Colorado Parks and Wildlife ups wildlife license, vehicle registration fees for search and rescue

Colorado Parks and Wildlife will increase its Backcountry Search and Rescue Program fee to help fund support for county search and rescue teams.

The fee on wildlife licenses and boat, snowmobile and off-highway vehicle registrations will increase to $1.25, effective Jan. 1, according to a news release from the state wildlife agency. The previous $0.25 fee had not changed since 1987.

Colorado has more than 50 search-and-rescue organizations, which are 100% volunteer-based and conduct rescue missions for free. While these organizations are county-based and coordinated through sheriff’s offices or local governments, Colorado Parks and Wildlife provides support and funding.

The fee increase is “a necessary step to reflect the current customer price index, taking into account inflation, as well as the increase in search-and-rescue incident responses and the number of highly challenging and risky rescues over the last 15 years,” the release states.

A 2022 report from Colorado Parks and Wildlife found that around 2,800 backcountry search and rescue volunteers were responding to approximately 3,600 search-and-rescue incidents a year.

Each search and rescue volunteer spends roughly $2,000 to $2,500 a year on training and equipment, according to the study. That doesn’t include the “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in operating costs, vehicles, search-and-rescue equipment and technology that these all-volunteer groups incur.

The Backcountry Search and Rescue Program funding is distributed through incident reimbursement forms and a county allocation process, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The funds are used to purchase equipment, training, vehicles, small capital improvement projects, mental health services, communications, computer software and maintenance.

The fees on the licenses and registration — alongside voluntary purchases of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue card — have contributed to the Backcountry Search and Rescue Fund. The fund allows the state to reimburse local search and rescue teams for operations. At the end of each year, the funds are divided among the state’s search-and-rescue groups. The fund currently generates between $500,000 and $600,000 annually.

Revenue from the Keep Colorado Wild Pass, which grants access to state parks, also goes toward search and rescue in Colorado, according to the news release. Search-and-rescue groups rely on various levels of local, county and federal in addition to the state funds.
To learn more about the Backcountry Search and Rescue Program visit CPW.State.co.us/backcountry-search-and-rescue-program.