BY DAVID GRANT LONG

His legislative plate for this session is still full, but Rep. Mark Larson (R-Cortez) said Monday that he’s already planning his agenda for next session, and protecting the rights of ranchers and property owners tops his list.

Larson made only a general appeal for support while touring the 59th District to announce his re-election bid Saturday, but got more specific about a long-term agenda during a telephone interview from Denver on Monday.

If returned to office for a second term, he said, one priority would be to provide more protection to ranchers through a constitutional amendment that would allow the trapping of coyotes — a practice prohibited under an amendment passed by voters in 1997.

Larson said livestock producers who could demonstrate specific losses would be allowed to trap or poison coyotes under a resolution he’s already drafted, but said he decided not to introduce this session because a state trappers’ organization is challenging the constitutionality of the law outlawing the trapping of any wild animals, including bears and cats. (Aerial shooting of coyotes is still legal, but is more expensive and time-consuming than setting traps.)

"All (ranchers) would have to do would be prove that a coyote was taking their animals," Larson said. "There’s been a huge increase in coyote kills and those are not reimbursed by the ADC (Animal Damage Control program) or the wildlife fund," as are lion or bear kills.

"The voters aren’t going to say livestock producers can’t protect themselves — they’re good stewards of the earth," he added. "This just takes the coyote out of that realm and lets the landowners take care of it."

Larson said another reason he decided not to introduce the resolution this session was that broader provisions were going to be added.

"People were wanting to add a lot of garbage to it," he said. "They wanted to open it up so you could do bear and lion (trapping)," Larson said. "Well, I’m not sure I’m there yet."

Larson said a reduction of the coyote population would alleviate pressure on the ADC program, allowing the program to better deal with other predators.

Another priority in future sessions will be changing the regulations concerning oil and gas drilling to give surface property owners more protection, said Larson, who chaired a legislative group last summer that examined the policies and make-up of the Colorado Oil and Gas Commission.

"I’m trying to strike a better balance for surface-owner rights," he said. "Without showing my cards, there are other states that have a different model giving what they call ‘due regard’ to surface owners." Presently, he explained, it is the option of the drilling companies whether to make an agreement with landowners on restoration.

"We’ve got to recognize that they’re sinking wells on some very pristine properties and the surface owner is given no consideration, per se," he said.

So far this session, Larson has managed to get one of his bills passed and is optimistic about three others.

Gov. Bill Owens is expected to sign a measure this week giving official sanction to the practice of intergovernmental agreements between counties and Indian tribes. Although such agreements are already made, there is nothing in state law actually giving counties the authority to do so, Larson said. Colorado’s only two sovereign tribes —the Ute Mountain Utes and the Southern Utes — are both contiguous to the 59th District, so the legislation is especially relevant here.

"I’ve been stressing the fact that all my bills were brought (to me) by constituents in my district," Larson said. "I have no bills that were brought by lobbyists, which is sometimes pretty common up here."

Larson’s other bills working their way through the legislature include:

• HB 1207, which would allow mental-heath patients to be transported across state lines for treatment, something that can now be done only through joint agreements between state health department directors. Under Larson’s bill, local patients could be taken to a facility now being built in Farmington, N.M., rather than the difficult trip to the Colorado state mental hospital in Pueblo, he said.

• HB 1178would allow construction companies and other users of heavy equipment to pay pro-rated taxes on this machinery only for the time it is actually used in the state. Presently registration and personal-property taxes must be paid on such equipment for the entire year, Larson said, which violates the Interstate Commerce Act’s provision addressing excessive taxation of such operations.

• HB 1332would give counties the power to enact ordinances that impose penalties on landowners who fail to control noxious weeds on their properties. Currently, counties can add the cost of weed-control to property-tax bills, Larson said, but most counties would rather not operate these programs.

"The counties don’t want to be in the weed-spraying business —they don’t want the liability," he said. Additionally, the amount that counties can charge landowners for spraying often doesn’t cover the cost of the programs.

Under the bill, owners of agricultural land would have a year to come up with plans for mitigation, he explained.