During its annual review of pricing for hunting licenses, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted to increase prices for out-of-state visitors to hunt mountain lions and black bears.

Non-residents will have to pay $293 for a black bear license and $823.28 for a mountain lion license starting in January, per the vote. This brings the bear license in line with the average price in other Western states and the lion license to the statutory limit. The new rates represent an increase from $250 and $500, respectively, in 2024. 

The 7-3 vote went against the recommendation of Parks and Wildlife staff members, who suggested waiting until the agency could evaluate the full impact of significant increases to both license types. 

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However, Commissioner Eden Vardy motioned to increase the two licenses for financial purposes and due to “public perception.” 

“If there’s a way to raise revenue in a way that doesn’t feel like it’s going to have a significant impact on our constituents, I think it is our obligation to do so,” Vardy said. 

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The ethics and validity of mountain lion hunting garnered significant public interest this year as a ballot measure asked Colorado to ban the practice. While the measure failed, the matter continued to be debated at the commission’s November meeting. Not only was it referenced in this license discussion, but commissioners heard over an hour of public comment from both hunting and wildlife advocates during a vote to approve a management plan for mountain lions in eastern Colorado. 

The plan, which maintains hunting as Park and Wildlife’s primary management tool for lions, received unanimous approval from the commission. The commission didn’t view the agenda item as the appropriate place to rule on some of the questions raised by the ballot measure. 

We’re not voting on regulations today, we’re debating and discussing this plan as presented,” Chairman Dallas May said. “It’s all being conflated in this.”

The last time Colorado voters weighed in on hunting regulations was in 1992, when voters approved a ban on the use of hounds in black bear hunts — currently the predominant method for lion hunting — and eliminated the spring hunting season. 

Today, Parks and Wildlife offers limited annual hunting opportunities for black bears and mountain lions. 

For black bears, this includes several seasons in the fall. The dates coincide with other fall hunting seasons, like elk and deer, often making the bear license an “add-on” for hunters. There is one mountain lion hunting season each year, extending from the end of November to March 31. In some years, an April season is added depending on the number of lions killed in the regular season. 

For lions and bears, residents make up the vast majority of hunting licenses. In 2023, Colorado residents made up 76% of the license draw for bears and 80% of the draw for mountain lions, according to Parks and Wildlife. 

Prices for resident licenses of both species are already at their statutory limit and cannot be raised further. Non-resident fees for mountain lions and bears are among the few wildlife license types that are not already at their cap. 

The most recent price increase for the out-of-state hunters comes a year after the commission made significant hikes. For bears, the price jumped from $100 to $250 for the 2024 season. For mountain lions, it increased from $387 to $500. 

While Parks and Wildlife does not yet have final data on mountain lion licenses sold in 2024, it reported that it sold around 4,800 fewer bear licenses this year following the pricing hike. However, it did see an increase of around $861,000 in revenue. In 2023, the wildlife agency accumulated $324,958 from 2,681 mountain lion hunting licenses.

The debate to raise the hunting license prices teetered between the staff’s recommendation to leave them alone for another year and Vardy’s argument for additional revenue and satiating public concerns. 

Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis warned that raising the prices further could hurt revenue. 

“There’s also an inflection point where if we price too high, now we’re losing revenue in that,” Davis said. 

Commissioner Marie Haskett — who joined Murphy Robinson and Tai Jacober in dissenting the final vote to increase – said it would be a “big mistake” to increase again without understanding the full impacts. 

In raising again, Haskett feared a “whole spiral effect,” impacting conflict with animals, increased game damage and lower sales. 

“The voters of Colorado just spoke and approve of what we do, especially on mountain lions, and I think that’s going against what they said,” she added.

Robinson said that he’d rather make data-driven decisions rather than vote based on “political motivations.”

Vardy argued the financial need was great enough. 

“I think this agency needs additional staff to deal with our game-management challenges. We need to deal with all of what is presented to us,” Vardy said. “We need to deal with the mass amount of other wildlife species that we have to work with.”

Ultimately, the motion passed 7-3, also passing a 2.7% price increase across all licenses aligning with the Consumer Price Index for the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood area and an increase in commission for sales. It also made updates to align with requirements from a 2024 Senate bill on pricing for seniors.