Colorado Parks and Wildlife may need to increase fees for hunting and fishing licenses in order to pay for wildlife-management programs in the coming years.

After steep cuts to wildlife-management programs that started in 2013, the agency is now talking about the need to increase the cost of hunting and fishing licenses for Coloradans, said Steve Cassin, the agency’s chief financial officer.

“We’ve known for a long time we have a problem with sustainability,” he said.

The agency cut $10 million out of the annual wildlife-management budget starting in 2013, he said. That year, the agency had budgeted to spend $194 million total on both parks and wildlife programs.

The wildlife-management budget is managed separately from parks, and it pays for items such as habitat management, open-space acquisitions and fisheries.

In the next 10 years, the agency has $92 million in projects that could be tough to finance, Cassin said. Some of the projects could be completed through grant funding, but not all.

For example, the agency would like to make about $40 million in emergency dam repairs over the next five years.

The agency also would like to invest $5 million in the next 10 years to make changes to improve mule deer habitats on the Western Slope.

In-state hunting and fishing licenses fees were last increased about 10 years ago. But in order to change them, an amendment to state law is required, he said.

Conversely, out-of-state licenses are set to increase with inflation, and they are about 10 times the price of in-state licenses.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is funded through the sale of hunting and fishing licences and Colorado Lottery funds.

mshinn@durangoherald.com