Speak Up for Our Public Lands, Waters and Wildlife
Whether you’ve heard it a million times before or not, it’s worth remembering the importance of you, me, your friends, family and neighbors taking time to speak up and voice your opinion when it comes to decisions being made regarding our public lands, waters and wildlife.
If you’re a resident of Colorado, New Hampshire, Alabama or any other state in our union, you are the owner of the public lands and waters within our vast National Forest and Bureau of Land Management holdings which is where the majority of our public land hunting and fishing takes place.
Furthermore, you are the owner of the wildlife in our country. Wildlife belongs to all of us and is managed in trust by state agencies like Colorado Parks and Wildlife. These animals do not belong to outfitters. They do not belong to state or federal agencies. They do not belong to ranchers. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, rich or poor, black, white, brown, male, female, trans, live in the big city or at the end of a gravel road. The public lands, waters and the wildlife we’re blessed with in this country are equally owned by all of us.
Ideas, in the form of laws or legislation, that seek to take this away from us through cutting off access, monetizing wildlife or tipping the scales in favor of one demographic over another, go against the grain of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation which provides the foundation that allows we the people to be the grateful recipients.
While I’m a Colorado-based outfitter, I have some pretty deep connections to the Northern Rockies, particularly Montana and Idaho. Right now, in Montana, the wheels are in motion for a bill that undermines the very principles I just addressed above. In a nutshell, Senate Bill 143 seeks to monetize the elk and deer in Montana, so that wealthy nonresidents get a better crack at drawing a deer or elk license. It’s trying to turn hunting into something rigged for the rich and is a scary push to take our hunting rights back to the medieval ages where only the wealthy got to hunt. It sets an extremely dangerous precedent for other states to copy if the bill passes.
Another issue is the looming reintroduction of wolves into Colorado. This proposal is yet another unfortunate example of letting “ballot box biology” overrule science and common sense but it’s very important to note: the sky will not fall because wolves will be in Colorado. While they will certainly impact our big game herds and cause issues with livestock operators, they will not eat all of the deer and elk. In looking at the Northern Rockies where wolves have been on the landscape now for 25 years, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming have record numbers of elk and, as it stands right now, ample hunting opportunities for residents and nonresidents alike. So, the argument that wolves will decimate all the big game is a blanket statement that doesn’t generally hold water.
What’s important now as Colorado moves forward with their reintroduction plan, is to be proactive and let the Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners know the following: 1) they must take this wolf process slowly, 2) they have to come up with funding that doesn’t rely solely on our hunting dollars and 3) efforts must be made to educate citizens, particularly on the western slope where wolves will most likely be located, and give them ample opportunity to be heard through open public meetings.
The proposal that was voted on (and passed by a mere 0.4%) states reintroduced wolves need to be on the ground by the end of 2023. Colorado’s governor has hinted that he wants wolves reintroduced as early as 2022. This is very disappointing, because it’s not the language of the bill that people actually voted on. He appears to be moving the goalposts post-election, which is wrong. Having worked in Idaho’s wolf recovery project directly, the last thing we want is to create distrust, fast-track the issue, have an ill-prepared, uninformed public and create a giant train wreck socially and biologically.
In closing, I would politely encourage all of you to take a few minutes to send an email or make a phone call to voice your opinion. A phone call or email that is respectful, informed and accurate, and tells a personal story carries a lot of weight when it comes to our public lands, waters and wildlife. Those sitting in elected seats know this very well. Click here to get a very quick reference and find out how to contact specific legislators in Colorado, Montana or anywhere else. Likewise, here’s a link that will give you contact information for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Please know also you can always call or email me directly to chat. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope each of you will take just a couple minutes of your day to speak up on behalf of our current and future status of hunting.
Have a great rest of your winter and we’ll be in touch soon with information about applying for your licenses for this fall.