On November 3, Colorado voters rejected Amendment 83, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have designated hunting and fishing as the preferred means of managing the state’s fish and wildlife populations. To pass, the amendment needed 55 percent of the vote or more. It fell about 10 percentage points short of that minimum.
After a 2024 ballot effort to restrict hunting and trapping of cougars and other cats failed, hunting advocates proposed Amendment 83 as a proactive measure. The idea was to solidify science-based wildlife management as the foremost tool for game managers within Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW)—an idea that reshaped wildlife conservation over a century ago that is now often referred to as the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.
Opponents of this citizen-centered approach to wildlife management included anti-hunting groups, such as Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, along with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), and then-Attorney General (now Governor-elect) Phil Weiser (D), as they successfully framed the amendment as unnecessary.
Anti-hunters argued the “traditional methods” language about hunting and fishing in the proposed amendment could open legal avenues for sportsmen to challenge state voter-approved bans on spring bear hunting and trapping.
In a state with a growing wolf population and increasing urban sprawl from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, the measure was an attempt to legally protect the modern hunter-conservationist model that has given so much to the state, as it has in so many other places across North America and even other parts of the world. Indeed, pre-election polling had, at times, shown the measure to be competitive or even favored, but late campaign spending from anti-hunters shifted momentum on the state’s Front Range.
A win for conservation here would have meant that half the states had constitutional protections for hunters. Currently, 24 states have some type of constitutional provision guaranteeing a right to hunt and fish (or similar language covering the right to hunt, fish and/or harvest wildlife).
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Vermont has had such language in its constitution since 1777. The other 23 states adopted these provisions via constitutional amendments (mostly voter-approved) starting in 1996 with Alabama. Florida was the most recent, approving its amendment in 2024. The NRA has been backing these measures.
