SUBLETTE COUNTY – The Sublette County Predator Management Board quickly moved through its annual elections at its Dec. 8 meeting by renominating everyone whose term was ending and reelecting the same longtime officers.

Predator board members Clay Olson and Kevin Campbell, both “cattle” producers, were voted in again for three more years. Jacque Downs attended via Zoom. A vacant “sheep” position will be filled by Kristi Wardell and the board unanimously reelected sheep member Pete Arambel as president, Olson as vice president and sheep member Cat Urbigkit as secretary-treasurer.

The board consists of livestock representatives and a county-appointed “sportsman” representative, and that seat is open for application with Josh Adams completing his term. Anyone interested can contact county administrator Jeness Saxton for an application; the Board of Sublette County Commissioners will then choose its new representative.

The Sublette County Predator Board’s mission is to protect the public health and livestock ranchers with predator control – ravens, magpies, coyotes, starlings and other property-destructive animals and birds. It also deals with predator zone wolves.

It is the only such county board that is not under the Wyoming Department of Agriculture’s financial umbrella, funded in part by Sublette County and from portions of predator fee included with brand inspections at the time of sale.

The Sublette board again voted to not raise its predator fees as have other county predator management districts under the state umbrella.

However, local cattle or sheep producers selling their animals must ensure a brand inspector checks off “Sublette County” as the origin of the cattle and sheep, Urbigkit and Arambel told the board.

Sublette County’s predator fees at change of ownership are 60 cents a head and cattle, 20 cents a head. The state collects the fees, takes out 5 percent and returns the rest to this county.

Sometimes sale barn personnel accidentally write their location’s city for charges that are higher than the Sublette County fees, they added. Then the fees go to that other county’s predator board, they explained.

Another gap is when an owner ships livestock to Sublette County for summer grass and the cattle, for example, are taken home and sold, with this county not getting any predator fees.

Arambel said the predator fee is only charged “on change of ownership that doesn’t occur until after (livestock) leave here. They get the benefit of our program – they come here and they leave.”

Urbigkit said she and Arambel track the number of sheep they sell to figure how much is returned to Sublette County as indicated “and Sublette County is being shorted on sheep in reporting,” she said.

They spoke with Wyoming Livestock Board Director Steve True in May about discrepancies, telling him they were “shorted 1,300 head of sheep in reporting.” Urbigkit said about $800 paid in predator fees did not come back to the county.

True said, yes, he would look into it.

That was in May, Urbigkit said, and she hadn’t heard anything else. “So we’re not getting anywhere and we’re getting further in the hole.”

Urbigkit noted the complexity of dealing with state and county agencies to sort through numbers that apparently don’t match up.

“I feel like we need an official action in our minutes to take this to the next level,” she said. “On the record.”

Urbigkit noted the WLSB is in the process of updating everything onto a new computer system but that would still leave the months of possibly incomplete records and missed reimbursements to Sublette County and the predator board.

The board discussed sending an email or letter and getting on the WLSB’s annual March meeting agenda. They talked about requesting an audit or investigation into accurate or inaccurate livestock numbers and predator fees that are expected to be returned to Sublette County.

“Write a letter to the Wyoming Livestock Board for a spot on the agenda,” Campbell said. “Thanks for approaching it with a start on the solution.”

Downs asked if other counties might be in the same position – “Are you sure it’s just Sublette County?”

Olson said it didn’t matter if the predator fee for cattle is $1 (as in 20 other counties) or 20 cents as it is here. “We’re not getting paid.”

“It might be nothing more than a lot of incompetency but the result is still the same,” Campbell said.

Predator board members minus Adams unanimously approved writing a letter to the entire Wyoming Livestock Board, requesting a spot on its March agenda and paying for two members to attend that meeting.