DENVER–Colorado voters will decide in November whether to enshrine hunting and fishing as a constitutional right, after the secretary of state’s office on Wednesday confirmed Initiative #302 qualified for the general election ballot.
Backers of the measure, formally titled “Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish,” turned in over 184,000 petition signatures, with state election officials declaring more than 145,000 of those as valid, easily clearing the roughly 124,000 signature threshold required for constitutional amendments, as well as the 2% per-district requirement in all 35 of Colorado’s state senate districts.
The measure, backed by the newly formed T. Roosevelt Conservation Alliance, amends the Colorado Constitution to establish hunting, fishing, and the harvest of fish and wildlife as a right for every Coloradan, covering all state-managed species except those that are endangered, federally prohibited, or classified as non-game.
The amendment does carves out room for some regulation, allowing state agencies and the legislature to restrict hunting and fishing where necessary for science-based wildlife conservation, public safety, or to preserve future hunting and fishing opportunities.
The amendment specifically says a right to hunt doesn’t include the right to trespass on private property.
As previously reported by Complete Colorado, proponents have framed the effort as a defensive move, arguing the amendment would give “constitutional clarity and long-term protection” to traditions they say are under sustained attack from outside interests. The campaign also points to the roughly 300,000 hunters and anglers statewide who the group says generate $3.25 billion in economic activity, supporting thousands of jobs.
The timing of the effort lines up with a string of recent fights over hunting policy in Colorado. Out-of-state groups, including the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, have pushed a mountain lion hunting ban that failed at the ballot in 2024 and only recently failed at a second attempt at a statewide fur sales ban via Colorado’s wildlife commission.
In addition, the Boulder-based Prairie Dog Coalition has been pressing the wildlife commission for a prairie dog shooting ban, after a beaver hunting ban bill died in the legislature earlier this year.
As the measure amends the state Constitution, a 55 percent supermajority approval is needed at the ballot.
Colorado’s general election is November 3.
