With new year, CPW makes changes to local turkey hunting, considers special winter season

With the new year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is considering establishing a special hunting season for turkey between Dec. 1 and March 31 to help control turkey populations and lessen urban and agricultural conflicts in certain regions of the state.

CPW announced this in its 2018 Colorado Turkey brochure. CPW also announced that rifles or handguns will now be allowed for turkey hunting during the fall and late season in portions of Logan, Sedgwick, Weld, Morgan and Washington counties.

The stage agency also announced that several Game Management Unit areas located in Summit, Eagle and Grand counties will now be part of fall turkey season.

These areas include:

-GMU 27 in Grand, Routt and Jackson counties, an area bounded to the north and east by U.S. 40, to the south by state Route 9 and the Colorado River and to the west by Canyon Creek and the Muddy Creek-Yampa River divide within the Gore Range divide.

-GMU 37 in Summit and Grand counties, an area bounded to the north by the Colorado River, to the east by Barger Gulch, the Williams Fork River-Blue River divide, the Williams Fork River-Straight Creek divide and the Continental Divide, to the south by the Continental Divide and to the west by the Eagle River-Tenmile Creek divide, Interstate-70, the Blue River, Cataract Creek and the Gore Range divide.

-GMU 361 in Eagle and Grand counties, an area bounded to the north by the Colorado River from Elk Creek to Inspiration Point, to the east by the Gore Range divide, and to the south and west by Piney Ridge to Elk Creek, following Piney Ridge to the Eagle’s Nest Wilderness boundary and Gore Range divide at Elliott Ridge.

Spring limited licenses for the aforementioned GMUs are effective from April 14 through May 27. The fall season in these same GMUs will go from Sept. 1 through Oct. 7.

The final day to submit an application for the spring season is Feb. 8, and July 12 for the fall season.

Colorado’s native Merriam’s turkeys can be found on the Front Range and Western Slope while Rio Grande turkeys can be found in the eastern part of the state.

For residents of Colorado, a spring license costs $21 while a fall license costs $16, and costs $11 for youth in either the spring or fall.