wyoming game and fish department

Tracking wildlife in Wyoming is no easy task, but the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) is working to create comprehensive datasets on the state's animal populations.

Wyoming state park campgrounds open to residents only on May 15. Antler hunting will begin on May 1 as usual. Fishing nonresident daily and five-day licenses are under temporary suspension till May 8. No planned date to reopen Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

Friday, May 1, is the opening day of shed antler hunting season. So far restrictions on how many people can come into the area have not been enforced by state or local officials. But Teton County and the town of Jackson administrators and public health officials are asking hunters to stay at home.

More than 500 goldfish have been found in a reservoir meant to be a bass fishery. Wyoming Game and Fish said this highlights the effects of releasing household pets in the wild.

Last weekend, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) sold 153 nonresident fishing licenses, about the same number it sold during the same period of time last year.

The last of five installments of funding totaling almost $2.5 million was approved by the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission recently. The $560,000 has been distributed over the past five years to support the Statewide Mule Deer Initiative.

Approximately 75 pronghorn have died in a 35 square mile area north of Gillette this year. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has identified the cause: a bacteria called Mycoplasma bovis, which is usually found in cattle and has not been known to affect pronghorn.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is offering a women only Hunter Education course in Laramie. The class will take place March 5 and 6 with a field day March 7.

Grand Teton National Park has paused its efforts to eliminate the nonnative mountain goat herd in the area. This comes after state and federal agencies told the park to call it off. Gov. Mark Gordon, the Wyoming Game and Fish director and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior asked the national park to halt its plans to kill the nonnative population through aerial gunning.

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon praised a number of groups for working together as he officially signed his migration corridor executive order.

This is the last week the public can comment on four options in an amended plan for how prairie dogs are managed on the Thunder Basin National Grasslands. Some wildlife groups hope to build their population in hopes of eventually re-introducing the endangered black footed ferret there since the prairie dogs are their main food source.

Towns and cities across Wyoming are encouraging residents to recycle their natural Christmas trees rather than send them to a landfill. Donated trees will be turned into compost, mulch and fuel. In Fremont County, they’ll have second lives as fish habitat in a lake outside of Pavillion.

Preliminary numbers from the Wyoming Game and Fish Department show sage grouse reproduction is slightly up compared to last year.

Biologists with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department in Gillette recently collared 35 mule deer does in the Rochelle Hills area southeast of Wright.

The lack of affordable housing in Teton County is affecting state agencies like the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has released a draft of its Chronic Wasting Disease management plan.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation's (WYDOT) efforts to improve wildlife crossings in the state have gotten a boost from the federal government.

A working group of 31 Wyoming residents released a report with their recommendations on how to manage Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the state.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department wrapped up the first part of its Upper Powder River Mule Deer herd habitat project. It's hoping to improve mule deer habitat in the southern Bighorn Mountains.

Elk that have depended on supplemental feed from the Alkali Creek feedground in northwest Wyoming will have to start looking elsewhere. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department is starting a five-year phase-out plan.

As hunting season begins, Wyoming Game and Fish (WGF) officials encourage hunters to have their animals tested for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). CWD is a deadly brain disease that effects deer, elk and moose. It's almost impossible to spot, and spreads easily between animals. The Centers for Disease Control recommends against eating meat from an infected animal.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department will host trainings throughout the Bighorn Basin to teach hunters how to collect samples from mule deer for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) testing.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has launched a new way for the public to connect with the outdoors, using live web cameras throughout the state.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission has approved spending $1.25 million to build two wildlife underpasses in western Wyoming on Highway 189. Game and Fish's Sara DiRienzo said Wyoming Department of Transportation and other organizations are partnering on the projects because of the high number of wildlife crashes on a 28 mile stretch of road.