Three bills are on-deck for 2024 that have already gained traction among Wyoming lawmakers. Senate File 111 (SF 111) would change how the state manages mule deer and whitetail deer, Senate File 118 (SF 118) would reintroduce bighorn sheep back into the Sweetwater Rocks area and House Bill 60 (HB 60) would allow for compensation payments for ranchers that deal with hungry elk, according to the Cowboy State Daily.

With SF 118 being clearly the lease controversial, it passed unanimously by the Wyoming Senate’s Committee of the Whole last week. Basically, it allows for the “long-awaited reintroduction” of bighorn sheep back into the Sweetwater Rocks area, which is near Jeffrey City in central Wyoming. 

Yet, SF 111 and HB 60 are still being discussed.

If SF 111 is approved, it would allow the Wyoming Game and Fish Department the ability to manage mule deer and whitetail deer as separate species, resulting in different tags for each type of deer. Senate President Sen. Ogden Driskill, R-Devil’s Tower, and primary sponsor of the bill, likened whitetail deer to be like a “noxious weed.” 

“If we really want to grow a mule deer herd, let’s set objectives, and we’ll probably make it tougher to draw a mule deer licenses until we get that herd built back up, but we’re just never going to get built up (until whitetail are dealt with),” Driskill told the committee during testimony about the bill.

“I can tell you, whitetail are a noxious weed,” he continued. “My recommendation at the wildlife task force? Kill all the whitetail you can so the mule deer herds can grow, because from my personal experience on my ranch, whitetail displace mule deer. They whip ’em all days of the week. Wherever they move in, they’ll be there. They start in the irrigated bottoms, and they’ll move to hills until there’s nothing left but elk and whitetail deer.”

Driskill called for “more aggressive hunting of whitetails” in order to “give mule deer a better chance.”

However, retired forester Karl Brauneis said whitetail are a native Wyoming species.

“Lewis and Clark noted the whitetail deer all up the Yellowstone valley on their Corps of Discovery,” said Brauneis. “We can assume that the migration of the whitetail was up the Yellowstone gallery forest of cottonwood then up the Bighorn tributary to the Wind River and subsequent valley. At any rate, the deer was here at the time of Western white expansion.”

SF 111 is still waiting further discussion and a vote although it does have a “do pass” recommendation.

HB 60 would give ranchers compensation if they lose more than 15% of their available forage to hungry elk. The compensation would be paid as follows: 150% of lease value on private land; full value on state land grazing leases, according to the Cowboy State Daily. Supporters of HB 60 blame burgeoning elk herds that are over twice their objective numbers, resulting in major losses for ranchers who have had to cut their livestock grazing operations to compensate for elk eating all of their forage.

Yet, those opposed to HB 60 say it would get too pricey for the state agency.

“As it stands, the bill would be devastating for the Game and Fish budget. It could potentially be 1/10th of the Game and Fish Budget going for compensation,” said Jesh Metten, the Wyoming field manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

To date, HB 60 is still awaiting further discussion and a vote with a “do pass” recommendation.