Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Colorado puts out the call for more elk hunters!

I vowed to not hunt Colorado anymore after my camp was run over at night by a herd of steers outside Guunison. Damn cows were supposed to be off the NF and weren't. Then to top it off they had grazed all of the meadows down to dirt, and there was little browse left for the wild animals.

You can't get private access now and the DOW wants to increase the numbers of hunters on already crowded public land. Why don't they open the access up on private land. I have complained about several areas I have hunted in the last 20 years in Colorado about the rancher closing access during hunting season. Doesn't do any good, they continue to close access to public land and the forest service/DOW don't care.

But the best hunting on public land is often behind the private land--one just has to make the effort to go the long way around--and rarely can it be done via motorized vehicle...........

DENVER � After years of watching sales of elk licenses slide, Colorado wildlife officials are launching a nationwide ad campaign to bring more hunters to the state.

ED ANDRIESKI/AP

Colorado Division of Wildlife Director Tom Remington discusses the nationwide campaign to boost sales of elk-hunting licenses in the state. He says the goal is to stop a steep slide in license sales over the past five years and to support Colorado communities that depend on hunting. The computer shows an online site that will be available today.

The trick will be convincing people who pay hundreds of dollars for a nonresident hunting license in some states that the 23 million acres of public land and 300,000 elk in Colorado are the best in the West.

�We have exceptional elk hunting. It�s very good in many of the western states,� said Al Langston of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. �It�s up to the hunter to decide what system fits.�

The Colorado Division of Wildlife gets about two-thirds of its $110 million budget from hunting and fishing licenses, but sales of elk licenses in Colorado dropped by more than 37,000 from 2005 to 2009, with revenue falling by about $8 million in that time, Director Tom Remington said.

About 229,000 limited draw and over-the-counter licenses were sold in 2009, with thousands left unsold.

Joe Lewandowski, a DOW spokesman in Durango, said the decline in the number of elk hunters is general across the state.

�The decline is overall,� he said. �Breaking down the numbers by areas would take a long time.�

The division largely doesn�t get money from the state�s general fund, drawing instead from lottery funds, federal excise-tax revenue and, mostly, licenses.

�It�s critically important for us to attract elk hunters. It�s our very survival,� division spokesman Randy Hampton said.

This week, the division is launching its �Elevate Your Game� marketing campaign with a new website � huntcolorado.org � that went live Monday. It�s also running ads in the March issues of Outdoor Life magazine and Game and Fish magazine, on websites geared toward outdoorsmen, and on The Sportsman Channel and the Outdoor Channel to draw elk hunters.

In one ad, two elk lock antlers in a Colorado meadow to a soundtrack of football players� helmets clashing. An announcer who sounds like he belongs in a beer commercial says: �Colorado�s mile-high meadows, where 300,000 elk have taken the field and are ready to rumble. ... These magnificent horned gladiators will be fully locked and loaded by next fall�s elk hunting season. Will you?�

The budget for ads and production is about $300,000 for an effort that runs through April 5, the deadline to apply for big-game limited licenses for specific areas and dates.

The division has added nine temporary employees and two volunteers to answer phone calls and questions. Hunting brochures have been redesigned, and the division has online educational videos about elk hunting in Colorado.

Division of Wildlife marketing specialist Debbie Lininger said she hopes the campaign leads to sales of 4,000 more licenses this year.

It�s part of a larger campaign to recruit and retain hunters and anglers.

The short-term goal is to �stop the bleeding� in economic losses for the Division of Wildlife and boost communities that rely on hunting, Remington said. The division says hunting and fishing support 20,614 jobs statewide and that wildlife-based recreation ranks with skiing for driving Colorado tourism.

The marketing program also will help control growth in Colorado�s elk herds.

�If we continue to lose hunters, the ability to manage our elk populations will be severely compromised,� Remington said.

Remington said the long-term goal is getting more kids and families outside, whatever the activity.

Getting people invested in the outdoors will help the agency politically and economically down the road, he said.

Colorado may have luck luring more out-of-state hunters this year after a big hike in license fees for nonresidents in Montana. Also, Colorado doesn�t have wolves.

The Colorado success rate for hunters harvesting elk was 23 percent in 2009. Wyoming typically averages a rate of 40 percent, Langston said.

Other states looking to draw hunters have had initiatives to encourage beginners, but the Colorado campaign may be the first comprehensive, nationwide marketing effort by a state agency, Lininger said.

Bob Wharff, executive director of Wyoming Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, said most elk hunters who splurge on out-of-state trips will focus on what they can take home when they decide where to go. That means states known for trophy elk may have the edge.

�That�s a bigger factor than most states realize,� Wharff said.

I am semi-retired and, like most of us, my retirement savings took a hit when the economy went into the toilet. I like to hunt elk more than anything else, and anyone who has read my posts knows that I have only been able to draw one elk tag in my home state of New Mexico in the last 15 years. If I could get a New Mexico bull tag for the $550 or so that I pay in Colorado, I can assure you that I would be hunting New Mexico each year.

So far, the increase in nonresident fees in Colorado has not put me out of the game. This is my one personal "extravagance" each year. The fact that I can still get a tag in Colorado every year and play the game again will keep me coming back until I am too old to hunt. I can no longer afford to apply in multiple states, but I can budget for a Colorado elk hunt each year.

The expense of drawing a tag and hunting elk in Montana comes to about twice what it costs me to do the same in Colorado. It also takes an extra week to go and return. Even if I stay with friends in Montana, the cost in time and money is not something that I can handle every year. I will probably hunt Montana and Idaho once again before I quit, but I will continue to rely on Colorado for my annual elk safari.

You can't get private access now and the DOW wants to increase the numbers of hunters on already crowded public land. Why don't they open the access up on private land. I have complained about several areas I have hunted in the last 20 years in Colorado about the rancher closing access during hunting season. Doesn't do any good, they continue to close access to public land and the forest service/DOW don't care.

I hunted CO, third season OTC rifle last year, and I saw more elk than I ever see in a week of hunting in my home state of MT. Lots of guys were complaining about no elk, but we would see fifteen to fifty a day.

We were hiking in about two miles and never saw another hunter, except when we were close to the trailhead. Going back again this year, as it was just too much fun to not repeat. Will go again next year and the next year.

Public land is very crowded in CO ....... near the roads and ATV trails.