Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting CO landowner voucher proposed changes

Here is a very good article about SB13-188, the bill that proposes to give landowners an additional 5% of limited licenses west of I-25 (20%) and an additional 10% east of I-25 (25%). Amazing to see CPW, the very agency WE fund, sell us down the river to line the pockets of landowners. Time is running short to contact your Representatives. The bill has already passed the Senate.

The North American Model for Widlife Conservation is an Endangered Species in Colorado

What people keep focusing on is that 20% number. However, it is going to be a reduction in public land licenses, because that is going to be reduced to 10% in exchange for 10% PLO licenses west of I25(I don't really care what happens east of 25). So yes, it is 20%, but a one third reduction in the licenses the average joe public land hunter wants anyway. It also forces these mid size landowners using a 2nd application to apply for PLO licenses, which they didn't do before.

I don't like the increase in total licenses either, but it's a reduction in the licenses 90% of us want.

While I don't hunt in eastern CO, I still care what goes on there and this bill as a whole is a slap in the face to public land hunters. I'm already tired of waiting upteen years for a tag in certain units because the majority of the tags go to landowners before the rest of us even get a shot. As the article mentioned by the OP says, if you don't have a bunch of $ you're willing to pay the landowner for the tag, you're SOL. It's not surprising that the CPW has sold hunters out. We knew that would happen all along. Our only hope is that every hunter writes their Reps to ask that they vote no on this bill.

So let's talk numbers:
I'm a midsize landowner with 1,000 acres. Right now I can apply for 2 public land licenses, of which 15% are set aside in the priority landowner preference program.
If this bill goes through I can only apply for one public license. If I apply for a 2nd it has to be a PLO license. Now, both of those pools have 10% of the licenses reserved in the priority landowner program. How do I benefit from this new system?


Read here:
http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/cl...7257AEE00571B65?Open&file=188_01.pdf

That's not accurate. Those PLO tags under the proposed bill are currently unit wide tags that are desirable by "the average Joe hunter." They will be converted to PLO with the proposed changes. And I'm sure there will be many, many PLO tags on large ranches that will be quite desirable to hunters that can pay for them.

You are correct that the smaller landowners with less than 1,240 acres will actually lose in this bill. That's why I am perplexed why those landowners are not opposing this bill.

There is no way,no matter how hard we wish, that the CPW is ever going to stop catering to the AG community.

Ask any one in the division and thier answer will be that the Ag community contributes to most of the winter range for wildlife. Thier pat answer will be that if they stop these PLO tags, then the landowner is going to start demanding crop damage money from them.

The Ag community is big business in Colorado and they lobby hard and usually get anything they want and the Democrats are in thier pockets
scket

+1000, saddlesore. Wish it weren't so, but it is. Too bad, really. I know several landowners that would gladly give me hunting tags if they weren't worth anything, but since they can sell them for so much, they're not about to give them away. Can't say I blame them from an economic standpoint.

By the way, I checked the schedule and it looks like the Ag committee will hear this bill on April 10th.