Colorado hunters, anglers could have 100,000 more acres of trust lands to roam

Colorado sportsmen and sportswomen could have more places to hunt and fish starting this fall if the State Land Board and state wildlife officials approve an agreement to open more trust lands to the public.

In their July meetings, state land board members and wildlife commissioners will consider opening another 100,000 acres of state trust lands in time for the fall hunting season. It would boost the number of acres open to hunting and fishing to 585,000 acres.

The proposal follows years of efforts to make more of the state lands accessible. An analysis released last week by the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and on X, a Montana-based digital mapping company, found that only 20 percent of Colorado’s 2.8 million acres of trust lands are open to the public, setting it apart from other Western states.

Recent attempts by some state and federal lawmakers to turn over management of federal public lands to the states focused attention on how states managed their trust lands. The federal government granted the lands to most Western states when they joined the union.

“People were often referencing Colorado as an example of exactly what we don’t want,” said Tim Brass, state policy and field operations director for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers.

That’s because other Western states generally open their trust lands to the public, with some restrictions, said Brass, whose organization has championed seeing Colorado follow suit.

Wyoming allows hunting, but not other public recreation, on its 3.6 million acres of trust lands, according to an analysis by Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. Most of the 9 million acres in New Mexico are open to hunting, and two-thirds of Montana’s 4.76 million acres are open to the public.

“Adding 100,000 acres is a great first step, but I think at the end of the day we need to think big,” Brass said of the proposal in Colorado. “I’d like to see some high-level policy change that addresses this at a large scale and puts Colorado more in line with our other

Western states.”

Most of the additional land that would be accessible to hunters is in eastern Colorado.

“I think it would provide a huge opportunity for hunters and anglers,” Brass said. “I think it would also be a boon for some of the rural economies, particularly in eastern Colorado, that are struggling right now.”

A state report released in 2018 said fishing, hunting and wildlife watching in Colorado produce about $5 billion in economic contributions annually.

Although state trust lands are public lands, they aren’t managed the same as federal public lands, which are required by law to be open to multiple uses. The trust lands granted to states came with the mandate that they be used to raise money for schools and other public institutions.

However, states have varied in their management. In some cases, they have sold big chunks or nearly all the trust lands while others have made them more available to the public.

“Each state with trust lands has different constitutional mandates, different trust beneficiaries, different geographic patterns, and different natural resources on the lands,” Kristin Kemp, State Land Board spokeswoman, said in an email.

More than 95 percent of Colorado’s 2.8 million acres are leased for agriculture, such as cattle grazing or growing crops, Kemp said. There are about 1,800 agriculture leaseholders. Other renters include outfitters with private recreation leases.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is another leaseholder under the Public Access Program, which began in 1993. Parks and Wildlife pays roughly $900,000 a year to lease the lands, which include 485,000 acres open to hunting from September through February as well as 80,000 acres in state parks and 13,000 acres in state wildlife areas.

The money from CPW and other leaseholders goes into a $4.1 billion endowment for K-12 schools, Kemp said. Leases generated $1.4 billion for schools in the past decade, providing the primary state funding for school construction and renovation.

Although the state is required to raise money from trust lands, Brass noted that a 1996 voterapproved constitutional amendment prioritized conserving wildlife habitat and natural resources on 300,000 acres. It also changed language saying trust land must be managed to raise the maximum amount of revenue to saying they provide reasonable and consistent revenue.

“The land board is a good partner of ours and we’re looking to expand that conversation,” CPW Director Dan Prenzlow said of the proposal to open more of the trust lands to hunting and fishing.

The land board will consider the proposal at its meeting July 11 in Walden. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission’s meeting is July 18 and 19 in Telluride.

Providing more places for hunting, fishing and other outdoor recreation is important, Prenzlow said. “One of the barriers for at least entry-level hunting and angling is access,” he said.