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Last Updated on Friday, 08 October 2010 12:20

Written by Christy Hemken

Casper – On Sept. 8 the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission met in Casper, in part to discuss the proposed amendments to the Wildlife Protection Recommendations for Energy Development in Wyoming.
The recommendations caused a stir last spring, and came to a head at the Commission’s April meeting, when the Commission voted to go ahead and pass the controversial Recommendations. Many landowners felt the Recommendations, and particularly the Best Management Practices, infringed on their private property rights. They also felt they’d been left out of the document’s development process, as well as the process it outlined for developing recommendations to send to the Industrial Siting Council (ISC).
In light of those concerns, at the close of the April meeting the Commission asked Wyoming Stock Growers Association Executive Vice President Jim Magagna to organize a landowner group. Over the summer, it compiled language to strengthen landowners’ input in the wind energy siting process, alongside the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) and wind energy developers.
“Jim Magagna was asked to work with the landowner community to come up with a process to ensure the landowners have an opportunity to be involved with the developers and the Game and Fish in putting together recommendations for the Industrial Siting Council,” WGFD Deputy Director John Emmerich told the Commission. “The thing before you today is the coordination/consultation process with private landowners.”
“The recommendations lay out a process that ensures landowners will be part of collaboration between developers, Game and Fish and landowners to come up with recommendations to take to ISC,” said Emmerich.
“If, for some reason, consensus can’t be achieved, the Commission still has the authority to take its recommendations to the ISC, and the landowners have that ability, as well, to take whatever they would like to ISC. The ultimate goal is to work through any issues that may come up prior to that, so the ISC doesn’t have to go through the process of trying to balance opposing goals and recommendations,” he explained.
Several members of the public were at the Commission meeting to express their support of Appendix B, and Brett Moline of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation said, “I’ve been involved in helping craft the Appendix B, and this is something my members can wholeheartedly support. When we get affected interests at a table to come up with a plan that’s best for all involved, that’s the process we need to follow. Appendix B outlines who will be involved, and this process directly involves private landowners, wind companies and Game and Fish and is a process the state needs to use in more applications, not just wind energy. I think this is an outstanding product, and I do urge your support.”
Wheatland rancher and landowner Juan Reyes said, “I think this would be a step in the right direction – to approve this conservation plan for the good of wildlife and establishing a relationship with private landowners.”
Of the landowner recommendations, Magagna said, “The landowners and organization representatives put a lot of time and effort into this, with coordination from Commissioner Aaron Clark, the Governor’s office and Game and Fish personnel. I urge both the Department and those of us who represent landowners, to use this as an opportunity to make a strong commitment to making it work, and use this as example of the true partnership that typically exists and needs to exist between landowners and the WGFD, where we respect your role in wildlife management, and the Department and Commissioners respect our private property rights.”
“I hope this is representative of our willingness to work with people on these issues,” said Commissioner Clark Allan. “The Department will work with landowners, and I hope people are more comfortable with that.”
Along with the recommendations to the Commission, Magagna noted the landowner group has also drafted proposed changes for the ISC that would assure that landowners are involved in every step of the process and have the opportunity to be fully involved. The Wyoming Legislature will consider those in the 2011 session.
Following the discussion, Commissioner Aaron Clark moved to modify the Commission’s wind recommendations to incorporate the languge of the landowners into Appendix B, and also begin the process of bringing Appendix A into compliance with the Governor’s Executive Order, recently released in August.
The modified recommendations will be released for 30 days of public comment and brought back to the Commission at the Nov. 18 meeting in Lander for approval.
Christy Hemken is managing editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Thursday, 27 August 2009 08:02

