Why It Matters: The constitutional right to hunt and fish is officially on the ballot in Colorado this November. Should Amendment 83 pass, it will enshrine the right to hunt and fish for current and future generations of Coloradans and protect our traditions and heritage. It also preserves the state’s authority to manage wildlife using the best available science and safeguards the “user-pay–public benefit” funding model under the American System of Conservation Funding, which funds professional, science-based management of fish and wildlife nationwide. In Colorado alone, hunters and anglers have helped protect over 250,000 acres, supported 25,000 jobs, and generated $3.25 billion for the state’s economy.
Highlights:
- Amendment 83, which started as Initiative 302 in July, gathered over 180,000 signatures. In August, the Colorado Secretary of State certified those signatures at 145,299, which exceeded the required number of slightly over 124,000, and added Amendment 83 to the November ballot (formally Amendment 84).
- For the Amendment to pass, it must receive over 55% of the vote to officially amend the Colorado Constitution.
- With broad coalition support from many organizations at both the state and national levels, the Amendment, if passed, will allow Colorado to join 24 other states with the constitutional right to hunt and fish, including neighboring states like Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas.
- Unlike any prior state (including Vermont, whose constitutional right to hunt and fish was established in 1777, and Florida, which passed its amendment in 2024), this is the first citizen-initiated right to hunt and fish.
The dedication of sportsmen and women is the reason we have the wildlife and access we enjoy today. Early conservation efforts by figures like Theodore Roosevelt, along with the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Acts, kept species like elk, turkey, deer, and pronghorn from disappearing altogether and built the funding model that still supports conservation nationwide, widely regarded as the most successful conservation funding model in the world. That legacy is what is being safeguarded in Colorado this November.
The current right to hunt and fish constitutional amendment proposition reads as:
“There is established a right of the people of Colorado to hunt, fish, and take fish and wildlife. The right includes hunting, fishing, and harvesting fish and wildlife by the use of traditional methods. The right applies to all species of fish and wildlife managed by the state except nongame species, endangered species, or any species that is illegal to hunt under federal law.”
What’s important to note is that it keeps endangered species within the state protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). It also recognizes and maintains Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) as the primary wildlife management authority, including using the best available management practices for all species in the state and maintains hunting as the preferred management tool. This fully emphasizes the state’s and hunters’ commitment to science-based management.
Opposition arguments are fairly typical, coming largely from those who view hunting, fishing, and wildlife harvest as a moral issue and lean on emotional appeals rather than science-based management. What many of these organizations overlook is the funding role hunting and angling access plays in supporting wildlife management in every state. Amendment 83 doesn’t limit CPW’s authority to manage wildlife using the best available science–it reinforces it while protecting the funding model that already does the heavy lifting for conservation in every state. That’s not a step backward for wildlife; it’s a safeguard for the system that pays for wildlife management in the first place.
CSF encourages our readers from Colorado to get out to vote on November 3. We applaud the efforts of our coalition partners as we all work to help support the right to hunt and fish in Colorado.
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