East Yellowstone Brucellosis Compensation Fund

Property and Environment Research Center and East Yellowstone Collaborative

Recognizing the costs that working landowners face from wildlife presence on private lands, PERC and the EYC partnered to create a compensation fund to address one of those costs. Working lands provide food, fiber, and are essential to communities like Cody, but also provide wildlife habitat necessary to maintain the region’s elk, mule deer, and pronghorn herds. However, the wildlife that rely on those lands come with costs and producers are often left to bear those costs alone. Brucellosis is a disease that can spread from elk to cattle and force cattle producers into arduous and expensive quarantines. Working with producers over the past year, PERC and EYC learned about the costs cattle producers face in quarantine and created a compensation fund tied to those biggest costs. The East Yellowstone Brucellosis Compensation Fund is tied to the costs of pasture leases, hay, and cattle maintenance, and will adjust every year to reflect the real costs faced by producers. For 2025, the payment is $45 per head per month. The number of head that qualify for payments is different in winter (December - April) and non-winter months. In winter months, only those cattle that were meant to be sold before the quarantine order will qualify. In the non-winter months, all cattle qualify for the payment. The Compensation Fund is intended to work in tandem with the Wyoming Livestock Board’s brucellosis compensation program. Thanks to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, TE Ranch, and Wyoming Whiskey for capitalizing the fund up to $126,000. Please contact Travis Brammer at PERC (tbrammer@perc.org) or Laura Bell at LegacyWorks.