As Colorado faces the lowest snowpack the state has seen in over four decades, 5 million residents across the state have been left to confront how they must adjust their behavior in response to increasing drought conditions. While watering restrictions become more common, some have been forced to reconsider their activities close to land and livelihoods.
Big-game hunting is categorized by the practice of hunting large animals on a tag-based licensure system applicable to the state’s public lands. Similarly, angling requires a fishing license in the state of Colorado.
Both sports take several types of strength, according to Kara Van Hoose, a public information officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
“Hunting and angling require physical and mental skills like any other sport,” Van Hoose said. “Your outcome can be improved with practice, experience and learning. There are fishing and sport shooting competitions for those who want to compete against others instead of wildlife.”
Colorado Parks and Wildlife manages, as Van Hoose explained, all hunting and angling regulations across the state. A heavily regulated industry, all hunters in Colorado must abide by state laws while following the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation principles.
“This doctrine was adopted to ensure equity in access and philosophy among hunters but also to enshrine conservation ideals for the long-term preservation of wildlife,” Van Hoose said.
While hunters contribute financially to conservation efforts through license fees, many are also are conscientious of their roles in the ecological balance. License numbers are carefully calculated every season to maintain species balances and even work to reduce overgrazing.
“It’s our responsibility, I believe … as a hunter and an angler and outdoorsman and whatnot, and as somebody who loves conservation,” said Austin Presley, secretary of Colorado State University’s chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.
The drought’s effects have already become visible in hunting and angling spaces, especially considering Colorado’s big game, which includes elk, moose and mule deer.
“Drought’s main effect on big game populations in Colorado will be habitat health and food supply,” Van Hoose said. “If natural food sources like berries, cherries (and) nuts are not abundant, wildlife can start looking for less-desirable food sources like human trash. Bears, especially, could see an increase in human conflicts if their natural food is not in good supply.”
Others have noticed changes in migratory bird patterns, including Michael Tracy, who owns Platte Basin Outdoors, a hunting guide service based in Northern Colorado. This shift is most likely attributed to the prolonged warm temperatures of this past fall season.
“That’s the first thing to affect the season,” Tracy said. “If it doesn’t get cold, if there isn’t deep snow, to force migratory waterfowl species south, it takes them forever to get down here, and certain species do not end up coming down here anymore.”
Tracy’s guiding services predominately focus on waterfowl species like Canadian geese and mallards, which are heavily impacted by prolonged temperatures and drought. This causes flocks to remain stationary in fields or gravel pits for longer periods, sometimes for weeks at a time.
“It’s a double-edged sword; we have birds all the time,” Tracy said. “But they become pressured and what we call stale, so they know they’re going (to) form mega flocks. … So it gets to, like, you know, 50,000 birds in one field. And, you know, they’re not really huntable at that point. That’s one of the things that happens when they just sit around.”
The drought’s impact is not limited to just land-based activities. Anglers across the state, including Dani Gilbert, the president of CSU’s Fly Fishing Club, have begun to see the impacts that reduced snowcap melt has had on local rivers and watersheds.
“There wasn’t really a runoff season at all this year, which is just super important when it comes to, like, insect hatching and the movement of fish,” Gilbert said.
Fly fishing, and angling in general, can be competed at several different levels, either in teams or individually.
“There are competitions you can enter into, like, if you catch the biggest fish or casting competitions,” Gilbert said. “But it also has the foundation of a sport where you can do it at different levels. You can be a beginner to it and learn and get better and things like that, and it’s also something you can do with other people or against other people.”
While the drought’s ultimate impacts have yet to be seen as Colorado enters an unclear summer marked with unknown conditions, Presley emphasized BHA’s desire to do what they can to support conservation efforts.
“We’ve been discussing what ways our club can contribute to helping out, where we can be putting on cleanup and just helping other agencies,” Presley said.
Reach Katie Fisher at sports@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegianSpts.
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