Written by Christy Martinez

Casper – In an early June conference call amongst the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, commissioners approved a proposal to introduce black-footed ferrets to a second area in Wyoming.
    Beginning in 1991 releases of black-footed ferrets continued through 1994 in the Shirley Basin and were expanded in the years from 2005 to 2007. The current area available for experimental introduction includes all land east and south of the North Platte River in Carbon, Natrona and Albany counties.
    “The ferret reintroduction effort in the Shirley Basin has been quite successful, and the white-tailed prairie dog population has also been expanding and continues to expand,” said project lead Bob Oakleaf of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Lander office.
    However, Oakleaf says he’s concerned about having all the eggs in one basket, in case of a catastrophic event like plague. “We’ve been looking for another area for a population removed from the main population,” he told the commissioners.
    Prairie dog complexes have recently been discovered in Albany County that could be used to start a new population of ferrets. “We’re looking at several complexes; the one over which we’ve been in preliminary discussions with landowners is about three townships in area, mostly on private land with some sections of BLM mixed in.”
    Oakleaf said the primary site is south of the Laramie River in Albany County, and that one of the ranches has a conservation easement with the Wyoming Stockgrowers Agricultural Land Trust.
    Preliminary contacts have been made with landowners in the area on the potential new reintroduction areas. WGFD Deputy Director John Emerich said through preliminary discussions with landowners the project has been supported to this point.
    Christy Hemken is assistant editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Monday, 27 July 2009 10:23

