Hunting regs on agenda
By JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau Sunday, October 05, 2003
GREEN RIVER — Efforts to clarify residency requirements for hunting and
fishing licenses will be on tap when a joint legislative interim committee
meets next week in Beulah to discuss a variety of wildlife-related issues.
Members of the Legislature’s Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and
Cultural Resources Interim Committee will hear reports from Wyoming Game
and Fish Department officials on the status of the state’s gray wolf
management plan. They will also review draft legislation aimed at
expanding the preference point system to nonresident deer, elk and
antelope hunters.
The two-day committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday at
Ranch A in Beulah in northeast Wyoming.
The meeting will begin at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Agenda items include a review of
the state’s master plan for state parks and a tour of the Vore buffalo
jump site. Wednesday’s meeting on wildlife issues also begins at 8 a.m.
Game and Fish Wildlife Assistant Wildlife Division Chief Terry Cleveland
said the agency has been working with a smaller Travel/Rec subcommittee to
clarify and simplify the existing law, which has been found by some
prosecutors and judges to be vague and contradictory in some areas.
“The statute now is difficult for public to interpret and we’re trying to
make some statutory changes to basically make them more clear,” he said.
“We told the subcommittee that this is an issue that is near and dear to
people’s hearts.”
Cleveland said currently, in order to qualify for resident hunting
licenses, a person must be “domiciled,” or live on real property, and be a
resident of Wyoming for at least one full year.
“For example, one issue that’s going to have to be discussed to some
degree (by the committee) … is that there are people who have lived here
their entire lives and say they retire, they buy a mobile home and
maintain a post office box here and nothing else … are they still a
resident?” he said.
“Or if a person owns houses in several states, how many calendar days
during the year should he be required to live in Wyoming to maintain his
residency?” Cleveland said. “This (draft legislation) should make it clear
to the public what’s required for residency.”
The interim committee is also scheduled during the Beulah meeting to
revisit a proposed bill that would expand the agency’s preference point
system to some nonresident antelope, deer and elk licenses.
The preference point system is currently used by the Game and Fish
Department for moose and bighorn sheep license applications. Hunters pay
$7 extra for a preference point.
The system was instituted by the Wyoming Legislature in 1994. Lawmakers at
the time wanted to forestall the prospect of one applicant drawing two
moose or sheep licenses through the department’s lottery system before
another applicant had drawn one.
Game and Fish managers say the system ultimately guarantees an applicant a
moose and sheep license, given enough time.
The preference point system awards an applicant one point each time the
applicant applies for a license, but fails to draw a permit. A preference
point draw is then conducted with the highest total preference points
being drawn first.
The department has been studying for several years the possibility of
requiring nonresident hunters to buy a general hunting license for elk,
deer and antelope preference points as a way of raising additional
revenues for the agency.
In February, however, the Wyoming Senate shot down a bill that would have
allowed nonresident hunters to pay that extra fee for preference points.
The interim committee will also hear a report on Wyoming’s gray wolf
management plan that was given final approval by the Game and Fish
Commission in July.
Legislators during the 2003 session changed Wyoming law to allow for a
dual classification of the wolf — including both predator and trophy game
status — that was part of the state’s management plan.