Big Game Season Structure

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.

Reduce muzzleloader to 7 day season