DOW Gauging Landowner Interest in Private-Land Hunting Pilot Program for the Hotchkiss Area

The Colorado Division of Wildlife is attempting to gauge landowner interest in a proposed private-land hunting program for deer in the Hotchkiss area for 2007.
 
The Premium Private Land Only program is aimed at opening more private land to Colorado hunters, providing new opportunities for youth hunters and providing an additional opportunity to landowners for buck deer hunting. Landowners who participate will be eligible to receive a new class of private land vouchers which can be sold to hunters.
 
The program will be run as an experimental pilot in 2007.
 
Game Management Unit 63 in the North Fork Valley has been selected as the location for the pilot because more than half of the land in the GMU is privately owned.
 
Here is how the program will work. For Landowners:
• A new fourth season for buck deer will be created for registered landowners and the public. Licenses will be allocated from the current licenses so the overall number of deer to be harvested in the unit won’t increase.
• Traditionally, 15 percent of the licenses in Game Management Units are set aside for landowners. The pilot program will allow landowners who sign up for the program to obtain another 10 percent of the private-land only licenses available.
• The landowner vouchers are good for any private property in the Game Management Unit. Landowners must allow the hunters they select access to their properties.
• Participating landowners must allow access for buck deer hunting from the established public-license draw process for two Colorado-resident youth hunters with mentors during an established deer season for each voucher they receive.
• Landowners must own at least 160 acres to participate.
• Landowners will be required to submit an annual summary of hunters participating in the private land deer hunting to the DOW.
For the public:
• Pilot program licenses are for Colorado residents and good only for the fourth season. The number of public buck deer licenses and the number of vouchers are the same. These licenses are valid on all lands in the unit. 
• Public license holders will be guaranteed access to the lands owned or controlled by the registered landowners participating in the new pilot program.
• As mentioned above, two resident youth hunters with mentors will also be allowed access to the registered private land. Mentors are not allowed to hunt.
• Public hunters will be required to return a satisfaction survey to the DOW after the season.
“The fourth season time-period is a good time for hunting deer. So we expect that the demand for these licenses by hunters will be strong,” said J Wenum, area wildlife manager for the DOW in Gunnison.
 
Landowners in GMU 63 who are interested in learning more about the program should call the Gunnison office at (970)641-7060 or attend the Colorado Wildlife Commission meeting scheduled on Sept. 7, 2006, in Gunnison at the Aspinall-Wilson Center on the Western State College campus, beginning at 9 a.m.
Other pilot programs are being implemented for elk hunting in the northwest and pronghorn hunting on the eastern plains.