Forcing CPW hand

[Vandy321]

I've said this before and it's worth repeating...

CPW does not care about pressure, overcrowding or declining hunt quality. It's leaders are bureaucrats motivated solely by profits, not unlike every other state government run entity in CO.

 

[TheCougar]

My glass is going to be half full today. Instead of being pissed off at the 75k increase in hunters applying for the same number of tags, instead of being annoyed Colorado still gives 35% of limited tags to NR in most units, instead of being angry Colorado welcomes the hordes of non residents, making September look like the Mexican-American border as people flood in from every direction, I’m going to be happy.

At some point the hunting in Colorado is going to get so bad, and the draw odds and point creep are going to get so bad that CPW will be forced to make a change.

Primary hunting draw applications, park visitation up statewide

Primary draw applications in Colorado are up by 74,593 applications from last year, according to data from Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

www.skyhinews.com

I like your self-delusional attitude! My glass is half-full: I may land a job at Denver International Airport, and my wife is so pissed off with politics that I happened to mention that Wyoming is one of the most conservative states in the nation. She said, “I don’t care how windy Cheyenne is, I don’t want to live in Colorado”! Moving to Wyoming would keep me in the game…

 

[Jimss]

Although unlimited elk tags are super nice, it's impossible for the CPW to manage hunting pressure, elk quality, and elk populations with unlimited tags. Natural resources are limited and there are only so many critters in the woods. I'm sure some of you are right that more and more hunters will swarm to Colo as it becomes tougher to draw tags elsewhere.....and there are fewer and fewer options elsewhere.

I'm pretty sure the CPW will be forced to go all limited elk at some point. If that happens, I'm sure it will still be possible to hunt Colo elk as a nonres every other year....which may be a great compromise between quality of hunt and opportunity?

Colo went to all draw with deer many years ago. The quality of bucks improved dramatically and tags are still somewhat easy to draw other than the top tier late rifle season tags. Unfortunately the quality of bucks will likely take a nose dive as the CPW structure is later rifle season dates plus more tags.

 

[Rich M]

Curious, has this uptick been happing over the past 5-10 years? Or just very recently (like the last year or two).

I started in 2017 - when OnX Maps told me if I was on public or private.

So, Yeah - seems like 5-10 years for the largest increases in NR hunters.

 

[roadrunner]

Some think it's because of the "extra" time at home and shortages on meat from covid. Others think it's because of the extra stimulus money. Maybe, maybe not.

The trend has been climbing pre-covid and stimulus money and will likely continue.

 

[5MilesBack]

Archery elk hunters have more than tripled in CO in the last 25 years........probably closer to quadrupled by now. So it's been growing for some time now from both resident and NR.

 

[Forest_Ghost]

Most NR hunters won't/can't even make it a couple miles off the road and are delusional as to what it takes to elk hunt here so I think the mountains themselves will cut the numbers back in the future.

 

[ericF]

Ask and yeh shall receive.

https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/C...s_Options_FINAL_04232021-Katie_Lanter-DNR.pdf

This won't start until next year so changes wouldn't be implemented until 2023, but they do plan on addressing these things.

 

[Ucsdryder]

It’s simple. It’s because of podcasts and forums.

 

[Still Hunter]

Ask and yeh shall receive.

https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/C...s_Options_FINAL_04232021-Katie_Lanter-DNR.pdf

This won't start until next year so changes wouldn't be implemented until 2023, but they do plan on addressing these things.

I think Vandy321 is right. I just don't see Colorado reducing the NR tags guys. There is just way too much money changing hands from Non-Residents for licensing fees and for their dollars spent for the small local economies. The small shops, small local grocery stores, Walmart's, Fast Food spots and convenience stores will all take too significant of hits. I might be wrong. Time will tell. Deer leases in Texas are so high (State land is primarily privately owned) guys are headed out of state to hunt.

