Rep. Bob Wharff didn’t hide his anger about federal wildlife managers denying Wyoming authority over its grizzly bear population, despite meeting Endangered Species Act recovery goals for over 20 years.
The Republican representative from Evanston, who’s back in the Legislature after a one-term absence, went beyond “fist shaking” by bringing a bill that called for grizzly bear hunting as soon as 2026 — regardless of the species’ federal status.
“It’s me trying to get this body to stand up and poke [the federal government] right between the nose and kick them right in the groin,” Wharff told his fellow representatives on the floor of the Wyoming House. “I’m mad, and I hope it’s conveyed, because I do think [that] until this state stands up and says, ‘enough is enough, is enough, is enough,’ we’ll continue to see the goal posts move.”
Wharff’s hope for the bill was to “pressure” federal officials into “delisting” grizzlies. And his fury was exacerbated by an announcement, made in the waning days of the Biden administration, that federal officials were doing the opposite. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams decided that grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and throughout their Lower 48 range would remain protected under the Endangered Species Act, albeit with some changes in how they can be managed.
Others on the House floor told Wharff they shared his frustration. But many of the other representatives who took the lectern late on Tuesday didn’t agree with a bill that could result in Wyoming hunters being prosecuted for breaking federal law.
“We do expose our hunters if we do pass this,” Rep. Bob Davis, R-Baggs, said. “That would be up to the hunter, to take that exposure, if he wants to make this statement [by illegally killing a grizzly bear].”
Davis urged a no vote and so did Rep. John Eklund, R-Cheyenne.
“The first thing that the bill does that’s a real problem is it directs our Game and Fish Department to violate federal law,” the veteran representative said on the floor. “The hunters that were hunting grizzly bears would be violating federal law.”
Both Davis and Eklund also opposed Wharff’s measure, House Bill 186, “Bear coupons-game and fish,” when it was in committee, but they ended up on the losing side of the vote. House Bill 186 passed through the House Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water Resources Committee in a 5-4 vote despite ample concerns from Wyoming wildlife managers and resistance from every lobbyist who testified.
Randy Burtis, speaking for the Bow Hunters of Wyoming, told lawmakers he wanted to hunt a grizzly bear “more than anybody.”
“But I do not want to do that at the risk of federal prosecution, the loss of my security clearance and the loss of my job,” he testified. “This is just one of three bills coming forward that seek to dismantle the quality management of large carnivores.”
One of those three proposals, authorizing unlimited mountain lion killing, ran into overwhelming opposition and died Tuesday. That same day Wharff’s grizzly bear bill failed, as did a Senate measure to dictate state management.
Baggs Republican Sen. Larry Hicks’ Senate File 170, “Grizzly bear management prohibition” in essence would have prohibited the Wyoming Game and Fish Department from using its funds and resources to help with some aspects of managing grizzly bears unless the state is granted jurisdiction.
Angi Bruce, the state agency’s new director, worried about the unintended consequences.
“This bill would prevent us from grizzly bear population monitoring,” Bruce told the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee. Additionally, she said, the bill would prevent her large carnivore staffers from outreach and education designed to prevent grizzly bear conflict.
“Third and most importantly, I believe it would prevent us from working on the removal of the grizzly bear from the endangered species list,” Bruce said. “This is a priority for me personally.”
The “stars are aligned” for grizzly bear delisting, she said, citing new U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and grizzly delisting legislation from Wyoming’s senators and its representative in the new Congress.
After hearing wildlife managers’ concerns, Hicks voluntarily withdrew his bill.
Wharff’s proposal to hunt grizzlies in discord with the Endangered Species Act also fell flat Tuesday evening, dying in its first reading on the House floor, 26-32.
It is interesting to me that the game and fish does not disclose to the public how many bears are euthanized by their own agency every single year. Why is it the general public thinks a hunting season would wipe them out as in kill every bear on site. It was to my understanding the hunt for a grizzlie, set forth by the Wyoming Game and Fish was to be a supervised hunt for problem bears. Not a free for all. I personally have no desire to hunt one. I just wish the public was more informed about the need to manage the poulation and the proposals set forth by the state. Mass hysteria seems to be a thing that the Press outside of our state likes to stir up more and more of these days rather than to present the facts.
I can’t believe you Evanston people would vote Wharff back into office.
The reason wolves and grizzly bears were placed on the Endangered Species list is from over-hunting, illegally killing both wolves and grizzlies, and loss of natural habitat. God created wolves and bears for a reason. For humans to just have the KILL mindset is against God. We humans are stewards of God’s creation. We are to care for His creation. Please listen to Grace to You: Environment, Ecology and Man, by Dr John MacArthur. I am against killing of wolves, bears, mountain lions. We humans need to respect God’s creation. Leave the animals alone.
Whelp looks like Hagman will have to find something a little more productive to do with her time. I’m sure she was using this as a re-election show. How about let’s stop killing animals for fun and maybe go get a job? How about maybe try and create your own economy so people in other states dont have to support you? What a concept. Wyoming is a corrupt welfare state.
