This is a tale of nickels and dimes. Or at least those are the words most often used when the complaints from license buyers come rolling in.
As the grumbles go, the nickels represent the 75-cent surcharge on every Colorado hunting or fishing license to fund the Public Education Advisory Council; the dimes symbolize the Habitat Stamp Program, which costs $5. Sportsmen who purchase more than one license pay $10.
Rubbed together, these ding the active sportsman upward of $15 a year on top of the usual license levies. That’s not an overwhelming amount, but, judging from all the calls and letters, a lot of folks out there are questioning the actual benefits from these two new blips on the outdoor radar. It’s not so much that they object to the charges per se, but they do want their money’s worth.
In the case of the Habitat Stamp initiative, the short answer is the $7 million collected during the first two years of the program is delivering much more than you might have imagined. As for PEAC, we may never really know. More about that in a companion story.
The stamp actually has two purposes: to preserve big game winter range and other fish and wildlife habitat and to allow wildlife enthusiasts who don’t buy licenses to participate financially in the process.
Publicity about the actual and pending property acquisitions has been slim, thus creating a vacuum in which restlessness and suspicion have prospered. In reality, the Division of Wildlife has an astonishing array of properties on the burner.
“We do a lot of work, but we’re not always good at getting the word out,” said Grady McNeill, real property manager for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
The agency already secured properties encompassing more than 19,000 acres, with an additional dozen, 65,000 acres under negotiation. The process itself contributes to the appearance of plodding. Even after a property has been offered for sale, acquisition could take half a year or longer.
“We need biological analysis, appraisal and Wildlife Commission approval,” McNeill said of a course that is best run precisely rather than quickly.
On the other hand, cash contribution from nonconsumptive users has lagged far behind expectation, leaving us with the basic message that PEAC was created to deliver — that license-buying sportsmen are paying the freight for Colorado’s wildlife; nearly everyone else is riding their coattails.
During 2007, nonsportsmen purchased just 7,370 habitat stamps compared with 741,169 attached to actual licenses.
Leveraging the stamp funds with monies from Great Outdoors Colorado and federal grants, McNeill and his associates actually obtained more than $30 million worth of properties. Most are in easements that protect deer and elk winter range and migration routes; some protect sage and sharptail grouse. Some 2,300 acres are in fee title, while 4,750 acres allow public access. About 1.75 fishing miles are included.
These are the 14 properties under contract:
• Wolf-Taussig, 3,140-acre easement, big game winter range, Grand County, $3.5 million.
• Miller Ranch, 1,604 acres fee title, big game winter range and migration, Gunnison sage grouse habitat, Gunnison County, $6.5 million.
• Hardeman Property, 1.25 miles of Arkansas River, perpetual fishing access and bighorn sheep winter range, Lake County, $99,000.
• Ramah Reservoir, 158 acres fee title inholding at existing SWA, warm-water fishing and waterfowl access, El Paso County, $120,000.
• Lunney Mountain, 2,027-acre easement, big game winter range and sharptail grouse habitat, Rio Blanco County, $1 million.
• Elk Creek Ranch, 350 acres fee title, big game winter range and migration, Gunnison sage grouse habitat, San Miguel County, $924,000.
• Adobe Ridge, 561-acre easement, big game winter range and migration, sharptail grouse habitat, Routt County, $480,000.
• Berryman Ranch, 2,905-acre easement, big game winter range and migration, Rio Blanco County, $2.5 million.
• Kendrick/La Jara Creek, 200 acres fee title, inholding at existing SWA, big game winter range and trout fishing, Conejos County, $40,000.
• Raftopoulos Two Bar Ranch, 3,184-acre easement, including 2,400 acres hunting access in the Cold Springs Mountain area, Moffat County, $1.7 million.
• Wolf Mountain, 2,711-acre easement, big game winter range and migration, sharptail and greater sage grouse habitat, trout fishing, Routt County, $1.75 million.
• Circle 8 Ranch, 638-acre easement, big game winter range and migration, sharptail and greater sage grouse habitat, Routt County, $472,000.
• Bake Ranch, 1,249-acre easement, big game winter range and migration, Gunnison sage grouse habitat, San Miguel County, $850,000.
• Wenschoff Ranch, 525-acre easement, big game winter range and migration, greater sage grouse habitat, Rio Blanco County, $1.2 million.
Charlie Meyers: 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com
