Hilltop Custom Meat Processing

05/16/2026

https://youtu.be/O5iG-KigQz0?si=5ycIqjOZHVhbpaiK

Colorado’s wildlife politics are reaching a breaking point. In this episode of _Through the Gates_, Dan Gates breaks down the latest Colorado Parks & Wildlif...

05/16/2026

Colorado's outdoor heritage is worth protecting — and CRWM Executive Director Dan Gates is making the case in the Colorado Springs Gazette.

Writing alongside Luke Hilgemann of the International Order of T. Roosevelt, Gates is urging Coloradans to support Initiative 302, a constitutional amendment that would affirm the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife in Colorado.
"Hunting and fishing are not just traditions here; they are foundational to how we conserve wildlife, fund habitat restoration, and pass down a deep respect for the land."

With Oregon activists pushing a ballot measure that would effectively criminalize hunting and fishing, Gates warns that Colorado cannot afford to wait. Initiative 302 would make Colorado the 25th state to enshrine these protections in its constitution — preserving a science-based conservation model that generates $117 million annually for habitat and wildlife management and supports 25,000 Colorado jobs.

Read the full op-ed here: https://gazette.com/2026/05/06/guest-opinion-safeguard-colorados-outdoor-heritage-in-the-constitution/

05/15/2026

With Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management – I'm on a streak! I've made it onto their weekly engagement list 3 weeks in a row. 🎉

05/12/2026

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission held its May meeting in Grand Junction last week, and Coloradans showed up. Trappers, wildlife managers, ranchers, and sportsmen and women from across the Western Slope filled the room to push back on a citizen petition to ban the commercial sale of furbearer fur in Colorado — a proposal that CPW staff itself did not recommend.
Speaker after speaker made clear that this issue goes beyond fur. It is about a Commission that is drifting away from science-based management and away from the people it was appointed to represent. Mesa County Commissioner JJ Fletcher said it plainly — the concern on the Western Slope is not just about individual regulations, it is about a Commission that is no longer following its own management framework or listening to its constituents.

We will continue to stand with the hunters, trappers, ranchers, and resource users who show up, speak up, and refuse to let Colorado's wildlife management be handed over to ideology.

https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/fur-ban-the-focus-of-many-speakers-during-cpw-public-comments/article_b4c3cd92-164e-4709-928f-dbf9d4daf3b9.html

05/05/2026