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Project Coyote Announces Opposition to Amendment 83, Colorado’s So-Called
“Right to Hunt and Fish” Measure
As the measure receives its official ballot designation, Project Coyote warns voters it would lock vague, special-interest language into Colorado’s Constitution and undo decades of wildlife protections
Denver, CO., Sept. 9, 2026 – Project Coyote today announced its opposition to Amendment 83, the wildlife ballot measure formerly known as Initiative 302, following its official certification for Colorado’s November ballot. The amendment will need approval from 55% of voters — a constitutional supermajority — to pass.
Amendment 83 would write into the state Constitution a right to hunt, fish and harvest wildlife using “traditional methods,” a term left undefined in the proposed language, while declaring hunting and fishing the “primary and preferred means of managing and controlling” fish and wildlife populations.
Project Coyote warns the measure is being sold to voters as simply preserving hunting and fishing as they exist today, but in practice it permanently rewrites the balance of power between voters, the legislature, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, local governments, and the courts, moving wildlife decisions out of the democratic process and into costly litigation over what the amendment’s vague terms mean.
By enshrining vague ‘traditional methods’ language in the constitution, Initiative 302 could give practices like trapping, which were already restricted by Colorado voters in 1996, new legal leverage to challenge that ban in court.
“Amendment 83 isn’t about protecting hunting and fishing —hunting and fishing are already legal in Colorado, and nothing threatens that,” said Mark Surls, Colorado & Northern Rockies Coordinator for Project Coyote. “This is about whether we hand a narrow set of interests permanent, constitutionally preferred control over how decisions about our wildlife get made. Once undefined words like ‘preferred,’ ‘necessary,’ and ‘traditional’ are written into the Constitution, it’s not voters or wildlife scientists who decide what they mean—it’s the courts. Project Coyote is stepping up to make sure Coloradans understand exactly what’s at stake before they vote.”
“For the past eight years, our Administration has worked to make Colorado a kinder place for animals, banning wildlife killing contests and puppy mills, standing up a new Division of Animal Welfare, and building wildlife crossings to reconnect the habitat we’ve fragmented,” said Marlon Reis, First Gentleman of Colorado.
“Amendment 83 puts that progress at serious risk by adding a loophole to our Constitution that could be easily exploited to bring back hunting and trapping practices that have long been banned as unethical. Our Constitution is a statement of shared values, not a hiding place for cruelty. Hardwiring a ‘Right to Hunt’ into our Constitution alongside more fundamental rights like freedom of speech and trial by jury would privilege one form of outdoor recreation over all others. More importantly, it would prioritize lethal control of wildlife over nonlethal tools like relocation, habitat protection, and vaccination against disease. This November, I encourage Coloradans to reaffirm our commitment to protecting wildlife and wild places by voting no on Amendment 83.”
The risk isn’t hypothetical. In Wisconsin, hunters invoked their constitutional right to hunt in litigation that forced wildlife officials to hold an expedited wolf hunt in February 2021. In less than three days, state-licensed hunters killed 218 wolves, 83 percent more than the state’s 119-wolf allocation for those hunters. North Carolina voters constitutionalized the right to vote in 2018. Within two years, the new provision was invoked in court to challenge certain hunting restrictions, including hunting migratory birds, hunting deer with dogs, and restrictions on hunting near places of worship.
Colorado’s own nonpartisan fiscal analysis of the measure anticipates added workload for Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the potential for increased state litigation costs if parties challenge wildlife rules under the new constitutional language.
“I’ve spent my career studying animal behavior, animal emotions, and compassionate conservation and the science is clear: wildlife decisions have consequences for real, feeling individuals, not just abstract populations. Amendment 83 ignores what science tells us, ” said Marc Bekoff, PhD, award-winning scientist and Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado Boulder, and Project Coyote Science Advisory Board Member. “It declares hunting and fishing the ‘preferred’ way to manage wildlife and leaves the most consequential phrase in the whole amendment, ‘traditional methods,’ completely undefined. If passed, it’s a blank check written in the name of tradition. Once it’s in the Constitution, it’s courts and lawyers who decide what it means, not scientists deciding what’s actually best for the animals. Colorado’s wild neighbors deserve better than that.”
Project Coyote is also spotlighting who is pushing the measure. Amendment 83 is backed by Safari Club International, Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management and the Wisconsin-based International Order of T. Roosevelt (IOTR), part of a national campaign that has pushed nearly identical constitutional language in states across the country.
“Colorado’s wildlife policy should be shaped by Colorado voters, elected officials, wildlife experts and local communities, not imported, one-size-fits-all language written by out-of-state interests with a national agenda,” Surls concluded.
Project Coyote is a fiscally sponsored project of Earth Island Institute, a 501c3 nonprofit. Project Coyote’s mission is to promote compassionate conservation and coexistence between people and wildlife—particularly North America’s wild carnivores—through education, science, advocacy, and coalition building. Led by scientists, educators, and wildlife advocates, Project Coyote works to change policies and perceptions to protect wild carnivores and foster ethical, ecologically sound stewardship.
Learn more at www.ProjectCoyote.org.
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