Hunting seasons wind down as Game and Fish starts planning for 2026

The original story by Drew Kirby for KGAB AM 650.

As January winds down, so do Wyoming’s biggest hunting seasons.

Most of the state’s big game hunts are wrapping up right about now, and a few important deadlines are looming. Application periods for nonresident elk hunters and Wyoming’s spring turkey season are set to close within days.

That doesn’t mean hunting is over for the winter, though. Small game seasons are still open, along with mountain lion, gray wolf and coyote hunting. Bird farms are also an option for hunters looking to get outside during what’s been a pretty unusual Wyoming winter.

With the bulk of big game season in the rearview mirror, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department is shifting gears – and the work is just getting started.

If you hunted big game this season, you’ve probably already seen it in your inbox or mailbox: the harvest survey. Those surveys are a key piece of the puzzle as Game and Fish starts laying the groundwork for the 2026 hunting seasons.

Harvest surveys help wildlife managers figure out how many animals were actually taken during the season and how herds are faring across the state. That information feeds directly into decisions about license numbers, season dates and future hunting regulations.

In short, filling one out matters more than a lot of hunters realize.

For Game and Fish biologists, the end of hunting season doesn’t mean things slow down. If anything, it ramps up. They’ve been collecting data all season long, and now they’re crunching numbers and pulling together reports that will shape Wyoming’s hunts two years down the road.

While the 2026 seasons aren’t set in stone yet, the application period for most big game species is already open. Final season dates won’t be locked in until after a round of public meetings in March, followed by the Game and Fish Commission’s season-setting meetings in April.

Once those dates are finalized, hunters will have until June 1 to get their applications in. Draw results are scheduled to be released June 18.

So even as this year’s hunts come to a close, the next ones are already taking shape – and hunters have a role to play in shaping them.