When the Wyoming Game and Fish Department anticipates a budget crunch, and one’s coming in the near future, it often asks state lawmakers to boost the cost of hunting or fishing licenses.
That’s just the reality of the wildlife management agency’s funding structure. There’s some diversification in Game and Fish’s budget: Federal excise taxes, for example, provide roughly 22% of revenues, grants cover about 8% and interest on savings another 5%. But license fees account for the majority, providing nearly 60% of the revenue Game and Fish uses to pay for its green trucks, red shirts and myriad other expenses. In an era of high inflation, it’s a formula that has its financial forecasts looking increasingly dim — “dire” has even been suggested — especially when the main commodity, huntable wildlife, is a finite resource.
“We’re on a starvation diet, and things do not look good going forward,” Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioner John Masterson told state lawmakers in September. “I believe the department has proven itself to be prudent stewards of the money of its sportsmen. But it can only stretch dollars so far.”
Masterson made those remarks to the Wyoming Legislature’s Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee at a Jackson meeting in September while advocating for a significant addition to Game and Fish’s revenue makeup. Specifically, he was recommending a funding tool — a trust account “of paramount importance” — that would potentially endow Wyoming wildlife managers for generations to come.
“The alternative is that we nickel and dime license fees … going through the entire bill process to raise the cost of a resident doe-fawn license from $22,” Masterson said. “I don’t feel that that’s efficient.”
A bill is in the works that would make the Game and Fish trust fund a reality. It’s a top priority for the Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, which is expected to finalize and ready the bill for introduction to the broader Legislature this coming general session at its Nov. 9-10 meeting in Cheyenne.
When the budget-slashing Wyoming Freedom Caucus wielded significant power in the Legislature, the idea of a Game and Fish trust fund likely would have been farfetched.
“It would have never passed the House, and it would have had a snowball’s chance in hell in the Senate,” said committee member Bob Wharff, a state representative from Evanston who often voted with the Freedom Caucus. “All that may change.”
The change in outlook is due to the Freedom Caucus suffering a resounding statewide defeat during the August primary elections. Wharff, who was reelected to his old House seat in 2024, was among the casualties, losing to Kemmerer native David Walton by a 20% margin.
With the more moderate faction of the Republican Party seizing control, passing a savings- and spending-centric bill that would create a Game and Fish trust fund becomes more feasible. Wharff didn’t divulge whether he’d vote to advance it during the upcoming committee meeting, but he spoke highly of a similar savings account, the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust, that he helped pass while working in an advocacy role two decades ago.
“That’s a legacy that I’m very proud of,” he said.
While a trust fund’s political palatability in modern Wyoming remains to be seen, wildlife advocacy groups are providing momentum and a strong push. The day before Wharff and fellow lawmakers met in Jackson, the Wyoming Wildlife Federation hosted a reception to build support for the idea.
“Wyoming has a chance to make a generational investment in wildlife conservation, and that’s exciting,” said Craig Benjamin, the federation’s executive director. “Hunters and anglers have carried the system for decades, and Game and Fish’s responsibilities have grown. The question now is, ‘How do we build a durable funding model for the next generation?’ and it’s exciting that the Legislature is having that conversation.’”
Exactly how much of a difference the trust fund would make to Game and Fish’s bottom line depends on the details, like the funding level required by the Legislature. At present the bill is structured similarly to the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resources Trust, which allows up to 4% of its market value to be expended annually (the rest of investment earnings go back into the account).
Pushing for the trust at the commission’s September meeting, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s Alex Aguirre told lawmakers that he’d love for Wyoming to “shoot for the stars.”
“We stand in full support of the proposal to increase funding for our Wyoming Game and Fish Department,” Aguirre said, “with an ask of at least $500 million.”
Other groups echoed the ask.
Trout Unlimited Wyoming State Director Leslie Steen suggested the same dollar amount for a fund that she called an “incredible opportunity” at giving Game and Fish a “stable, long-term foundation.” Muley Fanatic Foundation President Joey Faigl also uttered $500 million, while pointing out that the cost of habitat work needed to help arrest the decline of struggling mule deer is estimated at $300 million alone.
The degree to which a hypothetical trust provides Game and Fish with a financial lifeline for the long-term depends “100%” on the size of the account, Game and Fish CFO Meredith Wood told WyoFile.
A “major influx” in contributions could be “transformative in perpetuity,” Wood said.
Although the half-billion-dollar funding level may sound astronomical — the figure is roughly 15% of Wyoming’s general fund expenses — only a fraction of that amount would be available annually. If lawmakers limit withdrawals from the trust account to 4% annually, that would generate about $20 million a year from a $500 million corpus.
The agency’s projected fiscal year 2027 revenues are about $112 million. A $500 million trust would provide about an 18% revenue bump.
Nevertheless, many wildlife advocates and lawmakers are excited about the prospect. Sen. Bill Landen, who chairs the wildlife panel, chose not to run again after a two-decade-long stint representing Casper and Natrona County. As he prepares to leave the Legislature, he’ll go out pushing for a trust account to diversify Game and Fish’s funding structure and alleviate pressure on hunting and fishing license sales.
“It just didn’t seem reasonable and right that we say, ‘Well, it’s all up to the hunters and fishermen,” Landen told WyoFile. “I think we all need to be a part of this. That’s one of the underlying principles of the bill.”
Landen didn’t hazard a guess about the likelihood of the Wyoming Legislature creating such a trust fund during the 2027 general session, though he hopes it gets some traction.
“It’s one of those issues that you may not be able to get done in one year,” Landen said. “You might just need to keep working on it. But I can’t think of a better thing for Wyoming to be investing in than what we’re talking about.”
