IN THE HUNT.

• Author: STEVENS, M. EASTLAKE
• Position: Game hunting - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

HUNTING SEASON DRIVES NORTHWEST COLORADO'S ECONOMY

Hunting big game, mostly deer and elk, is a $660 million business in Colorado. If you add in $329 million spent on hunting supplies and equipment, and $321 million spent on food and lodging, more than two-thirds of the state's $1.7 billion hunting and fishing industry is related to hunting. It also transforms rural Colorado in the fall. The orange of hunters' vests and hats is as much appreciated as the color of autumn leaves. That's because, at least on the Western Slope of Colorado, hunting season is the lifeblood of the regional economy.

"Without hunting season, I would not be in business," said Jim Simos, owner of Cashway Distributors in Craig, what Simos calls one of the last of the great general stores of the retail industry. "I would not be able to maintain this inventory and would be out of business in a year."

Simos has plenty of neighbors who are just as reliant on big-game hunters.

"My family has owned Craig Sports for 30 years," says David Hutton. "During hunting season, or about three months of the year, I will do 60 percent of my annual business."

In fact, about 60 percent of sales-tax revenues in Moffat County can be attributed to the four-month hunting season. And 90 percent of that 60 is collected during deer and elk season, which lasts just five weeks. From butchering and meatpacking to taxidermy the business of hunting is big business for northwestern Colorado, and it's treated that way.

But as Colorado's human population grows, its deer population has been shrinking. The smaller herd -- 500,000 head now compared with an historic high of 1 million, according to a state official -- is creating pressures not only on business and government but within the hunting community as well.

For the past two years, Colorado Division of Wildlife officials have made the entire Colorado deer hunt subject to a draw for licenses. They also dramatically raised prices of licenses for out-of-state hunters effective next year -- from $150 to $270 for deer and from $250 to $450 for elk. And there's talk among state officials about raising resident license fees as well. With the new, nonresident fees in place next year, DOW officials expect to raise $40 million in fee revenue alone.

With that kind of money coming from hunters' pockets, it's no surprise that business interests in northwestern Colorado consider hunting an economic development tool. The target in their sights is nothing less than...