Wyoming OKs 75-Year Shooting Complex Lease — No Formal Wildlife Review, No Hard Safeguards

Wyoming has locked in a 75-year lease for the State Shooting Complex on nearly 2,000 acres south of Cody — without a formal environmental review or any binding wildlife protections, even though the site overlaps “crucial” year-round mule deer habitat.

The State Board of Land Commissioners (the governor and the state’s four other statewide elected officials) signed off on the deal last week in Cheyenne. There was no public discussion of habitat impacts before the vote. One wrinkle did spark debate: an amendment closing all 1,956 acres to general public access. Secretary of State Chuck Gray opposed the full closure, calling it “a little too heavy handed,” but the lease ultimately moved forward.

The shooting complex is a public-private venture launched by 2023 legislation and steered by a 12-member legislative task force. In July 2024, the panel chose the Park County tract — about three square miles in the Absaroka foothills — for an event center, long-range targets, and other facilities.

Before that decision, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department circulated a memo urging the project go elsewhere because of wildlife conflicts. The department later described the document as internal correspondence — not an official review — despite being signed on agency letterhead and addressed to the task force.

Game and Fish never completed a formal analysis of the project’s wildlife impacts, and says that’s because no one asked for one.

“We do rely on the permitting agency to request a formal environmental review,” Director Angi Bruce said.

Developers sometimes make that request themselves, she added, but “we have not done that before” absent a request.

“At the end of the day, this is a legislative action that passed and is now in state law. We’re going to respect that.”

The permitting agency here is the Office of State Lands and Investments (OSLI). On many state-land projects — like oil and gas — standard stipulations kick in automatically. For crucial big-game winter range (which includes this site for mule deer), those rules typically bar human activity from Nov. 15 to April 30 unless a variance is approved after consultation with Game and Fish.

But the shooting complex isn’t an oil or gas lease; it’s a “special-use lease,” a catch-all category that’s regulated more loosely.

“We have to take these on a case-by-case scenario, and we’re not able to develop those same standard stipulations,” said OSLI lands management supervisor Cody Booth.

Instead of hard rules, there can be agency “comments or recommendations.” In this case, because OSLI never requested a formal review, there are no written recommendations from Game and Fish on record.

Booth said the lessee “is working diligently with the Game and Fish … on a variety of wildlife matters,” and noted the lease includes a general requirement to follow state and federal wildlife laws. Specific concessions for mule deer or the core sage-grouse habitat mapped on the site’s southern end weren’t available.

Glenn Ross, who chairs the Wyoming State Shooting Complex Joint Powers Board, wasn’t available for a fresh interview. Previously, he said wildlife concerns have been part of planning from the start; an earlier location north of Cody was dropped because it overlapped an elk-calving area.

“Our planning … has been making every attempt to be wildlife friendly,” he said last summer.

Design work is nearly done. The Joint Powers Board met Thursday morning to potentially approve the layout, and a public open house is set for Oct. 15 from 5:30–7:30 p.m. at the Park County Courthouse to show off the new design.

The state just green-lit a massive shooting complex on mapped, year-round mule deer range — without the kind of formal review or seasonal restrictions routinely applied to other industries on state lands. Whether voluntary measures will meaningfully protect wildlife now rests on behind-the-scenes cooperation rather than enforceable guardrails.

The original story by Mike Koshmrl for WyoFile.