spectr17
03-18-2003, 03:19 AM
Proposition poses threat to fertile hunting ground
By Charlie Meyers, Denver Post Outdoor Editor
March 18, 2003
(This is the second of a two-part series on potential changes in the State Trust Lands lease arrangement. This concluding segment shows the value of these properties and what outdoor enthusiasts stand to lose.)
When the State Board of Land Commissioners launched a recent initiative to become directly involved in issuing big game licenses on its far-flung properties, it served to intensify the focus on the growing profit motive in Colorado hunting.
Although the proposal has only begun to creep through state policy circles, the land agency that controls 3 million acres plainly would like to get its nose in the money trough alongside hundreds of private landowners who sell high-dollar access rights to elite hunters, mostly from other states.
Depending upon trophy opportunity and/or amenities, such hunts command fees ranging to several thousand dollars.
The Land Board covets the ability to sell licenses that might accrue to its prime hunting property, much the way with private landowners enrolled in the DOW-approved Ranching for Wildlife program. Under this arrangement, ranchers with 12,000 contiguous acres may obtain up to 90 percent of all antlered licenses that accrue to the property. The rest, along with virtually all antlerless tags, accrue to public hunters who thus gain access to land otherwise not available.
The Land Board wouldn't qualify under current Ranching for Wildlife guidelines; such an arrangement would require special dispensation from the Colorado Wildlife Commission, whose members would find themselves in a personal litmus test involving public wildlife values versus political expediency.
While the Land Board scheme raises hackles for its acceleration of privileged hunting in general, public hunters are expressly alarmed they may lose right of entry to many thousands of State Trust Land acres currently under lease to the Colorado Division of Wildlife under a memorandum of understanding that began in 1993.
DOW currently leases 481,333 acres of trust land for various outdoor pursuits at an annual cost of $1.38 per acre. Many of these recreational leases are seasonal; the Land Board, charged with raising money to support public education, also leases much of this property to ranchers and farmers.
The existing agreement comes up for renegotiation in June. Further, the memorandum allows the Land Board to cancel any lease on an annual basis. Bottom line: Any or all of the 210 state trust leases are hanging by a thread at the Land Board's whim.
Considering the land agency's obvious interest in maximizing profits, sportsmen understandably are concerned over losing parcels that have during the past decade become true gems in the public hunting sphere. These trust lands represent by far the greatest holdings in DOW's domain.
Land Board officials already let slip their interest in reclaiming the 41,000-acre LaJara property southwest of Alamosa, perhaps the crown jewel in the entire allotment. What other properties have been targeted is anyone's guess.
Greg Walcher, executive director of the Department of Natural Resources and the person who likely will referee any hairpull between two agencies under his supervision, suggested that the Land Board has plenty of prime hunting acres not under contract with DOW.
But even these represent a huge potential loss to sportsmen. DOW initially aimed for 1 million trust acres, more than twice what it now commands. Presumably, the Land Board initiative would preclude public admission to the best of these added acres.
Under the you-don't-know-what- you've-got-till-it's-gone premise, it behooves us to examine the nature of these trust lands under public lease and their value to the outdoor public. They range from high-elevation forests thick with deer and elk to flatlands where the prize is antelope and varmints. The list of these 210 separate parcels includes everything in between.
While much of the focus involves big game, the inventory includes prime fishing and small game properties that might be more profitably allotted to clubs and individuals than to DOW.
Eight of the properties, with LaJara the largest, surpass the 12,000-acre mark and many others are nearly as big. The great majority are an even section in size, 640 acres. While most are in the mountains, where wildlife values are highest, the properties are scattered geographically all across the state.
In the nearly 10 years it has held leases to most of these properties, DOW has made considerable investment in their upkeep and improvement, along with more intense enforcement of game laws. Arguably, these lands now are better off than when DOW found them.
You'll find each of the units catalogued neatly in a DOW publication called "State Trust Lands," which gives precise descriptions of property locations, values and restrictions.
It might be wise to plan a visit before they go away. Meanwhile, comments to legislators and natural resource officials might have some impact on keeping key parcels in the public domain.
