Big Game Season Structure

Its really simple; make the best decisions to improve over-crowding and long term wildlife management and sustainability without looking at tags as a cash machine and the right balance will fall out.

In this last 5 year structure Dates .The mature buck population has taken a huge Hit due to the late season hunting dates. The rut has been in full swing starting during the second season and all thru the third and into the forth season . I have watched this in disbelief ! if your plan was to kill most if the mature bucks that has been DONE! as for the nonresident tags issue in believe the nonresidents should hold upto 25% of the tags in some units and less in the premium units. they should not be able to buy over the counter ! only residents . If the cow would look at how the other states around have been running the tag allocation Wyoming ,Arizona,Utah Etc. the states herd management would be in better shape!

Appreciate all the work on updating the big game season structure. Thanks for processing all the diverse input.

My thoughts:

* keep OTC for residents, as a resident it would feel like eternity to only be able to hunt every 2 to 4 years. I love a nice trophy but I'm a meat hunter & experience hunter first and foremost.

* Archery - option A4 or A5 (NR must draw). These control NR hunter numbers and IMPORTANTLY don't turn capped NR OTC license buying into an on-line race to buy a tag. Look into the challenges that Utah and Idaho have with limited OTC tags available on-line - truly not an equitable solution to distributing tags as it comes to to being quick on a computer or having the time off to login the minute tags go on sale.

* Rifle - options R4 or R5 (NR must draw). For the same reasons noted above for archery.

I have struggled back and forth with all these options.

My thoughts are for A4 & R3

As I hunter of Colorado of the last 25 years, I would like to see A3 and R3 be implemented. As a resident, who pays taxes in this state, I think OTC should still be an option for residents. A cap on non residents would still allow local economies to be stimulated during the seasons.

Version A2. I think Colorado should follow the example of other western states. Over the counter tags available to residents only, Nonresidents can apply for limited general tags.

No OTC tags period. At the very least, cap all currently OTC units.

Separate firearms and rifle seasons; this is a serious safety concern and it's only a matter of time until someone (else) gets killed. Shorten or remove muzzleloader season from September as well. See most other western states for season structures that separate archery and firearms.

What is the reasoning behind doing away with OTC hunts? These hunts will still get extremely large quotas. The crowding will not be removed. I believe OTC hunts are crucial to continued hunter recruitment. Adding a quota to an OTC hunt simply makes it a draw hunt as has been seen in Idaho. The herds in the OTC units and hunts have shown the ability to handle the hunting pressure. These are opportunity units and not trophy units, they are designed to get hunters in the field. We have to consider if we cap OTC hunts, we will be the ones losing opportunities. The capping of OTC tags will not increase hunter success rates or remove hunter crowding in opportunity units. There are many draw hunts (many at 0 pts and leftover) available that allow people to hunt “uncrowded” if that is their goal. If the herd management plan is meeting its herd objective, why begin to limit hunter opportunities? I have hunted many OTC units and been able to get away from crowding. In fact, the most crowded unit I have hunted in Colorado was a draw unit.

First- Completely do away with OTC archery and rifle tags for residents and non-residents and go to a draw.

Second- Start taking peoples points for any A-list tag. That will solve 75% of the crowding problems. It might reduce NR participation and make the CPW take a hit financially, but they (CPW) have plenty of money and reducing NR participation will pacify the resident's nasty demeanor.

Third- The CPW and Colorado residents need to stop biting the hand that feeds them. It is NR $ that has built the CPW into the machine it is today. The CPW is 43 million in the black. Seriously?! I think it's time we consider REDUCING the cost of NR licenses especially since we are reducing the amount of tags that are even available to them.

Fourth- STOP LETTING PEOPLE (R or NR'S) TURN IN TAGS. THIS IS GETTING OUT OF HAND AND IS PUSHING POINT CREEP THROUGH THE ROOF. YOU GET THE TAG YOU HUNT IT OR DONT, BUT ITS YOURS AND CANNOT BE TURNED IN. THIS IS A HUGE PROBLEM THAT NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED!!!

Alternatives A6 and R6 make sense to be able to control hunter pressure and manage the big game species in Colorado.

It would be good to see a limit on nonresidents to a maximum of 25% of the available tags in the primary draw. Perhaps allow residents first shot at returned/reissued tags as well.

