A group of lawmakers backed projects to support fisheries and manage invasive species throughout the state this week. But actually funding some of them is a bit uncertain.
The Select Natural Resource Funding Committee met on Jan. 12 to learn more about the handful of projects recommended by the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust (WWNRT) to receive state grant support this year.
The Wyoming Legislature created the WWNRT back in 2005, with a goal to “enhance and conserve wildlife habitat and natural resource values throughout the state,” according to the trust’s website.
The independent agency is governed by a nine-person board appointed by the governor and allocates roughly $8 million to different projects every year, using a combination of legislative appropriations, donations and interest earned on a permanent account.
WWNRT Executive Director Bob Budd told lawmakers that the board considered 75 projects for the large project grant funding category this year, which they then winnowed down to a handful.
The list includes the final phase of a multi-year project to increase stream connectivity and maintain fisheries health on the Upper Greybull River in Park County, as well as getting the ball rolling on a fish screen project on the South Fork of the Shoshone River outside Cody.
Roughly half the projects focused on ongoing efforts to manage a range of invasive species and mitigate the spread of cheatgrass, a highly flammable weed that’s becoming a bigger and bigger problem across Wyoming and other western ecosystems.
But Budd told lawmakers there’s an important piece missing in moving those mitigation efforts forward: A request for an extra $11 million for preventative invasives treatment across the state was approved for last year’s supplemental budget, which the Legislature failed to pass in 2025.
“ All these cheatgrass [projects] are incumbent on us receiving cheatgrass funding that we did not get last year when the supplemental budget got stranded,” he said. “ So until we know that we have that available, these will exceed our ability to fund them without that supplemental funding.”
Put simply, last year’s supplemental budget flop could delay this year’s round of WWNRT projects unless additional funding is approved in the upcoming legislative session.
Sen. Ed Cooper (R-Ten Sleep) asked how property tax cut impacts on weed and pest districts would play into the projects, which often involve high levels of collaboration between a wide range of agencies.
“ If they can keep their employees and their vehicles running with what that reduction in their mill levy is, that's probably about what they're going to be able to do,” answered Budd. “I don't think you're going to see them able to cost share to the level that they have in the past.”
He added that some districts might be able to qualify for federal grants to fill in the gap, but emphasized that their capacities would likely be limited going forward.
Earlier this month, the Wyoming Weed and Pest Council shared a University of Wyoming report detailing the economic impact of invasive species on the state. Ten species create losses of up to $83.5 million in agricultural impacts for the state every year, which doesn’t take into account ripple effects to industry, recreation and wildlife. That number could rise to $351.8 million if current invasives management programs were no longer in place, according to the study.
The relationship between invasive mitigation and fire mitigation was also a hot topic of conversation. Budd pointed to ongoing efforts to tamp down cheatgrass in the western part of the state as a stark example of that connection.
“ If you looked at the fire frequency that we had in areas where they've been treating for a number of years, last year, that was zero,” he said. “If you look at where we have not treated, it was significantly different.”
Rep. Karlee Provenza (D-Laramie) brought up a conversation on the floor from last year’s legislative session about different funding mechanisms for cheatgrass and fire mitigation, and said she didn’t think that argument would be going away anytime soon.
“ Our fire season went from ending in September to being something that's 365 days a year,” said Provenza. “And I'm sure the costs of not doing anything are much greater.”
Budd reflected that the big-picture environmental problem ultimately extends beyond cheatgrass, and even beyond other invasive grasses, calling it an “ecological mess.”
“I drive almost every weekend between here and Glendale, and I look and think, ‘Oh wow, if we get these 60 mile an hour winds, even in January, and one lightning strike, one careless match thrown out, one bad chainsaw, it'll go forever,’” he said. “You've got the flash fuels to carry that fire, and then it gets into the junipers and others, which will carry it and spark it ahead. We have incredible ecological risk from the fires that normally wouldn't have happened.”
The group of lawmakers unanimously passed the draft bill that would approve and fund the 2026 WWNRT large projects. It will now need to make it through the upcoming budget session.
The committee also discussed the idea of introducing a line item or another individual bill to help funnel additional funding toward making a more sustained, long-term impact on cheatgrass and invasive mitigation moving forward.
