Posted
May 29, 2008

Is Wyoming Game Department Mismanaging Public Trust?

Critics in Wyoming complain that the state Game and Fish Department is maintaining feedgrounds for wild elk even though they help incubate and spread “chronic wasting disease” among elk. Cattle-ranchers like the feedgrounds because they allow herds of cattle to forage on public lands instead. But now that an epidemic of “chronic wasting disease” – a variant of “mad cow disease” – is spreading among elk, hunters and environmentalists charge that the feedgrounds are spreading the disease. It’s only a matter of time before the elk population is decimated and large areas of forest and grazing lands are contaminated indefinitely. Is the Game and Fish Department violating its public trust to judiciously manage public lands and wildlife by continuing to maintain elk feedgrounds?

Additional source “Do Elk Feedgrounds Violate Public Trust?” http://www.wyofile.com/elk_feedground_legal_questions.htm