Jumbo fee to enter Prewitt and Jumbo Reservoirs in Northeast Colorado!

[Joe Roller]

In today's Denver Post, in the Outdoors section of the Sports pages, I noticed this distressing bit of breaking news:

"Beginning April 1, adults (yes they will card you and you can't pass for 17 years old

any more) who does not possess a valid annual hunting for fishing license must

purchase a $36 permit (like the old Habitat Stamp, I guess) to enter Jumbo Reservoir 

or Prewitt Reservoir State Wildlife Areas in northeastern Colorado. 

The annual permits are available from hunting or fishing license vendors."

Wow, talk about sticker shock! Please note that this is not per vehicle, this is

per adult human. 

Now even if you say to yourself, "I don't go up there very much

anyway," consider your situation if a mega-rarity turns up at one of those places. You get the 

word about the Wood Stork pecking at a Groove-billed Ani at Jumbo or the Anhinga 

pestering the Wilson's Plover at Prewitt! You jump in a car

with your buddies and dash off to ............ where? 

Why to Big Jim's Sushi, Bait and Tackle Shop to buy the permit you have been putting off

buying all summer! Now Big Jim's is a fun place to visit when you are hungry and not in a hurry. 

Remember their slogan, "Today's Plate is Tomorrow's Bait!"  But look, there's a line to get in the door. You wait while

the skilled chef rolls up some maki, and it looks so good that you think about ordering

some sashimi or a Dragon Roll, then you remember why you came. You get your "Jumbo Permit"

and flee in disgust as you see yesterday's nuri being skewered on treble hooks.

By the time to pull up to the shore of the reservoir, birders with big grins are leaving, having studied

and photographed the Yellow Rail before watching it fly off weakly into the sunset. 

Dang it! Dipped again! 

As I mentioned, the permits are $36. 

A mega-rarity - priceless.

Please note that everything in the first paragraph is true.

I don't make everything up.

Joe Roller, Denver

[SeEtta Moss]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 2:13 PM, Joe Roller <jrol...@gmail.com> wrote:

"Beginning April 1, adults (yes they will card you and you can't pass for 17 years old

any more) who does not possess a valid annual hunting for fishing license must

purchase a $36 permit (like the old Habitat Stamp, I guess) to enter Jumbo Reservoir 

or Prewitt Reservoir State Wildlife Areas in northeastern Colorado. 

Joe and all--this was a decision made at the March State Wildlife Commission and here is the reason for this large fee:

" Basis and Purpose:
Non-wildlife recreation makes up the majority of the activities at Jumbo Reservoir and Prewitt Reservoir State Wildlife Areas (SWAs) from mid-May through the end of August each summer. Use at these reservoirs has increased dramatically since the requirement to possess a habitat stamp when entering or using a SWA was eliminated. Many of the law enforcement issues occur at night with large groups of people that are camping at the SWAs. During the late 1980s an experimental use fee permit system was incorporated on Jumbo and Prewitt State Wildlife Areas. These wildlife areas were and are currently still allowing many uses similar to the state parks, which are charging user fees in the form of daily use passes, annual use passes, and camping fees. The Division of Wildlife and its employees have been mandated with managing, protecting and preserving the state’s wildlife. To do this, budgets and priority work packages have been set to fulfill the mandate. The majority of the activities associated with these SWAs are now non-wildlife related activities. Most parks have designated staff with sole responsibility of patrolling that area along with a budget and equipment to support those activities. Nearby North Sterling State Park operates on an annual budget of roughly $250,000 and has a full time staff of three as well as an increased seasonal staff, whose sole responsibility is North Sterling State Park. In an effort to help mitigate the issues on these SWAs while still allowing for non-wildlife related recreation, these regulations establish an annual user permit. This measure is intended to help bring the non-wildlife related usage of these SWAs closer to compliance with the intent of the State Wildlife Area program."
http://wildlife.state.co.us/NR/rdonlyres/B02FC982-4F65-4910-B280-2B22EDA64FDB/0/Ch9JumboAsApproved.pdf

With the state budget in bad shape and continuing cuts to DOW, plus the lack of income stream from those of us who do not pay the hunting and fishing fees that provide the majority of DOW funds, I suspect we may be facing more of these site based fees in the future.  Those who buy fishing and hunting licenses have been supporting other users at State Wildlife Areas including us birders and I don't blame them for objecting to paying for us.  Even if some don't use the toilet facilities, campgrounds, etc, everyone drives on the roads that must be maintained and law enforcement protects us.  It is too bad DOW couldn't continue with the Habitat Stamp program (conflicted with federal rules that provided funds to purchase some SWA's out of federal fishing and hunting equipment fees) even though few wildlife watchers purchased them--they might have saved us from site based fees.

SeEtta Moss
Canon City
http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com

[Joey Kellner]

Interesting. TECHNICALLY you don't need the pass until May.

"EFFECTIVE DATE - THESE REGULATIONS SHALL BECOME EFFECTIVE MAY 1, 2011
AND SHALL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT UNTIL REPEALED, AMENDED OR
SUPERSEDED."

The pass is good for one year from April 1st to March 31 of the
following year.

Joey Kellner
Littleton, CO



On Mar 16, 3:36 pm, SeEtta Moss <seet...@gmail.com> wrote:

> intent of the State Wildlife Area program."http://wildlife.state.co.us/NR/rdonlyres/B02FC982-4F65-4910-B280-2B22...

[Tom & Kay McConnell]

Not a bad deal actually.  I have always purchased a fishing license to cover the cost of search and rescue if I ever fall off a cliff while searching for birds.  Once in a while I even camp

---

From: cob...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cob...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Roller
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 2:13 PM
To: cob...@googlegroups.com
Cc: jroll...@gmail.com; Tom Roller; Merrilyn Parham
Subject: [cobirds] Jumbo fee to enter Prewitt and Jumbo Reservoirs in Northeast Colorado!

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[Tom & Kay McConnell]

Well let's finish this after a computer hiccup!  Not a bad deal actually.  I have always purchased a fishing license to cover the cost of search and rescue if I ever fall off a cliff while searching for birds.  Once in a while while camping I really put a fishing line in the water as well.

 

Tom McConnell

Glenwood Springs

 

---

From: cob...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cob...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Roller
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 2:13 PM
To: cob...@googlegroups.com
Cc: jroll...@gmail.com; Tom Roller; Merrilyn Parham
Subject: [cobirds] Jumbo fee to enter Prewitt and Jumbo Reservoirs in Northeast Colorado!