Wyoming Legislature update – March 24, 2022
by Albert Sommers, House District #20 Representative
March 24, 2022
3/24/2022
Hello Sublette County, this is Albert Sommers reporting from interim work of the 66th Legislature, after the 2022 Budget Session. I serve on two Governor created committees that met in the last two weeks, the Wyoming Colorado River Working Group and the Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce. I don’t believe there are two more contentious issues in Wyoming than water and hunting opportunity.
On March 16, I attended the Wyoming Colorado River Working Group in Cheyenne. At this meeting the Work Group, heard the latest projections on the drought in the Colorado River Basin. The four large storage reservoirs for the Upper Basin states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and portions of New Mexico and Arizona have reached all-time lows. Lake Powell is the largest of the reservoirs and is at 24% of capacity, while Flaming Gorge has the highest capacity at 78%. The US Bureau of Reclamation operates these dams to ensure that the conditions of the Colorado River Compact and treaties with Mexico are complied with, while ensuring that the reservoirs have enough water to protect power generation from these dams. The operation of these reservoirs during the current water shortage on the Colorado River is called the Upper Basin Drought Response Operations Plan. Release of water from Flaming Gorge to satisfy downstream needs will likely result in recreational constraints at Flaming Gorge in the near future.
If these four reservoirs don’t have enough water to ensure that the Upper Basin states supply the Lower Basin states of California and Arizona the 75 million acre-feet of water over ten years required by the Colorado River Compact, then the Upper Basin states will have to curtail their use of water enough to satisfy the conditions of the compact. Curtailment is a little understood process. The Work Group is examining how that would occur, who would be affected most, and how Wyoming might mitigate for these water shortages. Lake Powell dropped below an elevation of 3,522 ft. the day before our meeting, which is one of the critical elevations before the minimum power pool elevation of 3,490 is reached. The minimum power pool is the elevation required to preserve electricity generation at the dam. The Wyoming experts in the room assured me that we would not hit curtailment prior to 2026.
I hope to continue to learn more and ultimately be a part of the conversations on how Wyoming navigates the policies around water shortages on the Colorado River. Chad Espenscheid from Big Piney is also a member of this Work Group, and Randy Bolgiano is an old hand on river law, as he serves as an alternate commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission. Remember to reach out to us, if you have questions on issues surrounding water policy on the Colorado River.
On March 22-23, I virtually attended the Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce meeting that was held in Casper. The Taskforce heard an excellent presentation from Dr. Kevin Monteith on mule deer in the state of Wyoming. He expressed the importance of nutrition to pregnant does, and the fidelity of mule deer to winter and summer ranges. His presentation talked about how adaptable elk are compared to mule deer, which helps explain the increasing elk populations in Wyoming, as compared to mule deer population declines. The Taskforce talked about how to increase the quality of mule deer hunting opportunities, and is going to examine the idea of a pick your region approach, as opposed to current general area hunting opportunity. The Taskforce will also examine whether mule deer and whitetail deer should be licensed separately.
A subcommittee has been formed to examine landowner licenses, with the idea to provide some recommendations for public review. The concept of whether 160 acres is enough land to justify the issuance of landowner tags is being examined, because the landowner tag system is being gamed. The subcommittee is examining whether landowner tags should not exceed 10% of the tags issued in any one hunt area. In this case, landowners would be put in a separate draw if the number of landowner licenses exceeded the 10%. Another issue is how to compensate landowners for the damage to grass by elk herds, especially in eastern Wyoming, that have significantly increased in the last 10 years. The current drought has exacerbated this issue. To view some of the solutions the subcommittee is examining go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/19pK4MN3DT4GhErE-Kuejiw6O7oMs99xp/view. Comments can be provided by going to https://sites.google.com/wyo.gov/wyomingwildlifetaskforce/home/meeting-materials.
I can be reached at albert@albertsommers.com with questions or comments.
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