House committee endorses ending voter-approved ban on spring bear hunting – The Denver Post

A House committee Monday approved a bill that would overturn a 19-year ban on the spring bear hunt.

House Bill 1294, sponsored by Rep. J. Paul Brown, R-Ignacio, won agricultural committee approval on an 8-5 vote. The bill would let the Division of Wildlife allow the hunting of bears whenever necessary. The legislation drew praise from Colorado’s agriculture community and fire from animal-rights activists.

Colorado voters passed the ban on the spring hunting of black bears, the only bear species that lives in Colorado’s wilds, with a 70 percent approval rate in 1992.

The ban was part of Measure 10, which also banned the use of dogs or bait by bear hunters. The bill does not change those aspects of the law.

Brown said he brought the bill as a “health and safety” concern following publicized incidents of human-bear encounters. Brown said he didn’t intend to reinstate the spring hunt but wanted to give the Colorado Division of Wildlife the authority to maintain the bear population as it sees fit.

“I just feel like the division needs a little more flexibility,” Brown said.  Click link below for full story!

via House committee endorses ending voter-approved ban on spring bear hunting – The Denver Post.

Colo. wildlife officials woo nation’s elk hunters – The Denver Post

By CATHERINE TSAI Associated Press

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.

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 roughly $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.

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. Click Link Below for Full Story!

via Colo. wildlife officials woo nation’s elk hunters – The Denver Post.

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Recession hasn’t killed Western Colorado hunting season | PostIndependent.com

May 18, 2009

By John Gardner

jgardner@postindependent.com

Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — If there is a recession in Western Colorado, the hunters haven’t noticed.

According to the Colorado Division of Wildlife applications are down less than 2 percent from 2008. The license applications include pronghorn, mountain goat, bighorn sheep, moose, turkey, fall bear, desert bighorn sheep, spring turkey and the most popular species of elk and deer.

However, the application numbers indicate that the hunting industry remains strong, according to DOW spokesman Randy Hampton. The actual number of licenses were down 9,318 from 2008 to 2009. However they still received nearly 470,000 applications this year.

“Overall, this is nothing that jumps out as a big surprise or concern for us,” Hampton said.

Hunting, according to Hampton, is one activity that people will find a way to do, even during a recession. Over the past few years even with record-high gas prices, Hampton said that the DOW didn’t see any drastic drops in hunting licenses or applications.

“Hunters are going to hunt,” Hampton said. “It’s something they do with their family, and they’re going to continue to do it.”

Hampton said that a decrease in available tags for elk and deer this year could also be a reason for the slight decline in applications. Hampton said the DOW will issue about 10,000 fewer elk licenses and around 7,000 fewer deer licenses statewide.

However, an interesting trend has developed between the number of resident and nonresident applications. This year nonresident applications were down 9 percent (15,920 applications) while the resident applications rose 2 percent (5,740 applications).

“This would indicate that people are staying closer to home to hunt,” Hampton said. “Our residents may stay in Colorado to hunt, and other residents may stay closer to their home rather than coming to Colorado.”

However, the DOW usually receives more resident applications — on average — than nonresident applications.

The biggest decline was in the nonresident deer applications, which were down 11 percent from 2008. However there were still 58,500 applications this year.

But these numbers are not final. Hampton said that over-the-counter tags, which are only available in second and third rifle season for elk, could determine how successful this hunting season is.  Click link below for full story

via Recession hasn’t killed Western Colorado hunting season | PostIndependent.com.

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