Whoever says we just kill them for sport, we’ll you really need to come to my house have some Jerky and breakfast sausage. You’ll want more. Plus my pie crusts are the best you’ll ever get, bear lard makes so many things and other game meats taste better. Your out of touch with where food comes from, maybe you should travel the world and learn again. No bear should be culled only by the Feds who waste the bear 100%. Should be managing through hunting, with strict rules of using 100% of meat and lard, anything less is a disgrace to the species.
Why are they in such a hurry to delist grizzly bears. You think they were overrunning Wyoming. If there are so many of them why haven’t I seen any around my neighborhood? They want to get rid of all wildlife because they think humans are superior. Grizzlies are helpful to the environment.
The people most interested in delisting are the ones who would profit the most. Like everything else, just follow the money. Ranchers with 50k private hunts, all that grand stuff.Until Wyoming can manage to admit running over a wolf and taking it to a bar isn’t predator management, they shouldn’t be trusted with anything larger. Does anybody actually think running over a bunny with a snow machine is sporting? Well there’s a whole club in Wyoming dedicated to it And ya got that river guide in Jackson that wants open season on otters More money to be made! You don’t get a Ferrari if you can’t drive a Toyota Wyoming has enough poachers that the bears have to deal with already
Why can’t these people just leave nature alone? You’re not gonna be eating the bears.
You don’t need to kill them to survive for food
Same with the wolves. Just leave nature the hell alone. It’s barbaric to hunt wolves and bears just for the joy of it. Disgusting.!
I agree 100 percent Kimberly Gray. Leave the animals alone.
Yeah, Californians and Texans in, grizzlies out. Once they are gone we can put them on the State flag
The State SHOULD HAVE JURISDICTION OVER WILDLIFE MY COMMENT WAS CHANGED. THIS IS A STATE PROBLEM NOT A FEDERAL PROBLEM IF YOU DO NOT LIVE IN THIS STATE ITS NOT YOUR BUSINESS.
Half of Wyoming is federal public land. WYOMING ONLY OWNS 4% OF ITS LAND.
It’s great that these bills failed but the closeness of the vote and their mere existence demonstrate why the other story about Wyoming should NEVER be allowed to take over other Federal lands.
I think that trying to delist the grizzly should not even be considered.All the work for several decades bringing the grizzly back would be for nothing if some short sided politics keep trying to eliminate the grizzly.
A managed population is not “eliminating” them.
Like any other wild game animal is Wyoming, their numbers should be managed.
I find it interesting that federal law classifies cannabis as a schedule 1 drug, which means it is illegal to use, possess, or grow for any purpose .Yet 38 states have thumbed their noses to the federal government and have legalized medical use of this drug and 24 states recreational use. Though I am not a lawyer, it seems to me the presedence has been set. If this law is going to be ignored and not enforced, what would prevent Wyoming, Idaho and Montana from passing laws to make the hunting of grizzly bears legal ? Can the federal government select which laws it will enforce …? I guess they can.
I am a great supporter of the Endangered Species Act ( though it may need tweaked a little), but it is now being used in ways it was never intended and I understand the frustration of some state officials.
I suppose I am an oddball in that I love seeing bears expanding their range into previous habitats that have been unoccupied for years and think it is sad that most of them will eventually get into trouble and have to be dealt with(killed).
Even though I am now an old man, I hope I never loose my sense of wonder and I think about that poor young bear in the Bighorns that was just trying to make a living like the rest of us in a world that isn’t big enough any more and was killed for eating a cow . Am I the only one who thinks about where was he born and raised, what kind of mother did he have ? When run off by his mother after two years of learning the ropes, did the big bears kick his tail and that made him head for parts unknown by his kind for over 100 years or was he just curious? How did he get to the Bighorns? Did he wander down Grass Creek, Gooseberry , the Greybull or did he cross the Clarks Fork from the Beartooths and head down the spine of the Bighorns from the Pryors? How long did it take him to cross the bighorn basin and how did he stay out of trouble ? I suppose we will never know….kind of sad.
I feel very fortunate to have a little place on what seems to be on a dispersal trail for bears heading east out of the Absaroka’s and consider it an honor when I see one of them or their tracks on my place. Unlike my neighbors, I am not trying to make a living here and I know the problem bears need to be dealt with. I just hope that some day when they are hunted, the state of Wyoming goes into it easy instead of trying to kill every bear outside the PCA or killing any bear that crosses an imaginary line even though they have done nothing wrong. Its a tough world out there and we all need a chance, at least one .Keep Wyoming wild .
Meanwhile elk numbers continue to decline and disappear in those highly populated bear areas.
Wyoming is overrun with elk. There are so many elk they don’t even know what to do with them. They even approved killing a cow calf pair to reduce the numbers. 29k were killed last year.
Well, next year will set another record for Grizzly mortality as an overpopulated species tries to manage in the limited space they can live naturally.
There’s a total lack of intelligence in Cheyenne.
In the entire state. They are too isolated and tribal. They have created their own sick culture.