The Utah Legislature wants states to manage wolves — not the federal government — and has appropriated millions of taxpayer dollars to that end, though there are no known established packs here.
Since 2011, lawmakers have set aside $5.98 million for groups working to remove gray wolves from the federal endangered species list. The vast majority of that money — $5.13 million — was for a group called Big Game Forever, under a 2017 contract with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Now, a new audit has found that questions about how the nonprofit “carried out the contract remain unanswered” and that the money it spent has been “difficult to pin down.”
The auditors were not able to review all of Big Game Forever’s expenditures because, “despite multiple calls and attempts to contact Big Game Forever, we were not able to contact the organization.”
The website of Big Game Forever says Utah lawyer and hunter Ryan Benson, a cofounder, is its president. It has not posted on its social media accounts in recent years and a request for comment sent to its email address bounced back.
An investigation by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project published in August found that Big Game Forever paid taxpayer dollars to a consulting company owned by Ryan Benson’s brother, Jon Benson, who is also the president of Lake Restoration Solutions, the company behind a failed plan to dredge Utah Lake and create artificial islands.
But since Big Game Forever’s five-year contract, the audit found, “oversight of contracts for wolf delisting efforts have improved,” pointing to recent work with pro-hunting group Hunter Nation Inc. The nonprofit received $500,000 from the Legislature in 2023.
Hunter Nation’s website says it is “leading the national effort [to] get the gray wolf delisted in all 48 continental states” and “building a grassroots army to promote and protect the traditional American values of God, family, country, and the hunting way of life.”
Utah state leaders have long been hostile to wolves, which are protected under the Endangered Species Act in most of the state, for preying on livestock and thwarting hunters. The audit does not evaluate lawmakers’ reasons for appropriating money to anti-wolf groups.
Big Game Forever didn’t disclose expenditures, subcontractors
Overall, according to the audit, the 2017 contract with Big Game Forever “lacked measurable objectives that could be evaluated to determine if contract goals were met.”
The goal of the work was to “return management authority for gray wolves to the State of Utah,” but “auditors couldn’t determine what actions were taken toward that goal.”
“This end goal is measurable,” the audit reads, “but it is a long-term goal that may not be met for several years or even under the life of the contract.”
Other long-term goals that were difficult to evaluate, according to the audit, included opposing the introduction of the Mexican gray wolf into Utah and working with state and federal agencies.
The audit also highlighted concerns with the group’s use of subcontractors, “some of whom may be relatives,” which has been confirmed by records obtained by The Utah Investigative Journalism Project, and potential connections with a former employee at the Utah Department of Natural Resources.
The contract with Big Game Forever was lacking in documentation, the audit said. The group’s reports only included broad descriptions of expenditures and work hours for subcontractors.
Auditors, given Big Game Forever’s failure to respond to their questions, said they didn’t pursue this documentation further. If the Legislative Audit Committee approves, the audit said, more investigatory work could follow.
In 2020, The Utah Investigative Journalism Project won a ruling from the Utah State Records Committee that ordered Big Game Forever to disclose the names of subcontractors it had paid. But Big Game Forever sued in the 3rd District Court to keep the records secret for the next four years. It lost in district court and before the Utah Court of Appeals, and the journalism project reported on the records in August.
[Read the investigation: Developer behind Utah Lake islands scheme received taxpayer money for working on his brother’s anti-wolf campaign]
Hunter Nation spending is ‘clear and accountable’
The state’s contract with Hunter Nation started in 2023 and is still ongoing. In contrast to Big Game Forever, the funds spent by Hunter Nation “can be clearly tracked and are clearly used for the purposes listed,” the audit found.
The purpose of the contract, according to the scope of work included in the audit, is to “institute a national informational campaign…to change public perception regarding management of the gray wolf.”
Like the Big Game Forever contract, Hunter Nation’s end goal is to delist the gray wolf and restore state management of the predator. To meet that goal, the scope of work reads that the group will “mobilize a grass roots army of hunters in Wisconsin.”
The Hunter Nation contract, according to the audit, had clear objectives, like using “recognizable celebrities” — namely businessman Donald Trump Jr. and singer Ted Nugent — to garner public support for delisting wolves.
Auditors verified that the group used state funding to place television news stories, send mailers, spread its message on Facebook, print flyers, create a website and host events.
The audit added that Hunter Nation’s finances “appear to be clear and accountable,” with less use of subcontractors and no expenditures unrelated to the contract.
Justin Shirley, director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, wrote that “we welcomely accept the conclusions in the report’s ‘wolf delisting’” section, in a division response to the audit.
Wolves were once common throughout North America, but hunted nearly to extinction by the start of the 20th century. Colorado released ten wolves on its Western Slope in December as part of a controversial meaure passed in 2020 to reintroduce them in the state.
Utah has an agreement with Colorado to capture and return any wolves that cross the state line. Some lawmakers, though, have said they would rather return the animals “in the form of a rug.”
