Dentry: Ritter gets off to a decent start with sportsmen
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
It was a fair start for a rookie governor who pledges to value Colorado's fish, wildlife and wildland heritage. First promise kept.
Last summer, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter met with hunters, anglers and other conservationists at a restaurant near Division of Wildlife headquarters and asked for their support.
He said he'd be back. Thursday evening he returned as governor. In the same packed meeting room, Ritter rubbed shoulders with many who supported him and some who hadn't.
He answered questions and discussed issues of importance to sportsmen, starting with good news for recreational shooters - especially urban-dwelling rifle hunters who might feel starved for sighting-in sites.
During the campaign, Ritter promised to fix the scarcity of public shooting ranges in the Denver metro area. Seems doable.
"We believe we have money available in the DOW's budget," he said. "We are trying to find a metro-area location that will involve a new shooting range run by the state under the auspices of the DOW."
Ritter also addressed big-game hunters' ire over a private landowner voucher system that allows paying hunters to sidestep preference point requirements and hunt on adjacent public lands.
"That's a conversation we need to have," he said.
But time's too short for it to happen before next year's legislative session.
Ritter also said he and Harris Sherman, his new Department of Natural Resources chief, would like to add more wildlife and environment representatives to the state's oil and gas commission. But that's another matter for the legislature.
As a candidate, Ritter also vowed to lock down protections for roadless areas in national forests until a legal pendulum stops swinging. In fact, early this month, Ritter asked the Forest Service for interim protections on about 4.1 million roadless acres in Colorado.
The intent is to prevent roadless-area development until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether total Clinton-era protections should remain in place or be replaced by a Bush administration rule breaking down the protections according to wishes of states.
In September, a District Court judge in California declared the Bush rule illegal and reinstated the Clinton-era rule. That leaves in limbo a petition developed by a task force appointed by former Gov. Bill Owens.
The Owens document calls for less stringent roadless protections, with allowances for mining, ranching and timber cutting. Critics, including hunters and anglers who were on the task force, say the document gives short shrift to public opinion and input from the DOW.
In a poll the state contracted on behalf of the task force, more than 90 percent of respondents said they wanted the areas to stay fully protected. Unanimously, state wildlife managers said the same. Critics of the Owens petition want Ritter to annul the plan, but Ritter isn't making any promises while the roadless rule is "in a state of flux."
"I don't view it as very stable," he said.
But he said if the Bush rule is reinstated, he would consider roadless scenarios not included in the Owens petition.
He said if Colorado errs, "What we need to do is err on the side of protecting as much as we can."
Even if he hadn't said a word, Ritter's voluntary attendance would have been encouraging.
When was the last time a governor gave Colorado hunters and anglers the time of day?
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