GRVCA annual events offer education, celebration
Sen. Barrasso stops by to mix, mingle
by Joy Ufford
March 15, 2026
The Green River Valley Cattlemen’s Association (GRVCA) hosted a wide range of topics at its public informational meetings on Friday and Saturday, March 6-7, 2026, at the Marbleton Town Hall, closing with the big bang annual banquet Saturday night.
Both afternoons to a full house, people shared what they know about a new virtual fencing system, genetic brisket testing, GPS tags, market outlooks, livestock predator fees, public lands grazing, new legislation (and what they might be trying to sell).
President Kristy Wardell presided over the talks, with new president Walden Campbell and vice president Clay Olson sworn in.
Later, Campbell of Bondurant welcomed several hundred diners to the annual banquet Saturday, March 7, at the Sublette County Fairgrounds. Riverbend Ranch donated NY steaks, raffle tickets flew, The Sundowners played to dancers of all ages, and the crowd stood and applauded for GRVCA’s and Cattlewomen’s achievement awards.
Water, water
One timely update, with uncertainties about the near future of water in the Colorado River Basin, came from Travis McInnis of the Wyoming State Engineer’s Office. He discussed the possibility of irrigation curtailment, which the Wyoming Constitution says can only be voluntary, not mandatory.
Voluntary water conservation of 25,000 to 30,000 acre-feet could include payments to ranchers for using less for irrigation than permitted, which the Wyoming Department of Agriculture piloted several years ago in western Wyoming, he said.
The State Engineer’s Office has more information about and applications for the voluntary water conservation program, under the "Telemetry" section.
Predator fees
Friday, GRVCA President Kristy Wardell invited a panel of different agencies to discuss whether the Sublette County Predator Board should raise the predator fees to $1 in
change-of-ownership brand inspections. Sublette County commissioners support the board up to $50,000 "credit" each year.
For countless years, the fee has remained 60 cents a head for cattle and 20 cents for sheep, the only county to do so, making it ineligible for the Department of Ag’s Animal Damage Management Board (ADMB). Sublette County’s biggest livestock predators are grizzly bears and gray wolves. Gray wolves and grizzlies are managed by Wyoming Game and Fish and USDA Wildlife Services in the county’s northwest Trophy-Game Management Area (TGMA) and Wildlife Services in the state’s predator zone in the south county.
Wardell is also the predator board’s new secretary-treasurer. ADMB Director Jerry Johnson appeared via Zoom, with Sublette County Predator Board President Pete Arambel, Game and Fish’s Clint Atkinson, Wildlife Services’ manager Brady Smith and GRVCA rancher France Clark. Arambel said he favors raising predator fees to $1 and joining the ADMB.
Conversation centered on how the ADMB funds projects and if a full-time trapper is needed. Smith said a good employee needs stability and full-time pay.
"Why do you need a trapper for wolves in the predator area," asked longtime predator board member and Bondurant rancher Kevin Campbell. He referred to a retired pilot who with an aerial gunner killed hundreds of coyotes. Smith said a trapper is still needed on the ground to work with a pilot.
Joel Bousman, whose family ranches against the Wind River Mountains, said their landscape and "situation is totally different" than Hoback Basin. "The majority is wilderness," he said, adding it’s difficult to find killed livestock. "Our only option is to have a trapper full time. We don’t get paid for the wolf kills like the guys on the Upper Green. I’m totally willing to pay $1 a head. … What we need to stay in business is to keep the wolves down."
Clark said about 30 livestock owners on the need for a full-time trapper "was very area specific." The farther north he went in the county, he said, the less a need was seen for a trapper, unlike South County.
Saturday, Daniel ranchers Sherri Butner and Gene Paul Pearson talked about how the solar- powered Halter collars and virtual fencing worked for their families’ cattle herds.
Jim Magagna, of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, reviewed state bills supported or not by WSGA. Regarding his influence in shifting two Red Desert sections out of the Sublette Pronghorn Herd Migration Route, Magagna said people think he wanted them removed because he and neighbors use the public range. Not really, he explained. There isn’t much sense in having "a 40-mile-wide corridor" for migration, he said.
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso arrived on a breeze, with U.S. Capitol Police and Sublette County deputies providing security. Barrasso greeted many people by name. Barrasso spoke about the "endurance, resilience and determination" of Wyomingites he met at the National Finals Rodeo, "Wyoming Wednesdays" in Congress, and two weeks ago on a ship where soldiers battle against Iran.
He used fellow U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis’s list of benefits of President Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill" and Wyoming’s "incredible resources" of oil and natural gas. "Gas was $5 a gallon when Biden was president," he said. "We are number 1 in energy in the world. There will be a blip (due to the Iran move). I’ll never forget when Biden said climate was more important than energy." About Social Security: "LBJ got the medicine right and the math wrong."
The GRVCA then concluded its second day of business meetings and everyone left for the banquet.
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GREEN RIVER VALLEY CATTLEMEN’S ASSOCATION
LIFETIME MEMBERS 2026
STEVE AND MAVIS JAMES
Tonight, we are proud to honor Steve and Mavis James as recipients of the Lifetime Rancher Award.
Steve James was born in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1950 and has been horseback nearly his entire life. Raised on his family’s ranch, he learned early that ranching means long days, tough country, and good horses. When the James family moved to Sublette County, Steve grew up working cattle in the Hoback Basin and earned a reputation as a cowboy who knew cattle, rode good horses, and never shied away from hard work.
Along with running the family ranch, Steve built a nationally recognized career training cutting horses. No matter where that took him, he was always a rancher first.
Mavis James grew up on her family’s ranch in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. After high school, she followed ranch work across several states before finding her way to Sublette County more than 40 years ago. Despite a few attempts to live elsewhere, County 23 kept calling her back. Somewhere along the way, while Mavis was busy ranching and outworking most anyone, Steve James started "gathering her up." It took a little persistence, but he got it right.
Steve and Mavis returned to the James Ranch full-time in the early 1980s and were married in 1988. Their honeymoon began the very next day at a cutting horse show – which tells you about all you need to know.
Together, they ran cattle, put up hay, fed cows through long winters, trained and showed cutting horses, and raised a family. Steve brought three daughters – Christie, Carie, and Jenny – to the marriage, and together Steve and Mavis raised two more children, Andrea and Jacob. Ranch life didn’t slow them down; it simply meant raising kids alongside the cattle, horses, and dogs.
When Steve was away with the horse business, Mavis held the ranch together – calving, feeding, fencing, shipping cattle, and keeping everything running without complaint. Steve has said the only time she ever got cranky was if he was three hours late from the Green River Bar.
Today, Steve and Mavis still live on the James Ranch. Steve may be retired from professional horse training, but he’s never far from a saddle, and Mavis is still doing whatever needs done.
For a lifetime of dedication to ranching, family, land, and community, it is our honor to recognize Steve and Mavis James as recipients of the Lifetime Rancher Award.
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GREEN RIVER VALLEY CATTLEMEN’S ASSOCIATION
LIFETIME MEMBER 2026
JANE WARDELL
It is my honor and privilege to nominate a longtime friend and neighbor for the Lifetime
Membership to the Green River Valley Cattlemen.
Jane Wardell was born in Rock Springs, Wyoming, on Sept.10, 1938, to May and Frank Franch. Jane was raised in the small settlement of Wenton. Jane has two sisters, Dorothy and Nila, and brother Gene. Jane was also blessed to have two step-siblings, Mary and Henry Franch.
Jane came to Sublette County when she was 16 years old. Jane went to work for Stan Decker at the lodge on the shores of the Upper Green. This is where Jane met Martin "Sprout" Wardell. Jane traveled down to the ranch on the Green River to visit her sister Nila and husband Lance Hill. The Hills lived close to Mart and Alice Wardell who would soon be her in-laws. Jane and Sprout were married in Mart and Alice’s living room on April 11, 1956.
This was the beginning of a long happy life with lots of hard work mixed in. Sprout and Jane not only ranched, but ran a hunting camp from 1955 until the 1980s. Jane was right by his side, cooking at the camp and all that goes into the job. After the fall hunts were finished, it was back to the ranch to feed cattle and the day-to-day ranch work.
The Wardells, and that included Jane, scattered salt in the Upper Green for over 60 years. Jane rode, hayed, cooked, and still is the head bookkeeper. Jane also kept books for the rural TV. Jane’s son, Eddie, took care of the TV for many years.
Jane also cared for both Alice and Mart in their later years, as well as her mother, May. Jane also cared for Mart’s brother, Jim, and Alice’s brother, Dan. Both brothers worked on the ranch.
Jane is now 88 years old and has worked hard to those 88 years. She has been a good neighbor and friend to all the folks that have lived on the river.
With her son, Eddie, and wife, Liz, and myself, I give you the next Lifetime Member of the Green River Valley Cattlemen – Jane Wardell.
Submitted by Jeanne Lockwood.
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GREEN RIVER VALLEY CATTLEMEN’S ASSOCIATION
LIFETIME MEMBER 2026
COTTON GUIO
Cotton Guio is a 76-year-old, fifth-generation Sublette County rancher, born into the way of life he has cherished and worked tirelessly to preserve. His deep respect for the land and livestock – paired with an openness to new ideas and a work ethic second to none – has defined his decades in the ranching world.
Cotton grew up in the heart of Sublette County’s early cattle industry. Some of his fondest memories are of listening to his great-grandmother, Sadie Osterhout, tell stories about overnight cattle drives to Opal, where the cattle were loaded onto trains for market. Like most ranch kids, he grew up helping with drives, feeding, and learning the ins and outs of calving.
When the cattle market crashed in the 1960s, the Guio family shifted from a cow/calf operation to running yearlings, leasing pasture and maintaining a smaller herd of their own. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, they returned to cow/calf ranching – Cotton’s true passion. He takes great pride in producing a strong calf crop each year.
Together with his wife, Cynde, he calved heifers, often saying, "It’s you and me, babe, against the world," make no mistake, that time of year heifers are your world. Through all the hardships, rewards, and constant learning, being a cattle rancher remains one of his greatest accomplishments.
From his earliest cattle moves on horseback to becoming one of the area’s first adopters of motorcycles for moving livestock, Cotton has always embraced innovation. Today, ATVs are standard on nearly every ranch – something he helped pave the way for.
Stewardship of the land is another of Cotton’s lifelong passions. Caring for the ground entrusted to him by generations before has always been a top priority. He believes that being a good steward means leaving the land better than he found it – not only for his own generation, but for those to come. The future of ranching, and the legacy of the Guio family, is something he holds close to his heart.
He learned early the value of good neighbors and has long believed they are a rancher’s greatest allies. Through droughts, floods, blizzards, and predators, he consistently rose to each challenge with practicality and ingenuity. Known by many as the "MacGyver" of the ranching community, Cotton can fix nearly anything and always seems to find a solution when one is needed.
Cotton began haying at the age of 5, running a dump rake – and 71 years later, he hasn’t missed a single haying season.
He leads the baling crew and singlehandedly maintains nine pieces of baling equipment while baling full-time. He not only maintains the equipment—he repairs it and handles breakdowns on the fly, using efficiency and ingenuity to keep the operation running while saving valuable time and money. Though it can be a grind, he still approaches each season with the determination to outperform the last.
Alongside his dedication to ranching, Cotton’s greatest pride is his family. He and his wife, Cynde, have been married for 51 years and raised two daughters, Tayton and Landa, who grew up watching – and learning from – their father’s resilience, humor, and unwavering commitment to the land and the life he loves.
Cotton is a man who knows who he is- steady, quick-witted, hardworking, and always willing to help whenever and whomever he can. His lifetime of dedication, resilience, stewardship, and love for family makes him a truly deserving recipient of this recognition.
Submitted by Landa Guio
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