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The Rise of Women Hunting in Colorado
A demographic breakdown
TRCP’s mission is to guarantee all Americans quality places to hunt and fish, and when I notice more people who look like me in the woods in camo in the fall or in waders throughout the year, it makes me really happy. Hunting is one of the most unique and grounding experiences I’ve ever had, and the people I’ve learned and hunted with similarly find it to be fun, rewarding, and empowering—all things I hope all Americans get the chance to experience if they so choose.
In 2023, a record-breaking 84,384 women and girls applied for Colorado big game hunting tags, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the 2024 data shows. Compare that to the 2016 primary draw, when 48,541 women and girls applied for Colorado deer, elk, pronghorn, moose, bighorn sheep, desert bighorn sheep, mountain goat, and bear tags. So since 2016, 35,843 more women from Colorado and out-of-state put their application strategies and luck to the test. Colorado’s big game license application numbers overall continue to break records, and women are keeping pace. The percentage of Colorado big game license applicants who self-reported as female has risen from 10.7% in 2016 to 11.2% in 2023.
While women still only make up about 11% of all Colorado big game license applicants, 84,000 women trying to harvest wild game in Colorado represents an enormous amount of preparation, skill development, curiosity, personal growth, and hopefully when it’s all said and done, good food in the freezer. We’re all out here to pursue fish and wildlife, learn, avoid emails, and enjoy quality time with people we like (or by ourselves!), and I’m here to celebrate it.
According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s most recent National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, 14.4 million people 16 years or older in the U.S. hunted in 2022, and 22 percent (3.1 million) were female, 1 percent (0.2 million) were another gender, and 77 percent (11 million) were male. Those numbers represent those who hunted (vs. simply applied to hunt) big game, small game, migratory birds, and other animals.
We are very fortunate to live in a state that’s over 40% public land where there’s a lot of theoretical access, but as you know it takes more than just public access to produce hunting success. We depend on access to quality habitat and healthy wildlife populations, and we rely on wildlife and land managers of many jurisdictions having the staff, funding, and ability to conserve, restore, and responsibly manage important wildlife habitat.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife and other partners have been working hard to research the seasonal and local migrations of Colorado’s big game animals, through studies that track collared animals, use photos from game cameras, and incorporate animal location survey data. We’ve learned how critical it is to conserve and connect key habitats such as migration corridors to ensure long-term viability of the populations we all care so much about. This is not possible without smart, high-level planning and policy decisions; habitat restoration work; wildlife crossing infrastructure that prevents wildlife-vehicle collisions; and key land acquisitions and easements—all of which requires financial resources.
When you purchase your hunting and fishing licenses, habitat stamp, duck stamps, and pay excise taxes on hunting and fishing gear, you’re helping ensure that Colorado Parks and Wildlife can continue to employ qualified and dedicated staff; complete habitat restoration and conservation projects; uphold wildlife laws; educate and empower people through programs supporting responsible hunting, fishing, shooting, and recreating; and collect data that informs critical research for responsibly managing wildlife populations. All of this is happening year-round, right here in-state.
Furthermore, the purchase of licenses, passes, fees, and permits comprise 66% of Colorado’s wildlife revenue, which makes the important work listed above possible and provides us with access to places like State Wildlife Areas and to State Trust Land Hunting and Fishing Access Program areas specifically for hunting and fishing. Additionally, the Habitat Stamps that hunters and anglers purchase each year have collectively generated $189 MILLION dollars to pay for public access easements, riverbank access, strategic land acquisitions, and conservation easements between 2006 and 2022, and additional Wildlife Habitat Program investments are made every year. These investments are made to simultaneously meet the needs of fish and wildlife populations, and the people who love to pursue and learn about them.
We’re lucky in Colorado that so many of us are willing to contribute every year to supporting science-based wildlife management that enhances our lives and our opportunities to hunt, fish, and enjoy the wild places we have left with the people we love.
A version of this blog was published as an op-ed in the Grand Junction Sentinel.
