No one is using a controversial compensation program for grass lost to overpopulated Wyoming elk

There’s been virtually no interest in a new state program to provide financial relief to stockgrowers whose rangelands are grazed by overpopulated elk herds, according to Wyoming wildlife officials.

The payment program’s slow uptake took some members of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission by surprise at a Sept. 9 meeting in Lander.

“I guess I’m shocked,” Ken Roberts said.

The Game and Fish commissioner from Kemmerer noted the “urgency” portrayed by “a lot of folks” who were “adamant that this had to be done.” Most of the pressure for the compensation came from landowners who’ve struggled to run cattle amid overpopulated elk herds in central and eastern Wyoming.

Game and Fish’s deputy chief of wildlife, Craig Smith, led the conversation and was quick to note that zero claims were filed