A bill clarifying Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s role in managing recreation clears its first hurdle

A bill to bolster Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s role in managing recreation has cleared its first hurdle. 

House Bill 1008, also known as the Colorado Outdoor Opportunities Act, would solidify Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s role in outdoor recreation management, coordination and planning and provide it with the staffing capacity to do so. The legislation represents a first step in implementing the Colorado Outdoor Strategy, which was finalized in April 2025. 

On Monday, Feb. 23, the act passed the House Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee with several amendments to address stakeholder concerns surrounding agency capacity, funding, local control and more. The bill is sponsored by a bipartisan coalition of both Front Range and Western Slope lawmakers: Reps. Meghan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs, and Rick Taggart, R-Grand Junction, as well as Sens. Janice Rich, R-Grand Junction, and Janice Marchman, D-Loveland. 

“The importance of this industry to our way of life and economy makes clear that we need a strategic, and at the same time collaborative, framework to advance outdoor recreation opportunities while balancing other core priorities of our state, namely, our agricultural industry and the stewardship of our lands and protection of our wildlife,” Taggart said.

The bill is being supported by several state agencies and organizations, including the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, which oversees Parks and Wildlife. Fletcher Jacobs, assistant director of outdoor recreation and lands for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, spoke on behalf of the agency.

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“This bill ensures that the division has the on-the-ground capacity and expertise to more effectively manage outdoor recreation to help reduce conflict between use and users, integrate recreation planning with wildlife and habitat management and work proactively with communities experiencing recreation pressure,” Jacobs said. 

As currently drafted, this added capacity will include nine additional staff positions within Parks and Wildlife, with the hiring staggered over the next two fiscal years. It allocates over $538,000 in the first year and just over $1.09 million in the second, primarily for personnel costs. 

Two of the primary concerns brought forward by stakeholders during the hearing were whether Parks and Wildlife had the capacity to take on this role and where the funding would come from. 

Kathleen Curry, speaking on behalf of Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management, said the hunting advocacy nonprofit was concerned that the agency didn’t have the capacity to take on recreation management, referring to it as a “pretty heavy lift.” 

“(Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management) knows that the work is needed, but wanted to just point out that in the last couple of years, CPW has taken on wolf reintroduction and wolf management, wolverine reintroduction, an expanded role in firearm training, managing rare plants, managing invertebrates; they’re having to step up their game on aquatic nuisance species,” Curry said. “There’s a lot on their plate.” 

With amendments passed during the committee hearing, the group took a neutral position on the bill. 

Addressing capacity concerns, Jacobs said that Parks and Wildlife is already doing a lot of this work, but that it is being delegated to regional and district wildlife staff “who have already very full plates.”

“When we think about this recreation management side, we know that’s a pretty specialized expertise job skill that we think we could really improve the delivery if we’re able to hire additional capacity to help support them and allow those staff to focus on their other duties,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said that the positions would allow the agency to ensure recreation management is informed by its wildlife science and habitat needs, allowing it to protect the wildlife tenet of its mission, “rather than competing with it.” 

According to Taggart, the bill will not be funded at the expense of the agency’s existing state parks and wildlife work, clarifying that the funding to hire the additional staff positions will come from the Parks and Wildlife’s existing cash funds, excluding those from its Wildlife Cash Fund that come from hunting and fishing licenses and fees. 

Regardless of what their stated position was on the bill, nearly everyone who spoke during the hearing recognized the need for Colorado to more efficiently manage recreation and balance it with conservation and environmental values at a time when the outdoors face growing pressures from population growth, human disturbances, drought, wildfire and more. 

“We are loving our outdoors to death,” said Gaspar Perricone, representing the Rocky Mountain Elk Project. “Simply put, we have a supply and demand problem. This increased traffic in the outdoors is placing strain on the state’s conservation objectives, wildlife habitat and, frankly, even wildlife populations themselves … This clarified jurisdictional oversight by CPW is appropriate to ensure that outdoor recreation planning, development and enforcement occurs in concert with the planning and management of CPW’s conservation and science-based wildlife management objectives statewide.”

Five amendments were added to the bill, including those that clarify the role of local governments, agriculture stakeholders and private landowners in managing and coordinating recreation efforts, that the bill will not impede on water rights and more.

Following Monday’s vote, the bill will head to the House Appropriations Committee before being debated on the House Floor.