BLM Announces Greater Sage Grouse Draft Plan Amendments to Guide Management of 67 million Acres in the West
TRCP encourages the agency to plan for durable conservation strategies
Today, the Bureau of Land Management announced the release of its draft Greater Sage Grouse Environmental Impact Statement and associated Resource Management Plan Amendments that—when completed—will guide management decisions across approximately 67 million acres of sage grouse habitat on public lands overseen by the BLM.
Driven by legal challenges, these draft amendments are intended to update plans previously finalized by the BLM in 2015 and 2020, and they will direct management across 10 Western states that cover the current range of the greater sage grouse.
“The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, along with hunters and anglers across the West, understand the importance of well-managed BLM lands for the longevity of greater sage grouse and other sagebrush obligate species,” said Madeleine West, TRCP’s director of the center for public lands. “And while there’s a clear need to complete these latest plan amendments, the focus of federal and state agencies, along with external partners, must quickly shift to implementing conservation strategies on the ground.”
These plan amendments offer the opportunity for the BLM to incorporate new science to inform land management decisions. A 2022 U.S. Geological Survey report revealed that half of the original sagebrush ecosystem has been lost at a rate of approximately 1.3 million acres each year over the last two decades.
The sagebrush ecosystem is the largest terrestrial biome in the Lower 48 at over 165 million acres spanning 13 Western states. It is home to the iconic greater sage grouse as well as numerous other fish and game species. Greater sage grouse conservation efforts have driven unprecedented collaboration between state and federal managers, private landowners, and NGOs for multiple decades. This continued collaboration is critical to reverse the trend of significant habitat loss, which impacts individual species like the greater sage grouse, as well as communities across the West.
Today’s announcement kicks off a 90-day formal comment period where the public can submit scoping comments that will be used to inform revision of the draft plan amendments, which are expected to be finalized by the end of 2024.
“TRCP will be digging into the details of the draft plan amendments to provide constructive comments that ensure successful and durable conservation measures can be implemented on BLM-managed lands that support the greater sage grouse, the myriad other species that benefit from healthy sagebrush habitat, as well as the diverse communities that rely on these public lands,” added West.
Read more about TRCP’s work on greater sage grouse conservation HERE.
In the Arena: Bill Cooksey, National Wildlife Federation
TRCP’s “In the Arena” series highlights the individual voices of hunters and anglers who, as Theodore Roosevelt so famously said, strive valiantly in the worthy cause of conservation.
Bill Cooksey
Hometown: Jackson, TN
Occupation: Senior Sportsmen Outreach Coordinator for the Vanishing Paradise Program of the National Wildlife Federation, and NWF Director of Conservation Partnerships for Tennessee.
Conservation credentials: Outreach and partnership coordination expert who has ties across the conservation spectrum for his ability to drive cooperative efforts, a direct but amicable personality, and prowess as a waterfowl hunter.
Inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame in 2022, Bill Cooksey is a well-known and well-respected Tennessee duck and turkey hunter and freshwater angler who is involved in conservation issues throughout the Southeast. Like his father, who was a trustee emeritus for Ducks Unlimited, Cooksey is highly regarded by the sporting community. As NWF’s Senior Sportsmen Outreach Coordinator for the Vanishing Paradise program, Cooksey currently works with TRCP and other partners to address coastal restoration and water flow/quality issues from Texas to the Mississippi River Delta to the Florida Everglades, and is now also setting his sights on conservation efforts farther up the Mighty Mississippi.
Here is his story.
I don’t really recall my introduction to hunting and fishing because my father began taking me when I was very young. I know I caught my first fish at age three and began dove and duck hunting with him when I was four. I can only recall snippets from those experiences, but they obviously inspired me in the direction my adult life would take.
According to both parents, I’d cry if my father said he was going hunting or fishing without me, and I’d cry when he said it was time to go home. Some would call it child abuse, but Dad would tie a hookless Christmas Tree Bomber on my Zebco rod and reel and let me throw that sucker all day long. My wife says I’m not much smarter today.
My first real “outdoor” memory was of a Ducks Unlimited Rally (precursor to the banquet) in Jackson, Tenn., in 1971. It was in the Civic Center, and I can recall a man on stage holding a shotgun and blowing a duck call. Suddenly, a mallard was flying through the air, and it fell when he shot. Three-year-old me had no idea it was a shackled duck and blanks. To me it was just the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Conservation was always part of my dad’s life, culminating in Trustee Emeritus at Ducks Unlimited, with many accolades along the way. Thus, conservation was always just part of the experience for me. I suppose you could say I just don’t really know another way.
