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Last Updated on Friday, 11 April 2008 07:45

Written by Jennifer Womack

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Last Updated on Friday, 11 February 2011 14:03

Written by Christy Martinez

As the new president of the Wyoming County Commissioner’s Association, Joel Bousman of Boulder speaks to the ability and possibilities for Wyoming’s county commissioners to better represent multiple use interests.
“It’s important they understand the workings that go on out there on the land that create the basis for our communities and economies,” says Bousman of the local government officials.
“At the local level, most are familiar with the day-to-day functioning of local governments. County commissioners set the budgets, but as far as their opportunities, we as elected officials take the same oath of office that every other elected official takes – to enforce what’s in our Wyoming and U.S. constitutions,” states Bousman. “That creates some obligation and responsibility to do more than what some of us realize.”
“Everything that happens is, in some way, tied to our natural resource base. Everything that’s produced, and what we consume, is related to the natural resource base. As elected officials we can take more opportunities to develop closer working relationships with local conservation districts,” he says, noting that Wyoming has good statutory framework for conservation districts. “It’s better than many states, and that gives us the opportunity to work with our districts and accomplish some things that don’t exist in other states.”
Bousman says county commissioners can also do a better job educating the public about the public benefits that production agriculture provides, including wildlife, habitat and open space.
“We need to collectively convince the public that the time’s coming that, if they want to preserve those values and benefits, it’s about time they step up to the plate and pay for them,” he states. “It’s possible that county and local government could help promote the concept of term-limited conservation contracts that would reflect those public values that we, as producers, now produce for free.”
Bousman says county commissioners also need to increase communication and coordination with legislators, state agencies, ag groups and energy companies, and all of Wyoming’s natural resource users, that contribute to the economy of Wyoming’s communities and the state as a whole.
“We need to be involved in the legislative process, and at the national level we need to become more engaged and participate more actively in the federal planning process,” he says. “Provisions in the National Environmental Policy Act require that federal agencies provide local government, and the state, a seat at the table during the planning process. As county commissioners, we don’t take as much of an advantage of that ability as we should. There’s room to improve our position and better tweak the decisions made by federal agencies that end up affecting everybody.”
He says county commissioners can also work on improving their ability to develop coalitions with other counties and state agencies, with the goal of being more effective in lobbying at the national level.
“I recently heard information from the National Small Business Council that reflects the costs of federal regulations on the country, and it’s in the trillions of dollars, from the paperwork we have to do, and the things we have to do to abide by federal regulations,” he says, adding that if county commissioners equipped themselves with that kind of information they could be more effective when speaking with federal agencies about changes and additions to rules and regulations.
“My message to producers, conservation district people and legislators is to visit with your county commissioners at the local level, and educate them as to how important it is that they step up to the plate to better represent the folks out there who are contributing to the economy of their counties,” says Bousman.
As president of the association, Bousman says he looks forward to working with Wyoming’s ag groups, state agencies and conservation districts to be more effective in the state legislative process, as well as at the national level.
Joel Bousman spoke to the Wyoming Stock Growers Association Winter Roundup, held Dec. 12-14 in Casper. Christy Martinez 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 Tuesday, 12 February 2008 02:35

Written by Jennifer Womack

Conservation district and predator funding to be discussed

By Jennifer Womack, WLR Managing Editor 

Cheyenne – With the 2008 Budget Session of the Wyoming Legislature just a month away, members of the Joint Appropriations Committee (JAC) spent the bulk of December in Cheyenne. They’re back in the Capitol City beginning Monday as they prepare the state’s two-year budget for the session set to begin on Feb. 11.
    John Etchepare, Director of the Wyoming Department of Agriculture (WDA), will present his budget to the JAC first thing Monday morning on the third floor of the Capitol Building. With 96 employees it takes around $34 million to run the agency for two years, according to Etchepare. That includes around a million dollars in federal grants primarily directed at meat inspection and the mediation program. In comparison to other state agencies Etchepare says the Department of Ag is a small agency.
    Despite its size, WDA Deputy Director Jason Fearneyhough says, “The WDA touches every individual in the State of Wyoming through our different divisions. With technical services, consumer health, and analytical services and beyond agriculture, we work for consumers out there as well and make sure they’re getting the healthy product they’re paying for. We have a pretty broad impact for a fairly small agency.”
    Etchepare says Wyoming is one of the few states in the nation where the department of ag continues to be funded with general fund monies. Most, he says, are run on grants, federal dollars and revenue generated by licensing, inspections and regulatory income. He says that’s why so many ag departments around the nation have become involved in helping administer the large-dollar school lunch program.
    Governor Freudenthal approved the agency’s standard budget in its entirety and a great deal of the exception budget. Included in the standard budget are those items the legislature has allowed to be ongoing. Among the items the Governor approved in the exception budget are a new scale truck to replace the current 1970s model that’s outdated, much-needed safety equipment and more.
    Three of the $6 million requested for local predatory animal boards as grants through the Animal Damage Management Board (ADMB) was included in the standard budget. The remaining $3 million was included in the exception budget and did not receive Freudenthal’s approval. Etchepare attributes that to a request from the JAC to revisit the funding. This is the second time the funding request has come before the legislature.
    Also denied by the Governor was increased funding for Wyoming conservation districts. “It’s vital to the water quality efforts in the state,” says Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts Executive Director Bobbie Frank. With two water quality coordinators traveling 40,000 miles a piece in the state, Frank says one of the positions will be lost in the absence of additional state dollars. “The other part of the request is to allow grants for work on impaired and threatened waters,” says Frank. She says the state’s dollars are matched by local and federal dollars and needed to continue the work so important to Wyoming’s water resources.
    Increased operating money for the Wyoming State Fair was approved by the Governor as part of the exception budget. Etchepare says ongoing construction on the grounds is being handled through Capital Construction with an equine stalling facility, show rings and asphalt improvements already planned. Increased construction costs continue to pose challenges.
    Of his nearly 100 employees, Etchepare says the majority are inspectors. He says goals of being able to offer more to the state’s farmers and livestock producers are part of the reasoning behind his recent requests to see the Business Council’s Agribusiness Division returned to his Department. Meeting with Business Council CEO Bob Jensen later this month, Etchepare says they intend to have a proposal compiled by April.
    Employees in WDA’s Natural Resource Division have the closest relationship with Wyoming agriculture. “I have a strong natural resource division,” says Etchepare. “Right now we’re pretty well staffed in natural resources. Their role also changed not too long after I got here because of Joint Agency Status. Years ago it was ranchers negotiating. Now we have to represent the agricultural community. It’s put a lot of pressure on those people, but they’ve done an outstanding job.”
    When Etchepare goes before the JAC on Monday he says the committee receives his entire budget request, including those items denied by the Governor. “We cannot bring up any item that the governor did not approve. In other words, I’m basically an agent of the Governor.” Appropriations can ask about items the Governor didn’t approve at which time Etchepare can answer questions on the topics. Those items may be added throughout the process while others may be omitted.
    “Those people who feel funding for predator boards and conservation districts is important,” says Etchepare, “need to get a hold of their legislators on the Appropriations Committee.” Budget discussions will continue throughout the upcoming session.
    “To me our function is to make as many things available and possible for our people in agriculture to survive, to go on and to grow,” says Etchepare. He says his agency keeps an eye on ensuring their services reach from young and beginning producers to the older generations and from small producers to large producers. “I think we’re doing a good job,” says Etchepare.

