In Wyoming, non-resident hunters fund the vast majority of the Wyoming Game & Fish budget, play a critical role in meeting harvest quotas, and bring millions of dollars in tourism revenue to the state each year. Without our out-of-state hunting visitors, hunting in Wyoming wouldn't be what is is today.

Amid game management and legislative issues here in Wyoming, sportsmen didn't have a clear voice representing them. That's exactly why the Wyoming Hunter Defense Fund (WHDF) was started. This organization was founded to protect the ability of sportsmen to access their hunting opportunities in Wyoming. WHDF will work to educate Wyoming's residents and business community of the financial contributions made by sportsmen to state's economy, while working to conserve and protect wildlife habitats.

If you value your hunting opportunities here, we encourage you to get involved and stay informed of the issues facing Wyoming sportsmen. In fact, this year we asked each of our hunting clients to make a donation to WHDF. The funds raised will help influence legislative issues, conduct research, communicate, and work to make sure that a wealth of hunting opportunities continue to be available in Wyoming.

Please keep an eye on our newsletter each month for more information on this organization. In the meantime, please click here to follow WHDF on Facebook.

Thanks to the Wyoming Hunter Defense Fund and those who have donated to this important cause, a victory was won last month that saved Wyoming nonresident hunting license allocations.

Senate Bill SF0069 would have cut nonresident license allocations for moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat and grizzly to just 10%. This would have cut the number of nonresident moose tags in half and reduced nonresident bighorn sheep and mounting goat hunting opportunities by 60%.

Fortunately the Wyoming Hunter Defense Fund was able to lobby during the 2015 general legislative session. With help from the Wyoming Office of Tourism and other concerned businesses and individuals around the state, the bill was soundly defeated.

Despite the fact that hunting tourism represents hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact and provides the majority of funding for our wildlife and hunting opportunities, bills like this have become all too common recently. If you are a Wyoming business owner, resident hunter, nonresident hunter or anyone who values the benefits of hunting tourism in Wyoming, we encourage you to donate to the Wyoming Hunter Defense fund.

We are already battling similar bills and the fight certainly is not over. A recent House Bill (HB112) sought to implement a 90/10 license allocation on all big game hunting licenses in Wyoming. This would have cut the number of nonresident hunters in Wyoming by half. That would equate to a loss of $100 million in tourism revenue, $7 million in lost license revenue for the Game and Fish Department, 250,000 acres in land access, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in Conservation Stamp funding.

The Wyoming Hunter Defense fund has been working hard to communicate this message to business owners, residents and nonresident hunters. Wyoming nonresident hunting license sales are a critical part of our state's economy and are in large part responsible for the great hunting opportunities that we enjoy today.

For more information, please visit wyominghunterdefensefund.com.