On the heels of the news that the controversial Initiative 91 is now a ballot measure in Colorado, a non-partisan group has completed an economic study of the effects of banning mountain lion hunting in the Centennial State.
The report created by the aptly named Common Sense Institute not only took into account the amount of economic loss that would be caused by the loss of license sales for big cat hunts, but also the cascading effects of having more lions on the landscape. Beginning with license sales, the report highlighted that, if approved in November, Colorado Parks and Wildlife would lose $410,000 worth of license sales by June of 2025 and things would only get worse from there.
“These estimates only include the direct or static impacts resulting from the measure,” CSI writes in a summary of its report. “There are broader economic impacts likely to come from Initiative 91 as an increase in the mountain lion predator population will have impacts on other animal populations and habitats.”
What this means is that by removing mountain lion hunting, Colorado will undoubtedly have more big cats on the landscape. More cats means fewer elk and deer. More cats and fewer elk and deer leads to fewer available elk and deer tags. Which soon leads to livestock depredation (because there are fewer elk and deer). And now CPW has lost the revenue from mountain lion license sales AND elk and deer license sales and suddenly is experiencing diminished budgets and funding to deal with livestock depredations and other conflicts involving large cats and humans.
And let’s not forget that once we remove mountain lions as a managed big game species, private landowners will no longer be eligible for compensation under the state’s Game Damage Program.
The cascading effect is real.
So while the loss of the mountain lion tag revenue is sure to be felt by CPW, the real effects go far beyond annual license sales. The problem starts with losing mountain lion hunting as a viable tool for wildlife managers along with the revenue it provides. It ends with the loss of elk and deer and the hunting opportunities those species provide, and only gets worse from there.
“Initiative 91 would result in an estimated decrease of $61.65 million of economic output in 2024 dollars,” CSI concludes in its summary, noting that “$6.28 million of this amount comes directly from lost mountain lion hunting and $55.37 million comes from its indirect impact on elk/deer hunting.”