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Last Updated on Friday, 30 July 2010 15:53

Written by Christy Hemken

“The biggest issue for voters to understand is that I really understand multiple use as the way it should be,” says Republican candidate for State Auditor Bruce Brown of Devils Tower when discussing his campaign and how he would use the State Auditor’s position on the Board of Land Commissioners.
Brown is a Certified Public Accountant with an MBA from the University of Wyoming. “There’s a distinct difference between public accounting experience and private industry. I started off in public accounting, but the majority of my time has been spent in private industry accounting as a controller and Chief Financial Officer,” says Brown. “As you look at the State Auditor’s duty as an accountant, that’s exactly what it is – the state’s comptroller and Chief Fiscal Control Officer – so I can take my experience in private industry and plug it into the State Auditor’s office.”
Brown says the State Auditor’s main responsibility is paying the state’s vendors, managing state payrolls and producing financial statements, describing the position as the “accounting watchdog.”
Returning to the subject of state land management, he comments, “I understand ag issues and know how important state land leases are, and just how tied in folks in the ag industry are to the land and keeping the ranch going. You’ve got to be motivated by that to help them. If someone has that much try, and won’t give up, there’s a lesson to learn there. I have a really good appreciation for the ag industry.”
“I’ve watched my brother-in-law, and the things he’s gone through to maintain the family ranch, and I lived on a ranch with the guys I was rodeoing with, and I got a good feel for what it takes to be in production agriculture,” says Brown. “I appreciate how hard I worked, because everyone else was working, and that helped me to define my work ethic as busting it and really working hard, and that’s what I will bring to the State Auditor’s office.”
“We want to make sure we’re managing and using state lands for multiple use, and the ranchers who use the grazing leases are the closest to the land and are the best managers. The best thing we can do for the land at the end of the day is turn over healthy lands to our future generations, so they have something good to work with,” he says.
Brown says he’s not against consolidating state lands, when it makes sense. “If we can consolidate and block those up, we make it better for recreation and make it easier for both ranchers and the State Lands Office to manage, and that’s a good deal.”
In Brown’s opinion, wind energy development on state trust lands is part of the mix. “What I’m really concerned about is making sure we get transmission lines right, and I appreciate the fact that they’re trying to use existing corridors. We have time to get it right. We’ve had wind for a long time, and we’ll have it for a long time into the future,” he explains. “I don’t want to shut it down, or move at a snail’s pace, but we need to step back and do some good analysis of where we think transmission lines should go. We don’t need to jump in too quickly and make rash decisions. It’s not the silver bullet of the energy quandary in which we seem to find ourselves.”
Of what he calls the second of the top two most important boards in which the State Auditor is involved, Brown says he thinks the State Loan and Investment Board needs to make sure it invests in sustainable, viable projects.
“We’ve done a really nice job of building our infrastructure, and we have a lot of empty business parks out there. I’d like to focus on filling those business parks, and working with the Wyoming Business Council to develop an entrepreneur program,” says Brown. “If we can get our young folks to be entrepreneurs in Wyoming we win twice, because we keep our young folks and avoid the ‘brain drain,’ and we fill our business parks with Wyoming businesses run by people who understand how tough it is to do business in the ups and downs we have in this state. The people who survive and hang in there long enough to go through a trough know how tough it is to get to the other side, and they don’t lose sight of why they really started the business.”
Upon taking office, Brown says he’d meet with the 25 staff members who are there now, speaking to those who will stick around and gathering their thoughts and ideas. “Then I’d like to start work on a strategic plan for the next four years, to lay out where I think the office should be, and where it should go.”
He says from there he’d look for inefficiencies. “In the accounting world we’re taught to assess the situation and we what’s there before we go in and start making changes, and I just want to be as efficient as we can.”
Brown says he’d also meet with the State Lands Office about upcoming issues and the Wyoming Business Council about their economic development projects.
For more information on Bruce Brown’s campaign for State Auditor, visit electbrownauditor.com. 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. .