July Update – Wildlife News and the Need for Hunter Engagement

Hello there elk hunters!  We’re nearing the back half of summer which means September will be knocking soon which means archery season will be starting.  And THAT means we’ve begun the most wonderful time of the year.

Over the counter archery and rifle licenses will be available to purchase starting August 1st at 9am MT.  They’re available online, over the phone or directly at a CPW license vendor or CPW office.  If your hunt with Dark Timber Outfitters is during archery, 2nd or 3rd Rifle for this fall, you’ll need to purchase an over-the-counter elk license.  Please show up for your hunt with your license in hand.  DO NOT wait to purchase your license when you arrive for your hunt.  Instead, get this taken care of sometime in the first week of August.  If you have any questions or concerns on this process, please don’t hesitate to give a call or shoot me an email.

While it has been hot and windy as of late, Colorado had one of the most pleasant springs I can recall in years and years.  Little to no wind, mild temperatures, and a prolonged runoff of the phenomenal snowpack we had.  This has made for great habitat conditions this year for elk and all manner of wildlife that shares habitat with elk from songbirds to amphibians to small game.  All good news.

Shifting gears a bit, in other news, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officially adopted a final wolf management plan for Colorado’s upcoming wolf reintroduction which will take place sometime around the end of this year.  This will begin a very interesting journey for the state.  While wolves will undoubtedly have some sort of impact on our elk, deer and moose herds, it’s hard to predict how much of an impact they’ll have.  Or how long it will take for those impacts to become apparent.  Or what the state will do if and when those impacts become detrimental to hunting opportunities.

Regardless of how all that plays out, one theme you will likely begin hearing from me in a more direct tone is this:  hunters, ALL hunters, across the nation and particularly in the western states, need to wake the hell up and get involved in the affairs of their respective state wildlife agency.  I’m calling out everyone who hunts as lazy and privileged and that we’d better get off our collective asses and start speaking up and showing up regularly at local wildlife meetings, regional meetings, commissioner meetings, and more.

Hunters are losing their ability to hunt.  Anti-hunting organizations are winning and slowly taking away opportunities through political action and a unified front.  They are smarter, larger in member numbers, better funded, and way more politically savvy than hunters.  Look at what they’ve accomplished as of late:  banning of mountain lion hunting in California, banning of spring bear hunting and hunting over bait in Colorado, banning of spring bear season in Washington, an unnecessary reintroduction of wolves in Colorado.  To be clear, I don’t believe hunting will vaporize entirely in the next 5 years.  But if you can’t do the math on what’s happening then please read on here.

Take a look at how wildlife commissions are rapidly evolving in the appointed board members to water down the “sportspersons” representation.  Colorado has become a joke with their commissioner appointments.  There’s one outfitter on the board.  The rest are relatively in the dark on hunting and frankly don’t care about hunting from what I’ve witnessed.  This is not by accident.  The same thing is happening in other states.

There is a growing effort to revamp the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation which is the model by which all 50 states manage wildlife.  Anti-hunters want to do away with this model and while some of their reasons for “updating” it are valid points, much of it is a trojan horse to eliminate predator management and remove hunters from the decision making and funding processes that currently exist.  Check out the organization Wildlife For All and scroll through their mission statement and read up on some of their advisory committee members to get a pulse on what they’re after and what they’re about. 

It’s important to note, these aren’t bad people.  I’ve met some of them because they show up to meetings and speak up for what they think is right.  They’re smart and they care about wildlife.  But they do not care for hunting, and they do not care for trapping.  They do not like hunters as a rule of thumb and they do not believe hunters care about wildlife. 

So, what to do?  As a friend of mine put it the other day, too many hunters care about hunting for 5 days a year and that’s it.  Well, that must stop.  A whole lot more of us must become engaged year-round.  Hunting is a privilege not a right and if we intend to keep our privilege to ethically and legally hunt, we need to get a lot smarter and get a lot more involved.  Right now.

A few immediate suggestions:  1) Educate yourself on your state’s wildlife management agency.  Can you even name one person on your state’s board of commissioners?  Have you ever attended or listened in on a commissioner meeting?  They’re open to public and can be very interesting.  Now is the time to start attending.  2) Speak up in support of the good that hunting as a whole does and how much you love the opportunity to hunt.  Hunting dollars go a long way to help habitat and all manner of wildlife.  3) Be very respectful and have proof if and when you provide written or spoken comments.  Emotion in your point of view is great but being able to back those emotions with fact is necessary.  4) If you use social media, post your photo and caption only after you’ve considered what an anti-hunting advocate would think of your post.  Is there blood everywhere?  Clean it up.  Are you sitting on the animal like you’re a king on throne?  Get off of it and show that animal the respect it deserves.  Why are you posting your content in the first place?  Does it elevate hunting and the good hunters do in the eyes of the non-hunting public?

If you think it’s only hunters perusing your grip and grin photos you’re very wrong.  Anti-hunters use this content against us at the political level and it’s hard not to agree with them when you see some of the stupid and completely disrespectful content that hunters post.

I’ll stop there for now.  With the development of the wolf management plan in the rearview I feel compelled to speak up about the completely pathetic job hunters and outfitters did in Colorado in terms of trying to get the wolf reintroduction vote defeated and then the apathy shown through lack of attendance at two years’ worth of Stakeholder meetings when the plan was being developed.  And that’s just the wolf issue.  Other opportunities exist for hunters to speak up on behalf of wildlife and hunting at community development meetings, town meetings, regional meetings and rarely are hunters in attendance.  But then all you hear is hunters bitching when licenses get reduced, or a vote doesn’t go their way.  I’m sick of it.  Get off your ass and start paying attention.