Fishing near Loveland just got snagged.

Next year there won't be any more public access to an area south of Loveland - Lonetree Reservoir. With an expiring lease for the land, a private entity outbid Colorado Parks and Wildlife to take control of the area. Wait, outbid CPW? Do Wyoming hunters and fishers see that ever happening here?

There is concern this might happen more often in Colorado where CPW deals with budget constraints. CPW is warning anyone who will listen. Some say the Colorado legislature may be to blame for failing to pass a recent funding bill.

The recreational lease has stayed as it was since the 1970s. After June 30, 2018, however, it will change hands. Rights will belong to an unidentified high bidder for the property. That company is owned by Consolidated Home Supply Ditch Company, but that’s all a CPW spokeswoman identified. CPW’s Jennifer Churchill called the situation "contentious."

That sounds like the nicer way to put it, after the agency tried to negotiate a new 20-year lease. They just couldn’t keep hunting and fishing access on a constrained budget.

We can ask why the state has to bid at all. We could ask a dozen questions and get two dozen answers. From every angle, it just looks like a lot of bureaucracy, and no one ever makes any sense out of that.

Wyoming's open spaces and land works in favor of the Cowboy State's hunters and fishers: We have a vastly higher volume of land period. We have less population to over-crowd it, and this does not over-value land as it does so grossly in Colorado. Value and money may answer many questions about how this happened.

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