A bill to authorize game wardens to deal with sometimes-pesky otters turned, for a moment, into an effort to altogether eliminate Wyoming’s 72-year-old “protected” wildlife list.
The state designation, two decades older than the Endangered Species Act, was “archaic” and unneeded, Sen. Larry Hicks, a Baggs Republican, argued in the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee on Tuesday. Hicks successfully amended House Bill 45, “Removing otters as protected animals,” so that it would also apply to pikas and fishers. (The state’s other “protected” species — black‑footed ferret, lynx and wolverine — would retain federal ESA safeguards.)
Casper Republican Sen. Bill Landen stood alone in opposition to the change before the committee he chairs OK’d it. He reiterated his concerns the next day on the floor of the Wyoming Senate.
“I have to admit, fellow senators, we got out over the tips of our skis a little bit,” Landen said, calling out his committee’s potentially unconstitutional actions. “We made some changes that, I have to say, probably run us afoul of something that we hold quite dear here in this Senate chamber. That is, pursuant to the Wyoming Constitution, no … bill shall be so altered or amended to become a different bill.”
He questioned whether a bill with a title focusing on otters could alter policy related to other species.
His colleagues in the upper chamber were evidently listening.
The amendment OK’d in committee — which would have also retitled the bill — was overwhelmingly voted down.
House Bill 45 was back to being just an otter bill, which several senators seemed to enjoy.
“On and for this bill,” Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Casper, said. “I think we ‘otter’ pass it.”
But the otter measure hasn’t been without its own controversy. Brought by Jackson Republican Rep. Andrew Byron, who’s a former flyfishing guide, the idea emanated from an angling experience in Teton County’s beleaguered Fish Creek, which isn’t living up to its name. The sophomore representative saw an otter family and called up the local warden to inquire about relocating them.
“He goes, ‘Andrew, we can’t touch those,’” Byron testified Tuesday in the Senate committee. He went on to learn about the 72-year-old protected species statute, which precludes relocating or killing conflict-causing otters.
Byron bemoaned how the public has perceived his bill.
“There are fears out there that this is an all-out attack, this is a free-for-all, anyone can do anything with otters,” he told the senators. “It’s really, really not the case.”
House Bill 45 would not greenlight recreational otter hunting or trapping seasons. Instead, otters would default to being a non-game species that could be killed with a permit. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has supported the potential measure, which would give its biologists and wardens flexibility.
“As we get species recovering in the state and spreading out, we often do see isolated conflict,” Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce said. “I personally believe that when we are able to go in and address conflict situations with landowners, it helps build support for that species.”
On the Senate floor, Cheyenne Republican Tara Nethercott encouraged her counterparts to steer clear of the euphemisms.
“I would appreciate it if we stopped talking about relocating them, nobody’s going to relocate an otter,” Nethercott said. “They will be killed, and they’ll be trapped for their pelts. And so let’s just have an honest conversation.”
A leading otter expert, University of Wyoming professor Merav Ben-David, has opposed HB 45.
“I think this bill is premature,” she testified Tuesday to senators. “Removing otters, at this point, from the protected list, puts at risk [their] expansion to other places in the state.”
Wyoming’s otter population, according to Ben-David, is slowly crawling its way back from being effectively wiped out during the fur trade era. Lontra canadensis only hung on in Yellowstone National Park, though they’ve since reclaimed old haunts in the Snake, Green, Wind and Shoshone river basins and are beginning to show up in the North Platte River watershed.
Opposition notwithstanding, the otter-specific version of HB 45 is on a glide path through the Legislature. It passed its committee votes easily, and the Wyoming House by a 52-8 margin. After 30 minutes of debate on Wednesday, senators in a voice vote gave the proposal the initial OK. It also passed its second reading in the Senate on Thursday. Now only one vote by the Senate stands between the measure and the governor’s desk.
Although Hicks’ proposal to do away with the state-protected species list fell flat, it’s potentially not dead for good. Landen, co-chair of the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, expressed a willingness to explore the idea during interim meetings between the Legislature’s 2025 and 2026 sessions.
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