DENVER — New regulations will give some Colorado landowners opportunities to increase their chances of obtaining vouchers for hunting licenses valid for their property.

House Bill 1098, which became law in 2000, required the Division of Wildlife to formalize new landowner preference regulations by July 2001. Regulations giving some landowners additional preference based on acreage will go into effect for the 2002 big game hunting season.

"The new regulations do not replace the old landowner preference program," said Henrietta Turner, License Services Manager for the DOW. "The new preferences are supplemental to the old system."

Additional regulations allocating applications based on habitat improvements will go into effect next year on a two-year pilot basis.

H.B. 1098 takes the first 15 percent of the licenses in totally limited units and sets them aside for a special drawing for landowners. Landowners will draw from this pool for hunting vouchers. The vouchers can then be redeemed for licenses or they can be sold or given to other hunters who can then purchase a license for the limited area using the voucher.

For the last ten years, the Landowner Preference Program has provided landowners a hunting preference to increase the likelihood of landowners being able to hunt on their own property. The old system allocates up to two license applications per landowner owning 160 acres or more, regardless of the amount and quality of his land.

The new regulations will allocate applications based on acreage. For example, one application would be allocated for a 160-acre property and six applications for properties of 5,000 or more acres.

"This program assigns preference to the participating ranch, not to the hunter," said Kim Burgess, Public Involvement Coordinator for the DOW.

To receive their hunting preference according to the new regulations, landowners must fill out a property deed registration form with the Division of Wildlife by the second Friday in January. If a landowner does not submit a property deed form and application in the first year, they will have difficulty drawing a voucher because they will be a year behind in the application preference point curve. Registration forms are currently available at all division service centers.

Under the new system, providing valuable wildlife habitat, improving habitat, increasing public access or other factors can earn landowners additional applications. As part of the pilot program, local committees comprised of landowners, sportsmen and other interested parties will recommend the number of applications such efforts should merit on a case-by-case basis.

The Private Land Licensing Group – a working group comprised of landowners and sportsmen – designed the pilot program to recognize landowners that provide quality wildlife habitat and improve public access to private land. The group’s recommendations for the details of the program were made unanimously to the Wildlife Commission.

Other considerations notwithstanding, applications will be allocated by total acreage as follows:

160-639 acres 1 application

640-1,199 2 applications

1,200-2,399 3 applications

2,400-3,999 4 applications

4,000-4,999 5 applications

5,000-more 6 applications