Colorado Limited License Draw Changes

July 13, 2018 by Earl Oesterling

If you are not aware, CPW (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) made some significant changes to the limited licenses application process this year. In the past, anyone applying for a limited license in Colorado had to pay for the cost of the license when they applied, if unsuccessful those monies were refunded to the person’s credit card.

In 2018, CPW no longer charged the cost of the license up front, instead applicants would be charged a $3 fee if unsuccessful and charged for the license if successful in the draw. This would seem like an awesome change for everyone…however the problem is that the number of applicants exploded making the odds of drawing some limited license less, MUCH less in some cases. This is not good for anyone who has invested in preference points over any length of time, or for some hunt unites that were previously easy to draw for anyone.

Luckily, the impact did not have a huge effect on our clients this year, however if anyone has any number of preference points, your odds of drawing will go down. There are also rumors going around that between PETA and the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project Organizations, they both had somewhere around 8,000 – 16,000 members apply for licenses with the goal of drawing them to keep them out of the hands of sportsmen and making it harder to draw due to the increased number of applications, again this is rumor and I have not been able to confirm this rumor, but if it is true the ramifications are not beneficial to sportsmen, wildlife, or CPW.

Weather you have preference points in Colorado or not, please make sure you contact CPW and let them know your concerns with these changes. CPW can be contacted by phone at the number below: (970)-472-4300

You can also email the Chairman of the Wildlife Commission at the following email address: john.howard@state.co.us

http://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/CommissionMembers.aspx

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