A much needed piece of bipartisan legislation (HB 1264) which would reauthorize Colorado conservation easement tax credit and improve transparency of the program is currently making it's way through the Colorado legislature.  Colorado sportsmen have united show broad support for this important conservation program. 

Colorado House & Senate Members,

The large tracts of wide-open country and healthy populations of fish and wildlife that hunters and anglers currently enjoy are available in large part because – together – we have implemented proactive conservation policies and financial mechanisms which help keep Colorado’s fish and wildlife habitat intact.  Accordingly, the undersigned sportsmen conservation organizations enthusiastically support HB 1264 (Conservation Easement Programmatic Efficiency and Transparency), which would provide for needed reauthorization and improvements to Colorado’s longstanding and wildly popular conservation easement tax credit program. 

Over the years, conservation easement tax credits have been used by a wide range of agricultural, sportsmen and community organizations to help maintain those working landscapes, wide open spaces and fish and wildlife populations that Colorado is so well known for, collectively helping to sustain Colorado $62.5 billion outdoor recreation economy.  Through programs like Colorado Habitat Stamp, hunters and anglers have helped contribute more than $9 million annually for the purchase of conservation and access easements on more than 250,000 acres of critical habitat.  Without the tax credit program the financial incentives needed to make these projects happen would be lost – and some of our most productive lands could be left vulnerable to development.  As Colorado’s population booms and development pressures encroach upon traditional land uses, it is imperative that we continue to have the tools available to put meaningful limits in place on development. 

In addition to helping ensure that Colorado’s conservation tax credit program remains solvent, the bipartisan solution struck by HB 1264 also provides needed improvements and transparency to a program that has unfortunately been tarnished by a few bad actors over the years.  This legislation would help prevent any such wrongdoing in the future, thus ensuring one of our most important conservation tools can continue to be used to help keep Colorado’s fish, wildlife and wild landscapes intact and healthy. 

Please stand with Colorado sportsmen in enthusiastically supporting HB 1264.

Sincerely,

Brien Webster, Colorado-Wyoming Coordinator

Colorado Backcountry Hunters & Anglers

David Nickum, Executive Director

Colorado Trout Unlimited

Suzanne O’Neil, Executive Director

Colorado Wildlife Federation

Nick Payne, Colorado Representative

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership 

Dan Gates, President

Colorado Trappers and Predator Hunters Association

Chris Jurney

Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management