DEFEATED, on a vote of 4-1 in Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee

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Current law allows, when authorized by the parks and wildlife commission (commission), a person to hunt and take a bobcat or mountain lion. The bill generally prohibits shooting, wounding, killing, or trapping a bobcat, Canada lynx, or mountain lion.

PASSED

The department of transportation (department) to provide funding for projects by the department that provide safe road crossings for connectivity of wildlife and that reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. The department must consult with the division of parks and wildlife and the Colorado wildlife and transportation alliance regarding the disbursement of money from the fund and must annually report on the disbursement of such money.

PASSED

The bill transfers the duties, powers, and functions of the department of local affairs (DOLA) related to backcountry search and rescue, the backcountry search and rescue card (card) and the backcountry search and rescue fund (fund) to the division of parks and wildlife (division), effective January 1, 2023.

PASSED & SIGNED BY GOVERNOR

The bill allows local education providers, upon entering into an agreement with an individual or entity that offers hunter education courses certified by the division of parks and wildlife (division), to provide a hunter education course (course) to all seventh graders. The course must satisfy the requirements of a hunter education course certified by the division; except that hands-on activities are not required. The course must be taught by a division-certified instructor. A parent or legal guardian must provide permission for a student to participate in any hands-on activities that are offered as part of the course. The bill defines local education providers to mean school districts, charter schools, and boards of cooperative services that enroll students in seventh grade. The parks and wildlife commission may accept completion of a course toward meeting the requirements of a hunter education certificate.

PASSED

The habitat partnership program (program) assists the division of parks and wildlife (division) with reducing wildlife conflicts and meeting game management objectives. 

Section 1of the bill:

• Authorizes the director of the division (director) to independently appoint members of the habitat partnership council (council) that, in part, advises local habitat partnership committees (committees) that help implement program objectives;

• Expands the scope of the program to assist the division with private land conservation and wildlife migration corridor efforts;

• With respect to reducing wildlife conflicts, prioritizes conflicts that arise from forage and fence issues related to big game ungulate species, which are big game species that are hooved mammals;

• Authorizes the council to allocate an annual budget to each committee, subject to final approval by the director, and expend funds in areas of the state that are not covered by a committee;

• Requires the director to set terms for committee members; and

• Identifies the council and each committee as an independent organizational unit for purposes of purchasing, accounting, and procurement-related issues.

Section 2 clarifies that any balance of unexpended and unencumbered money in the habitat partnership cash fund (fund) at the end of a fiscal year that exceeds the amount transferred to the fund at the beginning of the fiscal year from the wildlife cash fund reverts to the wildlife cash fund. Section 2 also continues the fund indefinitely. Section 3 exempts the program from the "Procurement Code".

PASSED

Concerning the permanent extension of the period of time that the Colorado nongame conservation and wildlife restoration cash fund voluntary contribution check-off program will appear on the state individual tax return form.

PASSED

Under the "Colorado Open Records Act", state agencies are required to provide public records when requested. The bill changes the definition of "public records" to exclude the portion of the record containing information that reveals the location or could be used to determine the location of an individual animal, a group of animals, a sensitive plant species, or a sensitive species habitat.

PASSED

The bill appropriates $6 million from the species conservation trust fund for programs submitted by the executive director of the department of natural resources that are designed to conserve native species that state or federal law list as threatened or endangered or that are candidate species or are likely to become candidate species as determined by the United States fish and wildlife service, allocated as follows:

$770,000 for native terrestrial wildlife conservation;

$2,230,000 for native aquatic wildlife conservation;

$1,900,000 for a Platte river recovery implementation program;

$800,000 for an upper Colorado river endangered fish recovery program and San Juan river basin recovery implementation program;

$250,000 for a 15-mile reach of Ruedi reservoir releases; and

$50,000 for selenium management, research, monitoring, evaluation, and control.

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)

PASSED

Concerning public recreational trails in electric transmission corridors of the state, and, in connection therewith, encouraging transmission providers to enter into written agreements for the construction and maintenance of powerline trails and requiring transmission providers to provide informational resources and notify local governments regarding the potential for powerline trails when planning for the expansion or construction of transmission corridors.