Why it Matters: The use of ballot initiatives to ban hunting circumvents the legislative and regulatory process, preventing the opportunity for input by professionals, future revisions, and considerations of broader impacts within the Colorado’s overall science-based management plan. These initiatives can allow wildlife management decisions to be made based on emotion rather than scientific principles, tying the hands of professional wildlife managers by restricting adaptive tools and methods necessary to achieve balanced and thriving ecosystems. Defeating this ballot initiative keeps the authority to manage Colorado’s wildlife in the hands of the state’s well-trained wildlife professionals, where it belongs.
Highlights:
- Earlier this year, anti-hunting groups in Colorado filed a petition to place an initiative on the Colorado ballot this November that would prohibit large cat hunting.
- This ballot initiative is the result of the Colorado legislature voting down Senate Bill 22-031 (SB22-031), which also aimed to restrict predator management, circumvent the authority of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and erode the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.
- The deadline for the anti-hunting groups to submit their signatures to qualify for ballot placement was July 5, and the Colorado Secretary of State has since ruled that they have enough valid signatures to put the anti-hunting initiative on the ballot.
- The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) strongly opposed these efforts during the 2022 and 2023 legislative sessions, and is currently working with national and in-state partners to support the campaign against the initiative.
As reported earlier, the anti-hunting group running the campaign to place a hunting ban on the ballot in Colorado this November, dropped off their signatures to the Colorado Secretary of State back on Wednesday, July 3. The threshold for qualification is approximately 150,000 signatures and the anti-hunting group claimed they submitted 188,000 signatures. The Colorado Secretary of State spent the last few weeks conducting random checks of the submitted signatures and, using a formula, determined that the anti-hunting group’s signatures were valid and that they crossed the legal threshold necessary to place the initiative on the ballot in November.
Now the fight is on. This ballot box biology effort goes against proven, scientific wildlife management and CSF’s mission. Our polling shows that Coloradans are split virtually 50/50 on this issue without any education. However, once people are informed about the impact of the proposed ban, and told that Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s own scientific research shows that Colorado’s mountain lion, bobcat, and lynx populations are “strong, abundant, and not biologically threatened,” the polling shifts definitively in our favor.
Therefore, the strategy from now until Election Day is to educate every single Coloradan, and push back against the false, unscientific, and dangerous narrative being spun by the opposition. This kind of massive effort relies on everyone. If you’re interested in helping, please visit Colorado’s Wildlife Deserve Better, the organization created by an in-state coalition – which includes CSF – to oppose this attack, and learn how you can be involved.
CSF will continue to monitor and support this rapidly evolving situation in Colorado.