Written by Christy Hemken

Casper – Regarding a disagreement with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) over what’s known as the Lusby Easement, Ron Richner, who lives south of Casper and is one of the involved landowners, says he only wants what’s right and fair.
        “This case will impact whether landowners can safely grant an easement to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department for public access, and still protect their property rights,” says Harriet Hageman of Hageman & Brighton in Cheyenne, who is the attorney for the four landowners involved with the easement.
   The first briefs in the case were filed last fall, and the initial hearing on the case took place in Casper District Court on Jan. 30.
    Clarence and Frances Lusby granted the Lusby Easement to the WGFD on Dec. 7, 1964, the purpose of which was to provide a 100-foot walking easement for public fishing and migratory water fowl hunting along a portion of the North Platte River, to provide for public parking and to allow for boat launching.
    The land subject to the Lusby Easement has since been purchased by Ron and Stacey Richner, Corey and Kathryn Davison, Michael Rempe and the Marton Ranch, Inc. They have filed a lawsuit requesting the court to, among other things, require the WGFD to enforce the terms and conditions of the Lusby Easement and to stop trespassing on their private land outside of the boundaries of the easement.
    Richner says the WGFD has failed to properly patrol the area, has failed to enforce the terms of the easement and has allowed the public to trespass on his and the others’ property. He claims he and the other landowners want nothing more than enforcement of the easement, which includes requiring the public to stay within the boundaries of the walking easement and to stay off the private land that was never included.
    “The crux of the matter is essentially the scope of the easement and the ability to use it for which it was purchased,” says Wyoming’s Assistant Attorney General Levi Martin, who represents the WGFD, mentioning the WGFD thinks the easement’s provisions are clear and reflected by virtue of the purpose of the easement itself.
    The easement document grants “a permanent walking easement, one hundred feet in width, for public fishing and migratory waterfowl hunting on the North Platte River.” The disagreement is over whether that 100 feet begins at the river’s high water line, or at midstream.
    According to the Easement document, the Plat and Survey conducted in Oct. 1964 by Worthington, Lenhart and Assoc., Inc. of Casper is “expressly made a part of this instrument and by reference incorporated herein.” That Plat and Survey describes the boundary as being the “high water line” of the North Platte River. It is the landowners’ position that the Easement, Plat and Survey and the legal description of the location of the easement make it clear the public does not have access to the mid-point of the river. In Wyoming, the landowner owns the bed of a stream.
    The WGFD contends the easement’s sales contract, dated June 17, 1964, indicates “midstream” as the legal starting point of the 100-foot easement. The sales contract states, “Said easement shall extend from midstream of the said North Platte River outward to a point 100 feet above and beyond the high water line to the left of said river looking downstream insofar as it traverses the above described portion.”  
    Richner points out, however, that the sales contract is not what legally controls. “What counts is what was recorded in the Easement,” he says. Although the WGFD says the easement runs to midstream, the WGFD signage on the easement reads “All pedestrian access for fishing and waterfowl hunting extends 100 ft. above high water line…”
    “There are so many discrepancies with the Game and Fish Department,” says Richner. “They say their signage is perfectly fine, but it’s not, according to what they’re saying in court. They want to claim some sort of adverse possession, but they can’t because their own signs have always said from the high water line out.”      
    Martin says the scope of the easement includes crossing over the high water line into the river. “It’s hard to fish if you can’t get into the river to retrieve your fish, and it’s hard to hunt waterfowl if you can’t get in to get your birds,” he says. “And you have to launch a boat from the bank.”  He continues that it’s a 100-foot walking easement, but that doesn’t preclude the river side of that line from going into the river.
    “At this point we’re looking at what the easement document says. We say it’s clear and unambiguous and it needs to be enforced according to its terms,” explains Hageman. “The state claims the easement document does not control the relationship between the parties, and does not define what access and use may be made by the public. The state wants to ‘interpret’ the easement. That should be scary for every landowner in the state who has entered into an easement.”  
    Hageman adds, “The Game and Fish says the easement doesn’t mean what it says, but we’ve requested the court to enjoin the Game and Fish to enforce the easement.” The landowners also seek damages for trespass.
    “This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has been raised,” she continues. “The WGFD has other easements on private land that provide access to the midpoint of a stream. The Lusby Easement doesn’t. This easement says from the high water mark out, but the Game and Fish wants the easement to say it goes to the midpoint of the river, but that’s not what it says and that’s what the fight will be over.”
    In addition to the discrepancy of the boundaries, the easement also identified the location of a boat ramp. The WGFD, however, has moved the boat launching area and it is not located in its designated area. “The public have taken out a whole bank near one of the parking areas when they already had a designated boat ramp,” says Richner.
    Regarding his hay operation, Richner says one of his biggest problems is dust from the roadway caused by heavy traffic to the access area – up to 120 trips per day. “All the dust from traffic blows right onto my hay fields and I lose 10 to 15 tons of hay a year that I can’t sell as quality hay. Access is not supposed to burden adjacent lands, and that’s called burdening, in my opinion.”
    Already Richner says he would never grant a state agency a perpetual easement. “I would recommend to anyone not to give a perpetual easement on anything. You never know what the future might hold and what your family might have to do. But what’s written is written, and that’s what we’re trying to abide by. The state and public should have to abide by what is written.”  
    The WGFD argues the public has used lands outside of the easement for so long that there is a “prescriptive easement” across the landowners’ property, regardless of whether such lands are included in the Lusby Easement.
    “If the Game and Fish is successful in arguing that they can allow the public to trespass, and that over time such trespass can ripen into a prescriptive easement, Wyoming landowners will be much more reluctant to grant access to their private property. It makes sense; our landowners simply cannot risk losing their private property rights if they are not vigilant 24 hours a day to prevent people from trespassing, or using the property in ways they shouldn’t,” adds Hageman.
    “It’s just aggravating because the Game and Fish won’t come to the table and acknowledge the right and wrong, but if the law is this way I might as well move,” states Richner. “I don’t want to deal with it.”
    Richner indicates the landowners’ willingness to take the case to Wyoming’s Supreme Court. “Otherwise they’ll keep taking from the landowners. It makes a person not want to give any access if they can come in and do this sort of thing and change it however they want.”
    Martin says that, at the end of the day, the WGFD is trying to get certainty out there for sportsmen looking to use the Lusby Access Area.
    In mid-February the attorneys and the Court will set a schedule, after which the lawsuit will proceed with future court dates.
    Christy Hemken is assistant editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Last Updated on Friday, 11 September 2009 11:01