 

[justinspicher]

I think they can keep the NR tag allotment thr same, but as a NR, you have to draw for everything and once you draw you cant come back for 5 years.

 

[roadrunner]

I think they can keep the NR tag allotment thr same, but as a NR, you have to draw for everything and once you draw you cant come back for 5 years.

I got roasted on another forum for suggesting something similar.

They didn't like the sound of having to sit out for a spell to let someone else have a chance to hunt instead of them all them time...

 

[Still Hunter]

I think they can keep the NR tag allotment thr same, but as a NR, you have to draw for everything and once you draw you cant come back for 5 years.

So your a businessman selling a product. You can sell your product for $680.35 for a fellow out of state or sell it to a local guy down the street for $31.00. So who are you going to sell it to? Now you need money to keep your business running, pay employees, health care, retirement, Maintenence fees, day to day operations. Are you really going to prioritize the guy down the street? You only going to sell your product to the out of state client once every five years? This is the situation they are in. What would you do if this was your business?

 

[BuzzH]

On record right now...unlimited OTC NR elk hunting won't be around in 5 years in CO. Get it while you can, because money or not, its unsustainable.

 

[Glockster26]

Don’t forget, we need more hunter recruitment.

Let’s try for 100,000 more applicants next year,

 

[cnelk]

On record right now...unlimited OTC NR elk hunting won't be around in 5 years in CO. Get it while you can, because money or not, its unsustainable.

Yeah right.
They’ll just set the quotas so high it could just as well be OTC.

 

[MuleyFever]

Yeah right.
They’ll just set the quotas so high it could just as well be OTC.

Sounds familiar. Oh yeah, they just did that in the SW units.

Sometimes I think I am glad I am closer to the end of my hunting days than to the beginning. I have been fortunate to draw some great tags, especially this year, and I have enough points to be in the running for a couple more. The next decade will not be good to hunters, especially those just getting going.

 

[Fitzwho]

Nonresident allocation and total tag numbers are completely different topics. You want to cut NR tag allocation from 35% to 10% (I would assume thus giving residents the other 25%). If the argument was to just cut those tags out entirely, okay. If all you do is give that 25% back to residents, all it accomplishes is helping with Resident point creep, but doesn’t change the number of people in the field.

The unlimited tag hunts need to go unfortunately. And residents will need to take on the onus of paying more for tag costs (if only because CPW doesn’t want to take the trade of 25% of all tags being sold for 10% the cost as they have been). $56 for an elk tag is stupid.

The mountains aren’t going to cut out enough people quickly enough if you’re getting 70,000 new applicants per year.

 

[justinspicher]

So your a businessman selling a product. You can sell your product for $680.35 for a fellow out of state or sell it to a local guy down the street for $31.00. So who are you going to sell it to? Now you need money to keep your business running, pay employees, health care, retirement, Maintenence fees, day to day operations. Are you really going to prioritize the guy down the street? You only going to sell your product to the out of state client once every five years? This is the situation they are in. What would you do if this was your business?

If I am a business man I dont have to do this with an unlimited amount or easily renewable product.

I fully believe there are enough NR hunters coming to Colorado to support this every year.

 

[Still Hunter]

No offense is meant here and I am just making conversation and I will bow out of this thread graciously with the following final comments. I don’t see your unlimited resource and renewable resource? We are all trying to limit the total amount of licenses being sold. Every Western State Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado are all getting slammed with NR numbers Even as a NR I want to see a reduction in hunters. That hopefully will be a MORE finite number for each GMU. That quantity is not unlimted, on the contrary it will hopefully become even more limited in the future. We all complain of there being too many hunters already.So hypothetically if GMU 80 has determined to have 300 licenses sold to harvest X amount of elk, to keep the population at a desired level, do you think the DOW wants to sell those 300 licenses at $31.00 or sell 300 licenses at $689.35. It is a money thing. So when I move to Colorado in the next few years I will be right with you on all these darn NR’s!