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Another thing about Colorado,the DOW was changed to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The "Game Warden" I grew up with had a relationship with hunters and fishermen. A kinship. A mutual respect.
The merging of Parks and Wildlife allegedly was about duplication of services,budgets etc. Maybe.
But the New Ranger/Game Warden has different roots.The "Park Ranger" force is strong. This new CPW warden MAY be more oriented to mountain biking,bird watching,and MAY not like guns or hunting/hunters..
I'm not putting them all in that box ,but there are some. The old DOW Officers ...and the new CPW officers just have a different vibe.
I don't know if the program is the same these days,but the DOW established a partnership between themselves,hunters ,and landowners.
Landowners suffer game related crop damage and hunter problems.. Hunters want access to private land.
The DOW worked to open lands to hunting,with the promise to landowners the hunters would respect the land.The landowners allowed access.
The DOW took that responsibility very seriously.
The trespasser or disrespectful or slob hunter who got a complaint would feel the full book thrown at them.
The DOW held hunters to high standards and supported the landowners
One year we had some folks from out of state mess up our private land antelope hunt by trespassing.We told the DOW officer,with video.
Later I read a very irate letter in Colorado Outdoors Magazine written by someone from that state who was prosecuted .It seemed familiar. I give DOW credit for supporting the hunter.
The Western States have public land.All sorts of folks use it. In some cases,both locals who feel "native" and out of staters spending big dollars feel entitled. Some people are just stupid,and some are slobs.
I'm grateful to the Wardens for doing the job.
Most folks are just trying to have a good hunt,and play by the rules
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