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POWELL - Brian Nesvik, former Wyoming Game and Fish Department director and brigadier general of the Wyoming National Guard, has been nominated to direct the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. President Donald Trump made the nomination Tuesday afternoon, quietly adding Nesvik's name along with 187 other nominations to a Congressional website. The nomination will next go to the U.S. Senate for confirmation. Nesvik started his career with the department in 1995 as a game warden in the Laramie...
A seemingly unfathomable triple murder and suicide in the small Bighorn Basin town of Byron this week is a reminder that Wyoming government and communities need to “double down” on combatting mental health issues, Gov. Mark Gordon said. “My heart goes out to the families,” Gordon said, speaking to WyoFile reporters in his office Wednesday morning. He noted that legislators meeting one floor above had ties to the family involved, as tragedies ripple quickly through the social fabric of the nation’s least populous state. “This is a restatement...
The Sublette County Sheriff's Office is investigating the death of a Big Piney man and has charged two individuals in connection with the case. On Wednesday, February 5, at approximately 12:20 p.m., Sublette County Sheriff's Deputies responded to a report of a possible deceased person at a residence on South Mickelson Street in Big Piney, according to a press release. "Upon entering the home, deputies found an adult male on the ground with significant injuries," the press release explained. "He...
Rep. Bob Wharff didn't hide his anger about federal wildlife managers denying Wyoming authority over its grizzly bear population, despite meeting Endangered Species Act recovery goals for over 20 years. The Republican representative from Evanston, who's back in the Legislature after a one-term absence, went beyond "fist shaking" by bringing a bill that called for grizzly bear hunting as soon as 2026 - regardless of the species' federal status. "It's me trying to get this body to stand up and...
Despite growing support for nuclear energy nationally and here in Wyoming, there are simply too many concerns to entertain the possibility of opening the state to the country's growing stockpile of spent nuclear fuel waste, some lawmakers say. House Bill 16, "Used nuclear fuel storage-amendments," touted by its backers as a tool to initiate a larger conversation, died Wednesday morning in the House Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee. In addition to being flooded with emails an...
The Wyoming Senate narrowly voted for a resolution demanding that Congress turn over some 30 million federal acres to the state — but only after first defeating the measure and then reconsidering it. Senate Joint Resolution 2, “Resolution demanding equal footing,” insists that Congress act by October to begin turning over the property. That includes Grand Teton National Park, all or parts of eight national forests, Devils Tower National Monument, the Thunder Basin National Grassland and vast swaths of sagebrush and desert managed by the Burea...
The 2024 Sublette County case of wildlife torture and abuse is spurring a "Clean Kill Bill" initiative, asking the Wyoming Legislature to establish felony penalties to punish those who would purposely torture Wyoming's wildlife. The proposed bill protects recreational hunting and predator management. Wyoming Sportsmanship, a new advocacy organization led by respected leaders of Wyoming's sportsman community, is advocating for a stronger bill than is currently drafted in the state Legislature...
James Warren Martin, 38, of Casper, Wyoming, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, with a lifetime of supervised release, for transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. This sentence is to run concurrently with his 37-to-45-year sentence imposed in Wyoming’s Seventh Judicial District state court for his victimization of the same minor. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Scott W. Skavdahl imposed the sentence on Jan. 23, in Casper. According to court documents, the defendant was brought to the attention o...
CHEYENNE-Laura Pearson's sheep ranching family has had a rough go of it lately. Woolgrowing is an industry that's shrunk dramatically from its heyday, including in Wyoming. Modern disruptions and hardships, like the brutal winter of 2022-'23, were a gut punch to operations that have hung on, even knocking some woolgrowers out of business. "Ranchers are hurting right now," said Pearson, a Republican state senator and school bus driver from Kemmerer who's new to the Wyoming Legislature. "In May,...
President Donald Trump's executive orders will fast-track oil and natural gas development, erase perceived federal regulatory "burdens" for extractive industries, halt electric vehicle incentive programs and wind energy permitting, withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change and, above all, "are a win for U.S. energy and Wyoming," according to Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. Details on exactly how the new administration will achieve these things are not clear, according to some...
Gabriel Estrada, 30, of Denver, Colorado, was sentenced to 120 months, with five years of supervised release to follow, for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. U.S. District Court Judge Alan B. Johnson imposed the sentence in Cheyenne on Jan. 13. A federal jury convicted Estrada on Oct. 25, 2024. According to trial evidence and court documents, Estrada used a chat website to meet up with a 13-year-old persona for sexual intercourse. An undercover agent posed as a 13-year-old female living in Laramie, Wyoming....
Rekindling a still-smouldering debate from last year’s legislative session, Laramie Republican Rep. Ocean Andrew on Thursday brought House Bill 199, “Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act” — a measure that would bring universal school vouchers to Wyoming. Lawmakers created a new program in 2024 to give income-qualified families up to $6,000 in state funds to offset private school fees, pre-K tuition or homeschool education costs. School choice advocates wanted to extend the program to all Wyomingites with school-aged kids, but legislative comprom...
