Well said CC. And if you don't want CO to have any unlimited (OTC) tags you may get your wish as the CPW Staff and Commisioners indicated they may take a look at OTC Rifle licenses during the next BGSS in 5 years.
If you'd like to see the facts they considered for OTC Archery tags during this meeting, below is the data the CPW Staff gave to the Commissioners.
Here's the link also:
https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Commission/2024/June/Item.10_Memo_2025-2029 Big_Game_Season_Structure.pdf
Limitation of OTC Archery Licenses
For various reasons, staff initially recommended full limitation of OTC archery licenses. This recommendation was difficult to make considering it was least supported by resident hunters. From March through May, the Commission and staff listened to the public testimony from many hunters who are passionate about having OTC licenses available to them. Hunters shared their perspectives on hunting heritage, how important OTC licenses are to ensure families and friends can hunt together, about recruitment and retention, and many other reasons to maintain OTC archery licenses for residents. The Commission presented new ideas to accommodate resident hunters in new ways, mainly by managing OTC archery licenses for residents only within a phased-approach for limitation of OTC archery licenses. Since the Commission meeting in March 2024, staff have held numerous internal discussions about all of the feedback received. Staff have come to a new recommendation, which is to limit OTC archery licenses for nonresidents only, and to maintain OTC archery licenses for residents. Unlike rifle, staff believe OTC archery elk licenses should be limited for nonresidents only for the following reasons:
1. There has been an increasing trend in OTC archery license sales (Figure 3) over 20 years. In the early 2000s, the number of OTC archery licenses sales was around 10,000 (~50% resident; ~50% nonresident). From 2014-2019, the number of OTC archery license sales was around 36,000-39,000, with residents getting 58%-51% of the licenses during that period. OTC archery license sales dropped to about 27,000 licenses in 2023 (~47% resident; ~53% nonresident). The limitation of five elk herds during the period 2000-2023 and hunter response to the 2022-2023 severe winter contributed to this drop in OTC license sales.
2. There is a 20-year increasing trend in total archery license sales for elk, which is a combined total of OTC and limited license sales (Figure 4). In 2001, total archery license sales for elk were about 25,000 (53% resident; 47% nonresident). Twenty years later, CPW sold over 20,000 more archery licenses (48% resident; 52% nonresident) than in 2021. Total archery elk license sales have substantially increased during this period, and nonresidents now get a higher proportion of the licenses than residents.
3. Crowding has been a concern during archery season for many years. In 2020, the Commission initiated a phased-approach for limitation of OTC archery licenses. At that time, the Commission allowed archery elk licenses to be limited geographically on a case-by-case basis to meet biological or social management objectives. The Commission did not consider limitation of nonresidents only. Since 2020, resident and nonresident licenses were limited in five different elk herds for biological and social management reasons. CPW has engaged the public on limitation of OTC archery licenses during the last two BGSS processes, which means we have been discussing limitation of archery licenses for over 10 years. The majority of resident hunters prefer to maintain OTC archery elk licenses for residents, and to limit OTC archery elk licenses for nonresidents.
4. Change in demand associated with limitation of OTC licenses is unknown. This is especially true for nonresident hunters. CPW expects nonresident demand to decrease when unlimited OTC licenses are no longer available. We expect to lose nonresident archery hunters following limitation of OTC archery licenses; however, maintaining OTC rifle for both residents and nonresidents (status quo) will likely reduce revenue loss. Many nonresident archery hunters who choose not to apply in the primary draw will still be able to obtain an OTC rifle license as long as we remain status quo for OTC rifle licenses.