By Charlie Meyers, Denver Post Outdoor Editor
March 18, 2003
(This is the second of a two-part series on potential changes in the State Trust Lands lease arrangement. This concluding segment shows the value of these properties and what outdoor enthusiasts stand to lose.)
When the State Board of Land Commissioners launched a recent initiative to become directly involved in issuing big game licenses on its far-flung properties, it served to intensify the focus on the growing profit motive in Colorado hunting.
Although the proposal has only begun to creep through state policy circles, the land agency that controls 3 million acres plainly would like to get its nose in the money trough alongside hundreds of private landowners who sell high-dollar access rights to elite hunters, mostly from other states.
Depending upon trophy opportunity and/or amenities, such hunts command fees ranging to several thousand dollars.
The Land Board covets the ability to sell licenses that might accrue to its prime hunting property, much the way with private landowners enrolled in the DOW-approved Ranching for Wildlife program. Under this arrangement, ranchers with 12,000 contiguous acres may obtain up to 90 percent of all antlered licenses that accrue to the property. The rest, along with virtually all antlerless tags, accrue to public hunters who thus gain access to land otherwise not available.
The Land Board wouldn't qualify under current Ranching for Wildlife guidelines; such an arrangement would require special dispensation from the Colorado Wildlife Commission, whose members would find themselves in a personal litmus test involving public wildlife values versus political expediency.
While the Land Board scheme raises hackles for its acceleration of privileged hunting in general, public hunters are expressly alarmed they may lose right of entry to many thousands of State Trust Land acres currently under lease to the Colorado Division of Wildlife under a memorandum of understanding that began in 1993.
DOW currently leases 481,333 acres of trust land for various outdoor pursuits at an annual cost of $1.38 per acre. Many of these recreational leases are seasonal; the Land Board, charged with raising money to support public education, also leases much of this property to ranchers and farmers.
The existing agreement comes up for renegotiation in June. Further, the memorandum allows the Land Board to cancel any lease on an annual basis. Bottom line: Any or all of the 210 state trust leases are hanging by a thread at the Land Board's whim.
Considering the land agency's obvious interest in maximizing profits, sportsmen understandably are concerned over losing parcels that have during the past decade become true gems in the public hunting sphere. These trust lands represent by far the greatest holdings in DOW's domain.
Land Board officials already let slip their interest in reclaiming the 41,000-acre LaJara property southwest of Alamosa, perhaps the crown jewel in the entire allotment. What other properties have been targeted is anyone's guess.
Greg Walcher, executive director of the Department of Natural Resources and the person who likely will referee any hairpull between two agencies under his supervision, suggested that the Land Board has plenty of prime hunting acres not under contract with DOW.
But even these represent a huge potential loss to sportsmen. DOW initially aimed for 1 million trust acres, more than twice what it now commands. Presumably, the Land Board initiative would preclude public admission to the best of these added acres.
Under the you-don't-know-what- you've-got-till-it's-gone premise, it behooves us to examine the nature of these trust lands under public lease and their value to the outdoor public. They range from high-elevation forests thick with deer and elk to flatlands where the prize is antelope and varmints. The list of these 210 separate parcels includes everything in between.
While much of the focus involves big game, the inventory includes prime fishing and small game properties that might be more profitably allotted to clubs and individuals than to DOW.
Eight of the properties, with LaJara the largest, surpass the 12,000-acre mark and many others are nearly as big. The great majority are an even section in size, 640 acres. While most are in the mountains, where wildlife values are highest, the properties are scattered geographically all across the state.
In the nearly 10 years it has held leases to most of these properties, DOW has made considerable investment in their upkeep and improvement, along with more intense enforcement of game laws. Arguably, these lands now are better off than when DOW found them.
You'll find each of the units catalogued neatly in a DOW publication called "State Trust Lands," which gives precise descriptions of property locations, values and restrictions.
It might be wise to plan a visit before they go away. Meanwhile, comments to legislators and natural resource officials might have some impact on keeping key parcels in the public domain.