It would definitely help archery seasons to remove early rifle deer, elk and antelope seasons from the archery seasons. The rifle hunters impact the game movement and make it much more difficult for archery hunting, not to mention the safety issues.

Moose season should have a period for archery only, then archery and muzzle loader, then any weapon. The current start of moose season with muzzleloaders on top of archery hunters is a safety issue and causes issues with muzzle loaders killing moose at longer ranges when archery hunters are working hard to get in close. Two weeks of archery only, followed by two weeks of archery and muzzle loader, followed by two months of any weapon.

It is a shame that I have to apply for out of state hunts to get the hunting experience I am looking for. Other western states have less hunters and less pressured animals. I feel that is because they have smaller non-resident allocations and charge more for non-resident tags. I love our state and I love the hard work CPW puts in to preserve our wildlife. But sometimes I feel like we cater more to non-resident hunters than we do for our own hunters.

NO MORE OTC tags for nonresidents period and limits OTC archery tags for residents until elk populations grow back. OTC tags are the bread and butter financially for the CPW but are the worst management practice when it comes to protecting wildlife populations and preserving hunting for future generations. Resident hunting opportunities should be the priority not the CPW’s pocket book.

First, big thanks for Amanda, Jonathan, and the staff members supporting them on these virtual meetings. I just have a few thoughts on the information being shared:

- Set OTC quotas based on DAU herd size (It would improve ability to control number of hunters in specific units). I'm fine if it goes through draw where the res/non-res allocation would apply
- Decreasing number of potential conflicts during archery season would be great. Currently, there are already too many opportunities for issues since archery season is the same time as muzzleloader, early rifle, and bear rifle seasons. It would be great to restructure this. If you really think about it, an archer probably should have orange on the whole season, which seems to be a bit unfair.

OTC licenses are long overdue to be eliminated.. The crowding is not only a hunt experience concern, but more importantly a safety concern. And to provide resident elk hunters with more opportunity OTC type licenses need to be part of the draw to allow for the new allocation plan of a 75/25 license split...

Most, if not all, other western states only allow a 10% non resident tag allocation. When is CPW going to follow suit and protect the hunting for our residents by limiting non residents to 10% of the tags for all tags- draw and OTC? The 2024 allocation plan (high demand hunt code=80/20 and other =75/25) is not sufficient.

Limit what we can take. Not when we can hunt.
For Elk; Make a 6 point antler restriction in crowded OTC units, maybe mandatory for all non res? How about a draw tag for an "any elk" license and make OTC 6 point only? More private land access for public to access public land programs?
How about being able to burn your elk tag on a lion or a bear if the opportunity arrives?
And make mandatory check in for all big game harvest in order to get real statistics.
What about mandatory that non residents purchase a service from a resident, or require a resident to be in their camp?

Per the 2022 CORA requests resident hunter participation in OTC archery elk hunters is down 20% since 2014, and nonresident archery OTC hunters are up 28% since 2014 ---What is CPW doing to address the declining participation rate by Resident Hunters in Colorado that is the result of overcrowding in OTC units, currently there are about 3000 more nonresident archery OTC elk hunters than resident archery OTC elk hunters, there is no other state in the country that allows this. Based on tag sales and 23.5 million acres of federal public lands in CO, No Western State has more hunting pressure on its public lands (5x other western states avg). Several western states have more federal land than CO and still only give 10% of limited big game tags to non-residents. The CPW Commission's mission state is to serve the residents of Colorado, but no state treats its resident hunters worse than CO when it comes to tag allocation and overcrowding in OTC units. The overcrowding is a nonresident issue since all OTC elk hunting (rifle and archery) has declining resident participation (since 2014) and surging nonresident participation since 2014. Share the facts with the public and restore resident hunter equity so we are at least comparable to the other western states. Colorado's population has doubled from 3 million to over 6 million in the past 30 years, how in the world is the resident hunting population declining, this is a huge failure by CPW.

Go back to 5 full weekends of archery hunting. The current, September 2-30, seems to be increasing crowding.

I like the current season structure-big improvement over the past 5-year structure, although I would like to see a separate season for ML, maybe early October after archery. Also would like to see the ability to use unfilled archery tag in a later season.

Rifle bear season during entire archery elk season is a safety concern for the archery elk hunters. Rifle bear season needs to somehow adjusted to provide archery elk hunters an opportunity to hunt without the safety concern of long range rifle hunters shooting at them or near them.