The owner of the Rocky Mountain General Store in Vallecito has quit selling hunting and fishing licenses because of an increase in the bonding requirement by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
“We gave it up yesterday,” Jim Schank said Tuesday. “It’s just not worth it.”
Schank said the agency has increased the amount of his bond as a state “agent” from $2,000 to $6,000.
Except for two weeks around the Fourth of July, sales aren’t that good, Schank said. He said that for a one-day fishing license, he gets 25 cents.
If the sportsman buys a license on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website, he gets nothing for printing it, Schank said. He estimated his total license sales at 4,000 a year.
“For an agency that is going broke, they don’t seem to care if they sell licenses,” Schank said.
Schank has been selling fishing and hunting licences for about 10 years.
Schank’s store, which is on the marina side of the lake, is the go-to place because the Pine River Lodge, apparently the only other business in Vallecito that sells licenses, is on the far side of the lake.
Joe Lewandowski, a spokesman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said it’s too bad that Schank is pulling out.
“We hate to see him go,” Lewandowski said Tuesday. “But we didn’t run him out.”
As a self-funded state agency, Parks and Wildlife has to protect itself in case a licensed seller quits or the business fails, Lewandowski said.
”We’re an enterprise agency,” Lewandowski said. “We don’t get tax revenue like the health department or the transportation department does.”
Parks and Wildlife revenue comes from the sale of licenses, which can range from $15 to more than $600 for a non-resident elk tag.
Lewandowski said Schank received 4.75 percent of sales. The bond is based on the 10 highest consecutive days of license sales, he said.
daler@durangoherald.com
