The Colorado Resident Hunter Association has started up a change.org petition to urge CPW Commissioners to move forward with the Draw Process Working Groups recommendation to end SOFT CAPS and have Colorado tag allocation caps apply to all 4 choices in the Colorado Big Game Draw. This change would restore a hard cap system for tag allocation like every other state in the country currently has. Many call Colorado current Soft Cap big game tag allocation system a “Fake Cap”. It was interesting to watch the CPW Staff come out against removing the Fake Caps at the 11.15.24 CPW Commission meeting. The CPW staff continues to show their preference for nonresident dollars over treating their residents with equity when compared to any other states in the country. No state treats its resident hunters worse than Colorado. As discussed in the articles on this web site. If you have a friends that is confused about what the fake caps do to resident hunters in Colorado have them read this article https://publiclandjurisdiction.com/cpw-votes-to-choke-out-resident-hunters/ .
Please sign this Colorado Resident Hunter Association Petition in support of Resident Hunters and youth in Colorado.
You can also go to https://www.change.org/COResidentHunterEquity.
* The foundation of equity is fairness, while nearly all other Western State have a 90/10 cap for their Residents, Colorado has 75/25, the worst resident big game tag allocation in the country. This is by Colorado, which collects more hunting revenue than other state in the country.
** On top of the worst resident tag allocation in the country, Colorado is the only state in the country that has Soft Big Game Tag allocation Caps that only apply to the 1st choice of 4 choices in the primary draw. Many call this the “Fake Tag Cap” –which allows Nonresidents to get about 40% of our Limited Bull elk tags while ignoring Thousands of Residents in their 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices of our primary limited draw. You saw the slide on the cover picture – its steals 6,510 tags from Residents and Resident Youth and sells them to NR. Very few bull and buck unit hunts have left over tags. This has resulted in the following trends from 2015 to 2023 (see below): (numbers rounded to nearest 100)
1. Resident Youth are drawing 37% fewer limited elk tags (Down 3300, from 9000 to 5700)
2. Even though Resident Limited Elk Tag applications have increased since 2015, Residents are drawing over 17,000 fewer limited elk tags (down 23% from 74,000 to 56,700 tags drawn).
3. Nonresidents are magically drawing 250 more limited elk tags since 2015 (How is this possible) = Fake tag caps!
4. Nonresidents Elk applications have surged by 45,000 (up 55%) and there are now more nonresident adults applying for limited elk tags than Residents. There are no longer any tags available for Residents in the 2nd 3rd and 4th choices—because of the fake tag caps that allow all remaining tags at the end of the 1st draw to spill over to NR.
Today we am asking the CPW Commission to listen to the Draw Process Working Group that recommended restoring equity to the resident hunter by getting rid of the fake tag caps in Colorado and start to treat Colorado’s Resident Hunters, like every other state in our country treats their Residents.
Residents of Colorado Deserve a Hard Cap because we are a stakeholder in this resident resource and nonresidents are not. Colorado Resources are to be managed for the benefit of its Residents of the state, per the Colorado Constitution. On top of all this CPW is looking to remove the 80/20 tags that were just fixed for Residents 2 years ago. Here is the article that explains how Resident received about 200 tags when CPW was forced to start using the current 3 year rolling average vs using 15 year data to sell more tags to Nonresidents https://publiclandjurisdiction.com/colorado-resident-hunter-equity/. The Nov 15, 2024 CPW Commission slide shows $16,000 in financial gain for CPW from getting
rid of the 80/20 tags and having all tags at 75/25, how is that possible when Residents will lose over 200 deer and elk tags alone.
Hunter applications of nonresidents are surging, and resident applications are up by about 2,000 since 2015. This has to be taken into account as CPW will make more money each year with these trends. Why do we not see financial numbers from having 50,000 new nonresidents applying in our big game hunts since 2015?? AT a minimum that is $121*45,000 = about $5.5 million in revenue increase (without them drawing a single tag). The surge of NR hunters more than pays for getting rid of the fake tag caps and we restore equity to the resident hunters.