Colorado residents who participate in the Ranching for Wildlife hunting program have reason to believe the coveted drawing licences will be easier to obtain after the Colorado Wildlife Commission meeting Thursday and Friday in Denver.

According to Todd Malmsbury, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW), the commission voted to make the Ranching for Wildlife public draw licenses only available to residents. This does not affect licenses ranchers who participate in the program are issued. Ranchers will still be able to provide licenses to anyone they want, resident or non-resident. The licenses that will be affected are the ones issued to the public through a drawing.

Previously, 60 percent of these licenses went to non-residents. The commission voted to make 100 percent of the Ranching for Wildlife public licenses available to residents only.

“The public licenses are only going to be available to residents,” said Malmsbury. “Non-residents will have to purchase these licenses from ranchers.”

Archery and muzzle-loading hunters who want to hunt elk in units 4, 5 and 441 in Northwest Colorado will also be affected by a policy voted in during the meeting. The commission voted to make these game management units all draw for muzzle-loading and archery season.

According to Marianna Raftopoulos, Moffat County commissioner and Wildlife Commission member, there will still be many licenses available for the area so the economic impact on Craig will not be significant.

“There will be a slight reduction in numbers,” said Raftopoulos. “I felt that we needed to give the benefit to the area wildlife officers so they can manage the area. The change is supposed to keep some of the elk from moving down before the rifle seasons.”

According to Raftopoulos, the decision to make the units draw for archery and muzzle-loading will be reviewed yearly.

Overall Raftopoulos believes the decisions made at the meeting will be beneficial to Northwest Colorado.

“I was glad I was there to address those issues that are important to Northwest Colorado,” said Raftopoulos.