CPW SAR Increase

[Poser]

Why can't the state charge MTB on federal land?

Because the state can't charge someone a license/permit to use federals lands. Even if the state tried, which they have, the feds won't allow it.

Hunting licenses are permits to hunt animals managed by the state, not use federal lands. The ORV licenses are for access to areas where the state manages the road ("trail") network.

 

[Poser]

Statistics - Colorado Search and Rescue Association

The statistics on this page are generated from the dedication of the volunteer members from the Colorado backcountry search and rescue teams who are members of CSAR

coloradosar.org

I couldnt find much except this but I'd be interested in some hard stats.

From prior research, the people using SAR are not the people paying for SAR. Which is the main gripe here and people can't seem to understand it's not about the total cost but the implications.

What's your proposal for collecting payment. Implementing a permit system for all user groups would cost quite a bit and then there's the enforcement aspect which would also cost quite a bit. Effectively, you'd have to spend millions of dollars to collect millions of dollars.

You could add a state tax to outdoor retailers for sporting equipment, though, hunters would also pay that and it would make outdoor retailers in CO less competitive for e-commerce unless it were an in store tax only.

You could require a SAR card otherwise you get charged for a rescue, but you're getting into all kinds of ethical considerations, needlessly complicated scenarios, and people getting medically bankrupted because someone had a heart attack on a BLM road.

The reality is, I'm not sure the effort of even this thread is worth a $1.25 of your time.

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

I don’t mind paying the fee. They should offer an easy way for everyone to pay the fee. If you need SAR and haven’t paid the fee I have no issue with the state billing you a stiff but not life crushing amount.

 

[Mcribs]

hunters get themselves in tricky situations and cost money to come out. No idea the math but cost of a rescue is high. To me, we are just paying our part. Who cares about the other user groups do.

CO SAR raises money in a variety of way locally and people (non-hunters) kick in. Like another post says, volunteers spend their money and time bailing people out. It’s impressive the stupid situations we get ourselves in and push a button and people show up. For a dollar. If anything SAR should be on our annual donations lists if you hunt CO.

 

[BrokentineCO]

I don’t mind paying the fee. They should offer an easy way for everyone to pay the fee. If you need SAR and haven’t paid the fee I have no issue with the state billing you a stiff but not life crushing amount.

It's not difficult to purchase a SAR card from CPW but I don't believe it's well advertised. My dad, who lives in Wyoming, purchases a card every year because it makes him feel better about hunting and biking with us when he visits. It's only $5 a year and I think many outdoor enthusiasts would be happy to pick one up if they were aware of that option.

Backcountry Search and Rescue Program

Colorado Backcountry Search and Rescue organizations are 100% volunteer-based and provide search and rescue services througho

cpw.state.co.us

 

[Chris in TN]

You could require a SAR card otherwise you get charged for a rescue, but you're getting into all kinds of ethical considerations, needlessly complicated scenarios, and people getting medically bankrupted because someone had a heart attack on a BLM road.

We have a membership to one of those helicopter rescue flight things here. I think we pay less than $100 per year for a family membership, but if you need a 'lifeflight' and get billed for it, it'll likely be $20,000 or more, possibly much more.

I'm happy to pay it. As a sidenote, I have that flight-tracking app on my phone and we often hear the flights (we live a few miles from a fairly busy little airport) and we'll always go outside with the kids when they go over so my little boy can see the helicopter, and usually if it's a helicopter, when I look the flight up on the app, it's medical. Do that for a while and it'll eventually hit you that a) there's an awful lot of medical flights, and b) maybe it's a good idea to have that membership.

I get that there are ethical dilemmas associated with opt-in membership stuff, but that doesn't stop them from working out pretty well. Before we went to CO last fall we actually checked to be sure that our membership here was reciprocal with a flight service there. It was.

 

[Chris in TN]

ORV stickers also pay this fee. ORV stickers aren't universally required in CO, its only certain areas.

Thank you - I stand corrected.

 

[cnelk]

It's not difficult to purchase a SAR card from CPW but I don't believe it's well advertised. My dad, who lives in Wyoming, purchases a card every year because it makes him feel better about hunting and biking with us when he visits. It's only $5 a year and I think many outdoor enthusiasts would be happy to pick one up if they were aware of that option.

Backcountry Search and Rescue Program

Colorado Backcountry Search and Rescue organizations are 100% volunteer-based and provide search and rescue services througho

cpw.state.co.us

Why buy a $5 card when Im already charged for the following every year:

Elk license, deer license, fishing/small game license, boat sticker, 2 atv stickers, snowmobile sticker

 

[BrokentineCO]

Why buy a $5 card when Im already charged for the following every year:

Elk license, deer license, fishing/small game license, boat sticker, 2 atv stickers, snowmobile sticker

I was replying to @pods8 (Rugged Stitching) stating that there should be an easy way for people who recreate but don't contribute via licenses or stickers to do so.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

ORV stickers also pay this fee. ORV stickers aren't universally required in CO, its only certain areas.

My understanding is this isn't true at all and straight from CPW. Where would you ride an OHV without a sticker?

