public reaction to any killing of pelicans would be loud and get louder if killing actually happened, even if sanctioned by the regulating agencies. One thing I do not understand is why shotguns are the go to implement. Centerfire rifles would be more effective, and require less shooting.
“Men still live who, in their youth, remember pigeons; trees still live who, in their youth, were shaken by a living wind. But a few decades hence only the oldest oaks will remember, and at long last only the hills will know.”
—Aldo Leopold, “On a Monument to the Pigeon,” 1947
Thank you, Mike, for looking into the issue.
A disagreeable aspect of the episode is the proximity of three of Wyoming’s few national wildlife refuges at this end of the state (Mortenson; Bamforth; Hutton), all of them a few miles from 9-Mile Lake. The incessant killing all summer long acted as a lethal sink for American white pelicans in the Laramie valley. Since pelicans migrate through our area on their way to Utah, Montana and northern Wyoming, including Yellowstone Lake, it likely impacted some of those populations too.
The bag limit issued with this USFWS permit for 2024 was 30 pelicans. According to neighbors, including multiple members of the ALCO rod and gun club, the permit was likely violated by considerably exceeding this limit, as well as by leaving dying birds on the lake. It is extraordinary that multiple complains about likely violations of the terms of the permit were not followed up by the USFWS office in Cheyenne.
There is a flaw in the MBTA permitting process. People with such permits are not required to keep a dated, initialed record of daily kills. That makes it easy for individuals to claim they stopped shooting once they reached their take limit. Requiring such a records – available to law enforcement officers, including from state wildlife agencies and local sheriff’s departments – would help resolve suspicions that individuals violate the terms of their permit.
Donal, too bad you don’t live here, yourself. Then your opinion may matter. How many of the federal wildlife refuges are open to the public? ZERO. But, you know that. Where do you get off accusing me of violating the permit quota? Typical Socialist behaviors, make up lies and keep repeating them ! That’s GENIUS Donal. Do you know how many times USFWS followed up on complaints by lying busybody housewives ? NO, you don’t Donal, there you go guessing again ! Wait til I start shooting Wolves, again! Oh yeah, it’s Goose and Duck season! Time to start blasting! Don’t like the gunfire from the the gun club? TFB. Move back to your Liberal lalaland. Here’s a tissue for your issue. Ask the Sheriff how many false reports they responded to here. I dare you. You may be happier in Colorado where game management is by ballot. Not here in Wyoming. Tuesday is Opening Day for Elk Hunting in my area!! WOOHOO !!
Man made lake, man made problem. Man’s solution, Kill em. Disgusting. And yes, Mr Rozman sounds like a real piece of work.
WYOFILE thank you again and always for exercising our valuable FIRST AMENDMENT!
I truly appreciate you revealing how Democracy demonstrated in this valuable story of interest but yet saddened by the impact this particular demonstration of Democracy is having in their private community and of course this avian. Yet pathetic that funds are the motivation for these actions… I applaud his neighbors for their activism/Spirit (a Republic Spirit) because I love to fish (timing permitting) in these Wyoming Republic’s lakes and streams and Wyoming has plenty but could this be what is happening in our lakes and streams already as well? WYOFILE thank for your coverage and looking forward to follow-up coverage. Semper Fi!
The Alco Rod and Gun Club Is just another member of the “Let’s kill everything in Wyoming” culture. They’re coming for your dogs & cats next.
Thanks for writing this piece. I have been disturbed by the high numbers of pelicans taken under this permit. As a wildlife biologist, I know pelicans can certainly gobble up fish when they are easy pickings. However, white pelicans are not diving birds (like the brown pelican) so only feed on what they can reach under water. Fingerling trout, newly released, probably are an easy meal as they tend to be close to shore and at just the right lake strata for the pelicans to reach. If that stocking is done when the pelicans come through in larger numbers as they migrate through (not all are residents in the valley), it could certainly result in losing quite a few small trout. But as the trout grow and the waters warm in the summer, the fish go too deep to be an easy meal for the pelican. Shooting them in the summer is not doing anything to improve the trout numbers in the lake. Plus, now all that shooting has eliminated pelicans in many of the surrounding lakes and ponds. I go by a small lake regularly that I dub “Pelican Pond” due to the pelicans hanging out there all summer. This year there have been no pelicans there. The desire to shoot and kill pelicans at one lake has a huge ripple effect to the other waters in the area. Pelicans are not the enemy. They certainly take some trout, but also carp, suckers and, likely, quite a few amphibians. In other words, pelicans are just being pelicans and have been doing their thing in the Plains Lakes for a long time. Surely there is a better way to manage for loss of trout in one lake besides shooting and killing or maiming these lovely birds. Timing of the stocking would be one way – don’t stock when larger flocks of pelicans are coming through in the early spring. At least make an effort to haze them away rather than shoot them. There really is a better way, although it might take some extra planning and effort to make it happen.
Thank you for a thoughtful fact based solution to this problem. Now, if I could only believe it will be considered and implemented by someone who only responds to a problem by using terms like “cry babies” ….
Amber, please tell me more about your “Ripple Effect” theory. The opposite would seem logical. If the many Pelicans cannot eat the Trout in the Summer, why do so many congregate and fish here? The science says that they eat 5 lbs. per day. Please don’t believe me, speak with the Idaho dept. of Fish and Game in the Pelican Program, they are beginning to manage them at the state level. Wyoming is way behind that curve. If you have some practical, effective solutions, by all means speak up.
Mr. Rozman. All fairness. You’re not “managing” anything. I can see your point. But. I ask the question. What did you really think would happen when you stocked a body of water with fish? Martens/weasels/hawks/eagles/and other birds eat fish as well. You stock a pond. Fish eaters will come. It that simple. You don’t have the habitat for natural breeding to keep population going. Only thing you have “managed” is to make your neighbors mad.
In a state that has enshrined in law the right to kill wolves by running them down with snowmobiles, I can’t imagine why there’s any controversy. It’s the Wyoming Way.
For those who disagree: Voting matters.
Mr. Rozman sounds like a treat to deal with. It not surprising that his neighbors have quit speaking to him.
This crybaby adult is disgusted and sickened seeing this damage men do in their own selfish pursuit of pleasure. There is a harmony in nature that we should be learning from, not interfering with. There must be a better solution than gunning down these innocent creatures whose only motive is survival. Our magnificent world would be much better off without humans.