walltenthunter
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Public Hunters might want to weigh in their opinions on 3 new developing 'pilot' programs impacting limited big game licenses in Colorado. These 'pilots' as initially proposed were limited to an (a) eastern Colorado component impacting only antelope tags whereby landowners would be given an additional 10% of antelope tags,though these would be family only tags not sellable to the public and (b) a Unit 10 (quality unit) elk pilot whereby 10 additional bull elk tags would be issued and those be issued 5 to landowners whom could sell them and 5 others to public hunters. In this pilot public hunters could hunt any of the private property landowners getting the 5 vouchers had, and as another component affected landowners would need provide hunting access for certain cow elk hunters. Another SW Colorado pilot is developing, yet details of that program are still in the works.
Interesting enough, and not to be unexpected were landowner interests lobbying the Colorado Wildlife Commission at the November 2005 Commission meeting to expand the eastern Colorado pilot to deer too. Then those same landowner lobbyists asked the Commission to consider expanding the NW region Unit 10 elk program to all elk units requiring 6 or more preference pts. This would impact basically all the 'quality' elk units excepting 66 and 67 near Lake City. The impact would be 10 more bulls tags issued per year in each of those units, unless the Commission were to subtract those tags from the quota (don't count on it hunters).
Our organization, Colorado Wildlife Federation, is very concerned for any additional landowner preference increase. Sportsmen this summer in the 2005 Colorado Big Game License Allocation Public Survey had 85.5% of resident hunters and as I recall 58% of non-resident hunters opposed to any additional landowner preference, even if in the effort to achieve game management objectives. Accordingly, while we support limited pilots, we do not support expansion of the Unit 10 elk pilot to all units requiring the 5+ preference pts. To us, a pilot is a limited experiment,and limited these pilots should remain for the 3-5 years they would be in effect. Unit 10 has Dinosour National Monument hording bulls which do not receive enough hunting pressure, and their are surplus bulls. Other elk quality units though may not have surplus bulls, exampled by GMU 61 which according to DOW has 19 (yes 19) bulls per 100 cows, post hunts. That is anemic to what we expect in quality units for elk. To be certain we oppose the expansion of the pilot on elk beyond 10. Money to landowners is certainly not game management objective, and tags sold to the highest bidders hunters payment by payment fuels the fires of Privatization and Commercialization in hunting. Both are bad news to public hunters interests unless your household budget provides for $7,000 to $10,000 these unit 10 bull tags would sell for.
I would strongly encourage all hunters with interests in big game hunting to respond to the Colorado Wildlife Commission and let them know your feelings on these matters. As Charlie Meyers said, landowner interests never sleep. For more information check the Denver Post sportswriter (Charlie Meyers) columns of recent weeks, and check the DOW website.
How much landowner preference do you want in Colorado hunting?
Kent Ingram
Interesting enough, and not to be unexpected were landowner interests lobbying the Colorado Wildlife Commission at the November 2005 Commission meeting to expand the eastern Colorado pilot to deer too. Then those same landowner lobbyists asked the Commission to consider expanding the NW region Unit 10 elk program to all elk units requiring 6 or more preference pts. This would impact basically all the 'quality' elk units excepting 66 and 67 near Lake City. The impact would be 10 more bulls tags issued per year in each of those units, unless the Commission were to subtract those tags from the quota (don't count on it hunters).
Our organization, Colorado Wildlife Federation, is very concerned for any additional landowner preference increase. Sportsmen this summer in the 2005 Colorado Big Game License Allocation Public Survey had 85.5% of resident hunters and as I recall 58% of non-resident hunters opposed to any additional landowner preference, even if in the effort to achieve game management objectives. Accordingly, while we support limited pilots, we do not support expansion of the Unit 10 elk pilot to all units requiring the 5+ preference pts. To us, a pilot is a limited experiment,and limited these pilots should remain for the 3-5 years they would be in effect. Unit 10 has Dinosour National Monument hording bulls which do not receive enough hunting pressure, and their are surplus bulls. Other elk quality units though may not have surplus bulls, exampled by GMU 61 which according to DOW has 19 (yes 19) bulls per 100 cows, post hunts. That is anemic to what we expect in quality units for elk. To be certain we oppose the expansion of the pilot on elk beyond 10. Money to landowners is certainly not game management objective, and tags sold to the highest bidders hunters payment by payment fuels the fires of Privatization and Commercialization in hunting. Both are bad news to public hunters interests unless your household budget provides for $7,000 to $10,000 these unit 10 bull tags would sell for.
I would strongly encourage all hunters with interests in big game hunting to respond to the Colorado Wildlife Commission and let them know your feelings on these matters. As Charlie Meyers said, landowner interests never sleep. For more information check the Denver Post sportswriter (Charlie Meyers) columns of recent weeks, and check the DOW website.
How much landowner preference do you want in Colorado hunting?
Kent Ingram
