During the annual review of hunting license prices, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to raise prices for out-of-state visitors to hunt mountain lions and black bears.

Non-resident hunters will have to pay $293 for a black bear permit and $823.28 for a mountain lion starting in January, according to vote. This brings the bear license in line with the average price in other western states and lion licenses at the legal limit and is an increase from $250 and $500 in 2024.

The 7-3 vote was against the recommendation of Parks and Wildlife staff, which suggested waiting until the agency could assess the full impact of significant increases in both license types last year.

However, Commissioner Eden Vardy signaled the increase in these two licenses for financial purposes and because of “public perception”.

“If there’s a way to raise revenue in a way that doesn’t look like it’s going to have a significant impact on our constituents, I think it’s our obligation to do it,” Vardy said.

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The ethics and the validity of hunting mountain lions has drawn significant public interest this year as a ballot measure called for Colorado to ban the practice. While measure failedthe matter continued to be debated at the November committee meeting. Not only was it mentioned in this license discussion, but commissioners heard over an hour of public comment from both hunting and wildlife advocates during their vote to approve a management plan for mountain lions in eastern Colorado.

The plan, which maintains hunting as the primary management tool for the park’s lions and wildlife, received unanimous approval from the commission. The committee did not consider the agenda item to be the appropriate place to rule on some of the questions raised by the ballot measure.

We are not voting on the regulations today, we are debating and discussing this plan as presented,” said Chairman Dallas May. “It all boils down to this.”

The last time Colorado voters acted on hunting regulations was in 1992, when voters approved a ban on the use of dogs in black bear hunting — currently the predominant method for lion hunting — and eliminated the spring hunting season.

Today, Parks and Wildlife offers limited annual hunting opportunities for black bears and mountain lions.

For black bears, this includes several seasons in the fall. The dates coincide with other fall hunting seasons such as elk and deer, often making the bear license an “extra” for hunters. There is a mountain lion hunting season each year that runs from late November to March 31st. Some years an April season is added, depending on the number killed in the regular season.

For lions and bears, residents account for the vast majority of hunting permits. In 2023, Colorado residents accounted for 76 percent of the bear license draw and 80 percent of the mountain lion draw, according to Parks and Wildlife.

Prices for residence licenses of both species are already at the legal limit and cannot be increased further. Non-resident fees for mountain lions and bears are among the few types of wildlife licenses not already at this cap.

The latest price increase for out-of-state hunters comes a year after the commission made significant increases. For bears, the price jumped from $100 to $250 for the 2024 season. For mountain lions, it jumped from $387 to $500.

Although Parks and Wildlife does not yet have final data on mountain lion licenses sold in 2024, it reported selling about 4,800 fewer bear licenses this year as a result of the price increase. However, it saw an increase of about $861,000 in revenue. In 2023, the wildlife agency collected $324,958 from 2,681 mountain lion hunting licenses.

The debate over increasing hunting license prices has oscillated between staff’s recommendation that leaving them alone for another year would allow for more data collection and Vardy’s argument for additional revenue and satisfying public concerns.

Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis warned further price increases could hurt revenue.

“There’s also an inflection point where if the prices are too high, now we’re losing revenue from that,” Davis said.

Commissioner Marie Haskett — who joined Murphy Robinson and Tai Jacober in not voting on the final increase vote — said it would be a “big mistake” to grow again without understanding the full impact.

In growing again, Haskett feared a “full spiral effect” that would see animal conflict, increased game damage and lower sales.

“The voters of Colorado have just spoken and approve of what we’re doing, especially with regard to mountain lions, and I think that goes against what they said,” she added.

Robinson said he prefers to make decisions based on data rather than vote based on “political motivations.”

Vardy argued that the financial need was great enough.

“I think this agency needs additional staff to deal with our game management challenges, we have to deal with everything that comes our way,” Vardy said. “We have to deal with the massive amount of other wildlife we ​​have to work with.”
Ultimately, the motion passed 7-3, also enacting a 2.7 percent price increase for all licenses aligned with the Consumer Price Index for the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area and a fee increase for sales. It also made updates to align with the requirements of a 2024 Senate Bill regarding senior pricing.