Written by Christy Hemken

Newport Beach, Calif. – Members of Wyoming wildlife agencies and organizations recently attended the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA) summer meeting in California, at which West-wide issues from wolves to budget cuts were discussed.
    “Both our staff here at the agency and our commissioners have been very active in WAFWA for a long time,” says Larry Kruckenberg of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD), who is also on the WAFWA Executive Committee. “They see it as a great opportunity to network and get a lot of our priorities and issues on the regional radar screen.”
    The purpose of WAFWA’s committees is to address some of the issues that apply to everybody in a coordinated effort, and to make sure each state isn’t jumping through the same hoops.
    He says the western association is a key player in advancing western priorities for national debate and policy. He says Wyoming has been instrumental in creating committees to address Wyoming concerns that are also applicable to others, like human-wildlife conflicts and hunter/angler participation.
    “Certainly we have more sage grouse than any other state, and things we’re doing on that front are important and we’re heavily engaged with energy issues,” says Kruckenberg, noting that other members of WAFWA rely on Wyoming’s expertise and experience in those arenas.
    “Sage grouse are still very much at the forefront of the agency directors’ minds,” he says. “They’re ensuring that all the western states have submitted and updated all our sage grouse information. They’re staying engaged with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to make certain they have the best available information.”
    He acknowledges this year wind energy has come to the front in discussion, particularly its impacts to sage grouse. “We’re working with a number of interests including wind industry to see if we can get a coordinated approach in the research involving wind turbines and sage grouse.”
    He says agency directors lent their support for a cooperative composed of multi-disciplinary people to develop and fund research that could be used broadly across the range of sage grouse.
    Kruckenberg says climate change continued to be a discussion point at this year’s meeting. “At last winter’s meeting the directors established a climate change committee that met for the first time in California this summer. The bottom line is the attention to climate change by Congress and the new administration. There’s a whole suite of federal legislation that’s either introduced or is under initial work on Capitol Hill.”
    He says the two focuses of the climate change committee include making sure the states aren’t left behind and ensuring funding is available to deal with climate change impacts to wildlife across the West.
    The hunter/angler/shooting sports participation committee, he says, is working on recruitment and retention. “At Wyoming’s behest WAFWA established a committee to become more directly involved and stay engaged,” he says, noting that WGFD Director Steve Ferrell chairs the group. “The focus will be on carrying out programs addressing participation and the effects of an aging populous and changing demographics.”
    WAFWA’s grasslands coordinator works not only on prairie dogs but also the whole suite of grassland species. “The states did a tremendous amount of work with the black-tailed prairie dog over the last several years and we dodged a bullet. The information the states have gathered and the plans they’ve put forth demonstrate we’re serious, and that we have more dogs than were originally thought,” says Kruckenberg.
    Regarding the Endangered Species Act, Kruckenberg says WAFWA doesn’t expect much to change this year, as Congress is dealing with other topics including health insurance and the economy.
    Although the Farm Bill has historically been an issue largely driven by midwestern states, Kruckenberg says the reality is the Farm Bill has a lot of programs with great applicability and utility for western states. “The western states are starting to weigh in more heavily, but we’re still not as effective in providing information to producers and landowners about some programs that could be mutually beneficial to them and to wildlife.”
    At the meeting two former WGFD Commissioners, Bill Williams of Thermopolis and Ron Lovercheck of Lagrange, were awarded Honorary Lifetime Member awards. “Those awards are given to the people who are the pistons that help run the WAFWA engine,” says Kruckenberg.
    “At every meeting there’s more going on, and this one had a strong attendance with over 300 people from 19 states and one province,” he says. “A lot of work was accomplished in 30 committees and working groups.”
    “We all come with a problem we think no one’s ever had, but then we start talking about it and find this isn’t the first time,” says Kruckenberg of the leadership represented from wildlife commissions and agencies from across the western breadth of North America. “We find someone else has already dealt with the problem, and for us learning is critically important.”
    “The association gives a means by which the individual states can recognize issues of common concern and bring them national attention,” says Kruckenberg, adding they can also establish regional priorities and things that can be worked on collectively. “Identifying a broad geographic area for a single species or problem is a much more powerful strategy to get something accomplished.”
    Christy Hemken is assistant editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .