Many of you may not know that the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission had a discussion at their August meeting about resident/non-resident big game license allocations.
Colorado currently offers up to 35% of limited deer and elk licenses to non-residents, with the allocation being up to 20% in high demand units. These are units that took an average of 6 or more points for resident hunters to draw, based on a 3 year average the last time it was calculated (2008-2010). This amounts to about 1% of the total limited deer and elk licenses, so a vast majority of hunt codes are allocated at the 65/35 level.
With development of the new 5-year season structure this year came the opportunity for the Parks and Wildlife Commission to revisit the resident/non-resident license allocation in relation to resident demand for those licenses. The PWC has the authority to act or not to act during this process. If they do not act, the units being allocated at 80/20 would stay the same. A review of current demand for licenses showed that if the 3-year average was recalculated using 2012-2014 demands, approximately 22 additional deer hunt codes and 4 additional elk hunt codes would go from 65/35 to 80/20 allocation. This is largely due to a reduced number of licenses available due to deer winter kill and elk populations being brought closer to objectives.
The Colorado Outfitter's Association brought their attorney to the August PWC meeting to testify that outfitters are concerned that the PWC is unfairly restricting access to licenses for non-residents and suggested that such restriction could be cause for a challenge (lawsuit) under the Colorado Administrative Procedures Act, Colorado Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. Now we know that the rights of States to allocate licenses any way they see fit has been upheld multiple times by the Courts. But the WC is very diluted by outfitter, landowner and non-hunting (parks) interests, and they may be susceptible to the Bullying 101 tactics by the outfitters. The attorney suggested that the COA would be "thrilled" if the PWC proposed an across the board allocation of 60/40 with a hard cap (guarantee of 40% for non-residents).
The entire 1 hour discussion and testimony about the license allocation can be heard beginning at about the 20:00 mark of Part 4 of the audio archive at this link. There is an accompanying pdf of the PowerPoint presentation that was given to the PWC linked at the bottom of the page (item #26).
The outcome of the discussion at the August meeting was that a sub-committee of 5 Commissioners was created to develop the issue and bring information and recommendations back to the full Commission. This sub-committee consists of:
1) Bray - Representing Agriculture and a member of the Colorado Outfitters Association; 2) Horne - Representing Sportsmen and Outfitters, who is an outfitter herself (J Bar H Outfitters) and a past Board Member of the Colorado Outfitters Association; 3) Perricone - Representing Sportsmen, and a member of the CBA and other sportsman's groups in Colorado; 4) Zimmerman - Representing Non-Profits and renewable energy and land conservation and personally represented herself as the lay person on the committee, and 5) Zipp - Representing Sportsmen as a fisherman from Pueblo and member of Sierra Club. (I stole this list from a poster on another forum. Thanks, Todd)
This sub-committee will hold its first meeting in Glenwood Springs at 5pm on September 11. Given that more than 2 Commissioners will be involved, this is a public meeting, although it is not being well-advertised. There is however a meeting notice here.
Resident sportsmen should be offended and furious about this attempt by outfitters to gain access to additional licenses for non-residents, before the increase in allocation to landowners through the landowner preference program has even been realized (it goes into effect in 2015). Our system for 2015 would currently allocate 20% of limited licenses to landowners for resale to the highest bidder, and then either 35% or 20% of the remaining 80% to non-residents. This means that 36-48% of all limited licenses would be available to non-residents. The landowners and outfitters are proposing a system that would make 52% of all limited licenses available to non-residents.
Let's not forget that Colorado offers unlimited OTC elk tags, meaning that every single non-resident that wants to hunt elk in CO can do so every year. Our limited deer and elk license non-resident allocation is currently greater than any other western state. I certainly hope that resident hunters can find the time in their busy schedules to vociferously voice their opinions to the PWC about this issue, either in person at the PWC meeting or the sub-committee meeting, or by email.
Colorado currently offers up to 35% of limited deer and elk licenses to non-residents, with the allocation being up to 20% in high demand units. These are units that took an average of 6 or more points for resident hunters to draw, based on a 3 year average the last time it was calculated (2008-2010). This amounts to about 1% of the total limited deer and elk licenses, so a vast majority of hunt codes are allocated at the 65/35 level.
With development of the new 5-year season structure this year came the opportunity for the Parks and Wildlife Commission to revisit the resident/non-resident license allocation in relation to resident demand for those licenses. The PWC has the authority to act or not to act during this process. If they do not act, the units being allocated at 80/20 would stay the same. A review of current demand for licenses showed that if the 3-year average was recalculated using 2012-2014 demands, approximately 22 additional deer hunt codes and 4 additional elk hunt codes would go from 65/35 to 80/20 allocation. This is largely due to a reduced number of licenses available due to deer winter kill and elk populations being brought closer to objectives.
The Colorado Outfitter's Association brought their attorney to the August PWC meeting to testify that outfitters are concerned that the PWC is unfairly restricting access to licenses for non-residents and suggested that such restriction could be cause for a challenge (lawsuit) under the Colorado Administrative Procedures Act, Colorado Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. Now we know that the rights of States to allocate licenses any way they see fit has been upheld multiple times by the Courts. But the WC is very diluted by outfitter, landowner and non-hunting (parks) interests, and they may be susceptible to the Bullying 101 tactics by the outfitters. The attorney suggested that the COA would be "thrilled" if the PWC proposed an across the board allocation of 60/40 with a hard cap (guarantee of 40% for non-residents).
The entire 1 hour discussion and testimony about the license allocation can be heard beginning at about the 20:00 mark of Part 4 of the audio archive at this link. There is an accompanying pdf of the PowerPoint presentation that was given to the PWC linked at the bottom of the page (item #26).
The outcome of the discussion at the August meeting was that a sub-committee of 5 Commissioners was created to develop the issue and bring information and recommendations back to the full Commission. This sub-committee consists of:
1) Bray - Representing Agriculture and a member of the Colorado Outfitters Association; 2) Horne - Representing Sportsmen and Outfitters, who is an outfitter herself (J Bar H Outfitters) and a past Board Member of the Colorado Outfitters Association; 3) Perricone - Representing Sportsmen, and a member of the CBA and other sportsman's groups in Colorado; 4) Zimmerman - Representing Non-Profits and renewable energy and land conservation and personally represented herself as the lay person on the committee, and 5) Zipp - Representing Sportsmen as a fisherman from Pueblo and member of Sierra Club. (I stole this list from a poster on another forum. Thanks, Todd)
This sub-committee will hold its first meeting in Glenwood Springs at 5pm on September 11. Given that more than 2 Commissioners will be involved, this is a public meeting, although it is not being well-advertised. There is however a meeting notice here.
Resident sportsmen should be offended and furious about this attempt by outfitters to gain access to additional licenses for non-residents, before the increase in allocation to landowners through the landowner preference program has even been realized (it goes into effect in 2015). Our system for 2015 would currently allocate 20% of limited licenses to landowners for resale to the highest bidder, and then either 35% or 20% of the remaining 80% to non-residents. This means that 36-48% of all limited licenses would be available to non-residents. The landowners and outfitters are proposing a system that would make 52% of all limited licenses available to non-residents.
Let's not forget that Colorado offers unlimited OTC elk tags, meaning that every single non-resident that wants to hunt elk in CO can do so every year. Our limited deer and elk license non-resident allocation is currently greater than any other western state. I certainly hope that resident hunters can find the time in their busy schedules to vociferously voice their opinions to the PWC about this issue, either in person at the PWC meeting or the sub-committee meeting, or by email.
I've got 7 deer points.
