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Yuma County (Colorado) Postpones Turkey Season

Matt Dworak

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Fort Collins, CO
In case anyone is headed to eastern Colorado it appears the Yuma County Commissioners have petitioned Parks and Wildlife to postpone the turkey opener. Saw this one coming, buddies in eastern CO have said the locals have been complaining for weeks not wanting all the Denver guys showing up. Hope that this is the only county to go this way..

Emergency Notice
 
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In case anyone is headed to eastern Colorado it appears the Yuma County Commissioners have petitioned Parks and Wildlife to postpone the turkey opener. Saw this one coming, buddies in eastern CO have said the local have been complaining for weeks not wanting all the Denver guys showing up. Hope that the only county..

Emergency Notice

Honestly I’m really happy to see how this is being handled. Hunting needs to be handled by CPW. This is much preferable to the sheriff closing access to public lands.

I’m not commenting on the decision just the methods.
 
My thoughts are if they are going to cancel it they need to just do it state wide. none of this here and there
 
My thoughts are if they are going to cancel it they need to just do it state wide. none of this here and there
Yuma county doesn't have a ton of public land, just a couple of SWAs. I've hunted Republican it was pretty crowded for waterfowl... I would imagine with so many people out of work, who want desperately to get outside, it could be a total disaster. I think the county has a valid concern and that the nature of hunting in that area and crowding.

I don't think the same is true of say the rampart range, or much of western CO.

That said... I'm not sure, I definitely think you have a valid point.

My turkey spot, had 30-40 cars at the parking lot last Thursday.... last year it had 0 cars on Saturday at noon.

I would support a cancellation with the caveat of if you live in the unit you can still hunt. Maybe that's just too much of a hassle to enforce though.

I'm also not sure if it's legal?
 
I think it's overstepping, but I get it. If they're going to close turkey hunting, which is by nature a "social distancing" exercise, then they need to close hiking, fishing, biking, walking the dog, and everything else. That being said, I can also understand the Yuma folks not wanting the Denver folks to come out that way, and I agree with them, because you know the visitors will absolutely be stopping for gas, snacks, food, ammo, etc., and Denver happens to be a big hotspot for the virus in CO. Under the "stay-at-home" order you're not supposed to travel, and if you can't hunt turkeys within a reasonable distance of your home (Eastern CO is not a reasonable distance), without making stops and clustering up popular parking areas and trailheads, then you probably shouldn't be hunting turkeys. People need to use their heads...
 
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Gunnison County is closed.

This is how it will have to happen. Counties are probably treading on thin ice but it's justifiable from a public health and safety perspective. The interesting twist on this is if there is an interstate running through your county....I don't think the feds will allow a county to keep folks from using the US highway system. Still, we're in such uncharted ground here who knows what will happen. I received my physical turkey tag in the mail yesterday. I was getting ready to print a copy of my confirmation as CPW said to do if you didn't get your tag in time. I was pretty excited to get a simple OTC tag. I waved them about and told my kids (11 and 13) that they would soon appreciate how exciting getting that envelope is. This is my 11 year old son's third turkey season and my daughter just got her hunter safety card. I told them this will be an odd season seeing as the areas close to us that we can hunt don't hold many birds and then went on to explain how I looked forward to the hunt and the bird wasn't as important. I think I lost them at "there aren't that many birds".
 
I think they will be taken to court if enforced and the county will eventually lose.
I think they are unenforceable attempts to keep the vast majority of people from coming for a hike and walking around town before heading back to the city. If they get 80 percent of the would be visitors to not go in the first place I would think they would feel like they accomplished their goals.
 
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