Colorado Wildlife Professionals Add Their Voice to Growing Support for Amendment 83

DENVER, Colo.—The Colorado Wildlife Employees Protective Association (CWEPA), representing roughly 200 current and former wildlife professionals, has formally announced its support for Amendment 83, adding an important professional voice to growing statewide support for Colorado’s Right to Hunt and Fish.

CWEPA joins dozens of Colorado-based organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Coloradans, including hunting and angling organizations, agricultural groups, conservation organizations and county governments, that have taken a public position in support of Amendment 83.

CWEPA’s position is significant because its members have spent their careers working directly in wildlife management. In announcing its support, the organization recognized hunting and fishing as primary wildlife management tools, affirmed the tenets of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, and stated that Colorado’s wildlife resources are best protected, enhanced and managed by science-based wildlife professionals.

“When the people who have dedicated their careers to managing Colorado’s wildlife step forward and take a public position, that matters,” said Dan Gates, campaign manager for Colorado’s Wildlife Deserves Better. “CWEPA is joining organizations representing hundreds of thousands of Coloradans who are making a clear and definitive stance behind Colorado’s established model for professional wildlife management. It’s rooted in sound science and has been the proven conservation model that has served this state for over a century.”

Colorado’s wildlife success story is founded in professional wildlife management, regulated hunting and fishing and sustained conservation investment that have helped recover and maintain Colorado’s iconic wildlife populations and the habitat they depend on. The system has relied on cooperation among wildlife professionals, hunters, anglers, landowners, conservation organizations and the public.

Amendment 83 recognizes hunting and fishing as preferred means of managing wildlife populations while preserving the state’s authority to regulate wildlife management for sound scientific wildlife conservation and management.

“There’s a reason this support reaches from wildlife professionals to sportsmen and women, agriculture and county leaders,” said Jenny Burbey, president of the Colorado Outfitters Association. “These are people and organizations with a direct stake in the future of Colorado’s wildlife and in the decisions that shape its management. We know what a century of professional, science-based wildlife management has accomplished in this state, and we want to see that work continue for generations.”

Colorado’s Wildlife Deserves Better welcomes CWEPA to the growing coalition of Colorado organizations supporting Amendment 83 and the continued role of professional, science-based management in Colorado’s wildlife future.

Reference Resources
Colorado Wildlife Employee Protection Association Public Statement
Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project Public Statement