Register an Off-Highway Vehicle

All Off Highway Vehicles must have either a current or valid Colorado Registration Card and two Decals or one Colorado Off Hi

cpw.state.co.us

 

[Blurry1]

Parks pass goes to support SAR through fees which every Coloradan now pays unless they op out but that is beside the point. In reality 1.25 is nothing. Even at my poorest,which was nearly homeless, I wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow at paying that meager fee.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

hunters get themselves in tricky situations and cost money to come out. No idea the math but cost of a rescue is high. To me, we are just paying our part. Who cares about the other user groups do.

CO SAR raises money in a variety of way locally and people (non-hunters) kick in. Like another post says, volunteers spend their money and time bailing people out. It’s impressive the stupid situations we get ourselves in and push a button and people show up. For a dollar. If anything SAR should be on our annual donations lists if you hunt CO.

You don't care that other people strain the resource without any skin in the game?

 

[ReaptheHeat]

Parks pass goes to support SAR through fees which every Coloradan now pays unless they op out but that is beside the point. In reality 1.25 is nothing. Even at my poorest,which was nearly homeless, I wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow at paying that meager fee.

Thanks did not know the vehicle registration had a SAR fee on it! But that only covers residents.

 

[LostArra]

I don't conclude that there is enough there to complain about. The quality of of S and R throughout Colorado is impressively high. The volunteers that are into it are WAY into it, many of them having quite a bit of their own money wrapped up in participating in S and R + you get fire departments, county EMTS and even aircraft with extensive training in high angle rescue, avalanche rescue, swift water rescue etc. From what I've seen, I've been very impressed.

+100%
I got to experience Colorado S&R when one of my adult daughters experienced hyponatremia on the Mount Elbert trail. At 9pm on July 4 a father and son came from Leadville with their horses and flew up that trail in the dark to get my sick daughter and her sister who stayed with her on the trail. They got her down to a waiting ambulance. She spent the night in the Leadville hospital.

I tried to pay the father/son but they refused. I did still have my Colo elk tag in my billfold from the previous season and he was able to get some reimbursement, probably pennies.. I finally convinced him to let me pay for the trailer tire that blew on the way up the mountain. I was more than impressed with the S&R response starting with the original 911 phone call to the rescuers checking in on my daughter the next day. That was my last year to hunt elk in Colorado but I always add an S&R donation on my Wyoming tags.

The nurses at Leadville hospital gave us a lecture on hyponatremia. They see it in the famous Leadville 100 ultra marathon. Too much water and not enough salt! Eat pretzels, jerky, cheese anything with salt along with carbs and water.

 

[TaperPin]

The entire S&R infrastructure is so much more complicated than just a small surcharge on a hunting license. It’s funny how little effort was spent digging into it.

Who Pays for Backcountry Search and Rescue in Colorado? - Colorado Search and Rescue Association

Cover photo by Cameron Torrens of Chaffee County SAR North Backcountry search and rescue (BSAR) services in Colorado are provided free of charge to rescue subjects, including concerned family members and friends who may call to report a subject missing or injured in the backcountry. BSAR teams...

coloradosar.org

 

[ReaptheHeat]

The entire S&R infrastructure is so much more complicated than just a small surcharge on a hunting license. It’s funny how little effort was spent digging into it.

Who Pays for Backcountry Search and Rescue in Colorado? - Colorado Search and Rescue Association

Cover photo by Cameron Torrens of Chaffee County SAR North Backcountry search and rescue (BSAR) services in Colorado are provided free of charge to rescue subjects, including concerned family members and friends who may call to report a subject missing or injured in the backcountry. BSAR teams...

coloradosar.org

Got it. So where do the hikers, backpackers, climbers, paragliders, rafters, BC skiers, etc put in their fair share? CO gets swarmed by millions of outdoor visitors a year.

The $1 increase isn't my problem. It was well overdue and in fact, a steal. If you see no problem with a select group of people funding everyone else's "fun" in a state basically run on being outside then carry on.

Just wait until they try and figure out the SB003 classes and where that money comes from next year. I think I'm a little tired of us being a scapegoat for everyone else and will advocate for others to put in their portion too.

 

[IDVortex]

Id spend a hundred a year just to know that if someone needed help and their life was dependent on it, help would be there.

Yes, its only hunters paying for it, but like said before. Its the only thing requiring a license.

I pay taxes/levies on schools I have no desire to support let alone plan to use when ive got my own little turds running around. But thats how a collective society works. Until we can figure out a way to change it.

Id be less worried of a dollar a year to save that and put more energy to not buy alcohol or tobacco or even coffee out.

 

[TaperPin]

Got it. So where do the hikers, backpackers, climbers, paragliders, rafters, BC skiers, etc put in their fair share? CO gets swarmed by millions of outdoor visitors a year.

Do you really need me to break down where the tax money and revenue streams supporting all those that help search and rescue comes from? Really? You think millions of people never pay taxes on anything? Use google a little bit.

 

[ReaptheHeat]

Do you really need me to break down where the tax money and revenue streams supporting all those that help search and rescue comes from? Really? You think millions of people never pay taxes on anything? Use google a little bit.

Please do. You are completely off base here. That has absolutely nothing to do with what I just said. Do you need me to explain, again?

 

[Colorado Cowboy]

I think you are missing the forest in the trees. No one else is paying for SAR in CO yet our trails and Backcountry are swarmed by hikers, mountain bikers skiers etc. The onus is on us to fund them yet we are a much smaller user group.

They should put on all vehicle renewals and make mandatory for all mt bike and such be registered just like OHVs.