The gunman who opened fire in Yellowstone National Park on July 4 had plans for “Pro White Nationalist Violence” and “a history of expressing white supremacist and antisemitic views.” That’s according to court documents filed in federal court Friday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming, which revealed new details about the incident and the shooter, Samson Lucas Bariah Fussner, a 28-year-old Floridian and employee of Xanterra Parks and Resorts. Fussner was shot and killed by park rangers after opening fire at the Canyon Lodg...
For decades, researchers in and around Yellowstone National Park have used seismic waves - imagine giving the region an MRI - to map the hot mush below the Earth's surface. Now a group of scientists from across the country have added solar storms and lightning to the diagnostic toolkit, tapping into the Earth's natural electricity to further refine the image of what lies up to 30 miles below its crust. "The challenge we face in geology, is there are very few direct observations of what's actuall...
Despite overwhelming evidence that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions are the main driver of a climate crisis that threatens to imperil modern life on Earth, some far-right members of the Wyoming Legislature contend it's a hoax intended to depress the state's fossil fuel-reliant economy. Rather than capitulate to out-of-state policies and market forces, the state ought to set an example and outlaw carbon reduction measures altogether - a "bold step forward to lead a balanced, science-based...
The coming Wyoming Legislature, with its large cadre of first-time lawmakers, will consider significant reforms to the state's justice system. While much remains to be seen, WyoFile is watching four areas in particular where next year's policy-making could most directly impact policing, courts and government accountability. Among those measures are several bills the Joint Judiciary Committee crafted over the last 10 months. Testimony by subject experts has informed those pieces of legislation, b...
Opponents of the controversial Rail Tie wind farm in southern Albany County have sued federal regulators, hoping to halt the 149-turbine renewable energy project that would span 26,000 acres. The suit, filed Dec. 23 in the U.S. District Court of Wyoming and assigned to Chief Judge Scott W. Skavdahl, alleges the federal Western Area Power Administration - a division of the U.S. Department of Energy - failed to adequately weigh impacts on wildlife, wetlands, cultural resources and the Ames...
Wyoming's water chief wants emergency funds for hydrologists to measure flows in the state's portion of the troubled Colorado River Basin, documentation he said is vital to preserving irrigation and other uses. State Engineer Brandon Gebhart asked for $167,210 in supplemental budget funds, a piddling amount in the world of western water finances, but a critical sum necessary to launch the work this spring. He called parts of the proposed allocation an "emergency," a designation that would...
Someone recreating on public land south of Jackson called in the report of a dead cow elk. Wyoming Game and Fish Department personnel went to investigate, and while they were at it they took a tissue sample to ascertain what might have killed the cow. Two days before Christmas, the state agency publicized the unwelcome, but not unexpected news: The forlorn animal tested positive for chronic wasting disease, an always-lethal sickness with the potential to devastate big game herds. The CWD...
The federal government bought Wyoming's 640-acre Kelly Parcel school section for $100 million today, a transaction that will see the wildlife-rich property that lawmakers had proposed for commercial development, instead preserved as part of Grand Teton National Park. The U.S. Department of the Interior and the Grand Teton National Park Foundation announced the completion of this morning's sale after the foundation spearheaded a $37.6 million drive for private funds to augment $62.4 million in fe...
Oneil Anthony Findley, 28, of Jackson, Wyoming, was convicted by a federal jury on Dec. 11 of attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine, use of a communication facility to facilitate a drug offense, and drug conspiracy. The trial lasted three days and was held before U.S. District Court Judge Kelly H. Rankin. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, while investigating a possible drug distribution network in Jackson, agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and United States Postal Inspe...
A judge has ordered federal wildlife officials to decide by Jan. 20 whether Yellowstone-area grizzly bears should be delisted from the Endangered Species Act. The order, issued by U.S. District Court of Wyoming Judge Alan Johnson, could speed up a potential handover of authority to Wyoming, Idaho and Montana - opening the door for grizzly bear hunting. Johnson issued the decision Friday in response to a Wyoming petition that sought to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to honor a missed...
Wyoming’s largest electricity provider, Rocky Mountain Power, has agreed to trim a temporary rate hike for its 144,000 customers. The decision follows pressure from the Wyoming Office of Consumer Advocate and Wyoming Industrial Energy Consumers — a powerful rate-scrutinizing group that accounts for about 70% of the company’s electrical power consumption in the state. The Wyoming Public Service Commission on Monday approved a settlement agreement between the parties that finalizes an $80.6 million increase — about 7% less than Rocky Mountai...
The whereabouts of the pint-sized pika, a mammalian indicator species that is losing its alpine habitat to climate change, have been mapped for the first time in Wyoming's reaches of the Rocky Mountains. Biologists who keep watch over non-game species for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department surveyed the distribution of the talus-dwelling lagomorphs, finding pikas in nine mountainous areas: the Salt River, Snake River, Wyoming, Wind River, Gros Ventre, Teton, Absaroka, Bighorn and Snowy ranges....
Recent sentencings from the US Attorney's Office District of Wyoming: Injury or Depredation to U.S. Property Sherette Joseph Lujan, 48, of Riverton, Wyoming, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with 3 years of supervised release for injury or depredation to United States property. The court also ordered him to pay $2,304 in restitution. According to court documents, on June 15, the Riverton Police Department was dispatched to the Riverton Post Office for a report of a man breaking windows in the building with a metal object. Officers d...