I’ve been blessed to hunt with so many incredible people and in so many wonderful places it’s an embarrassment of riches. It’s impossible to say which adventures are my favorites, because as one memory rises to the top another comes to mind. But I’d say the various “firsts” for my sons, and their first turkeys especially, might just take the cake. They were killed 17 years and 100 yards apart. When my youngest killed his, I recall crying on the drive home. Our oldest had passed away ten years prior, and my father died just a month before turkey season. The two people I most wanted to call and share Bill’s accomplishment with were gone.
I live where I do for a reason. I love duck hunting the southern half of the Mississippi Flyway. I mean, I love everything about it. Sadly, the trend here appears to be going the wrong way, and I’m very concerned about the future. Changes in weather patterns, habitat and even production in the Prairie Pothole Region are taking a toll on waterfowl hunting in my home range.
Here in western Tennessee, I can step out my door and hit Kentucky Lake with a rock, so the biggest conservation challenge in my backyard is invasive Asian carp, but that’s just the most obvious. More frequent, and sustained, flooding is wreaking havoc in all of our reservoirs and bottomlands. Late spring and early summer floods scour our reservoirs and kill the grass that our native fish – and waterfowl in the winter – need, and sustained spring flooding is killing huge tracts of bottomland hardwoods.
These are challenges we face. But because of my dad, I don’t really know how not to be involved in conservation and efforts to address these sorts of threats. If nothing else, being involved helps me understand what’s happening with our wildlife, and, surprisingly to some, it makes me a better hunter and fisherman. Keeping it light, being involved also helps fill the time between hunting seasons with something related to them. It’s really not so very different from hunters shooting clays or running retriever hunt tests. Being involved in conservation means being involved in my favorite sports.
Being involved in conservation has allowed me to connect with incredible sportsmen and conservation leaders around the country, while learning far more about places I care about. When the national news features an environmental catastrophe in south Florida, it’s likely to be about red tide. Rarely will they explain the common link between red tide, algal blooms, and fish kills with needed Everglades restoration. How many times have you seen coverage of a hurricane or tropical storm approaching Louisiana and heard mention of the fact the marshes are disappearing at the rate of a football field every 100 minutes, and that sediment diversions are the best way to restore the coast? When was the last time you heard about the rapid loss of bottomland hardwoods in the southern Mississippi flyway?
Without sportsmen and conservation organizations pushing out important information at every opportunity, nothing happens. And successful conservation is the only way the next generation of hunters and anglers will have anything approaching the experiences I’ve enjoyed.
Click here to help protect and restore Everglades habitat.
Read more about Mississippi River Delta restoration efforts here.
Do you know someone “In the Arena” who should be featured here? Email us at info@trcp.org
Pennsylvania’s Trout Fishing Streams: Why They Lack Full Protection
There’s a growing list of popular trout fishing streams awaiting full protection at the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. What can anglers do about it?
In this short video, we explain how the state of Pennsylvania is working to protect the cold, clean waters that trout require, but is coming up short for one simple reason.
Pennsylvania anglers who have followed TRCP for the last few years are probably aware that four times each year, the state’s Fish and Boat Commission proposes a number of streams for conservation protections. These streams are given a designation based on how sustainable their trout populations are, and we help ensure that our members’ voices are heard by the state during each of these cycles.
What folks might not understand is that some trout streams the commission recommended for full protection to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) years ago still haven’t received these safeguards – or why that’s happening.
It’s time DEP clears the backlog and conserves Pennsylvania’s best trout waters. Make your voice heard and send DEP a message through our simple comment form.
Learn more and explore a map of backlogged Pennsylvania trout streams here.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
From now until January 1, 2025, every donation you make will be matched by a TRCP Board member up to $500,000 to sustain TRCP’s work that promotes wildlife habitat, our sporting traditions, and hunter & angler access. Together, dollar for dollar, stride for stride, we can all step into the arena of conservation.
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