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A coalition of wildlife advocates in Colorado are seeking to put a law against hunting mountain lions and their smaller cousins, bobcats, on the ballot in 2024. The coalition needs 124,238 signatures in order to do so. Advocates for the ban say that there's no scientific reason to kill these animals, which are native to the state.
Wildlife officials say there are between 3,000 and 7,000 mountain lions in Colorado. Hunters killed an average of 500 mountain lions and 1,300 bobcats over the last three years, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Hunters typically use dogs to kill mountain lions and traps to kill bobcats. Currently, the state regulates the number of mountain lions killed through the sale of hunting tags, but there is no limit on killing bobcats.
The coalition says they turned to a ballot initiative after failing to achieve their goal through lobbying the Colorado Parks and Wildlife department, which denied a request to ban bobcat trapping in 2019 despite a petition with more than 200,000 signatures. In 2022, a bill to ban bobcat trapping and mountain lion hunting died in the state legislature. Ballot initiatives in Colorado approved wolf reintroduction in 2020, banned lethal traps in 1996, and changed bear hunting in 1992.
Expanding Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge
A new Road to 30: Postcard from the Center for Western Priorities goes behind the scenes in the effort to expand the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. At 860,010 total acres, Cabeza Prieta is the third largest wildlife refuge in the Lower 48 states, and 90 percent of the wildlife refuge is designated wilderness.
The Bureau of Land Management manages land east of the refuge, including the land immediately around the town of Ajo, a small, once-booming mining community, as well as the Cuerda de Leña Area of Critical Environmental Concern, which spans 59,300 acres immediately north of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. A group known as the International Sonoran Desert Alliance is spearheading an initiative to revitalize the town of Ajo and to expand the refuge to include the Cuerda de Leña ACEC. Read the blog to learn more.
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Our country’s public lands don’t just serve us – they inspire countries around the world to protect the lands and waters that literally give us life and we’re seeing this global commitment to conservation take hold.”
