Colorado Veteran Lifetime Fishing and Small Game License

Colorado Parks and Wildlife issues a free lifetime fishing license, or a free lifetime fishing and small game hunting combination license known as the VA combo, to a Colorado resident veteran with a service-connected disability. The threshold is proof of a 50 percent or greater service-connected disability as rated by VA. Colorado lowered that threshold from 60 percent to 50 percent, so a veteran who was turned away years ago should reapply. Two details make this better than it first looks. The license is lifetime rather than annual, so a veteran who qualifies in their thirties never buys another fishing license. And VA combo holders are exempt from the habitat stamp, which every other resident angler and small game hunter has to buy each year. Those two together are the real value, not the single license price. The limit is what is not there. The combination covers small game and fishing. It does not cover big game, so deer, elk, pronghorn, bear, and mountain lion are bought at ordinary resident prices through the ordinary draws. A veteran comparing states should know that Idaho, by contrast, gives a resident disabled veteran up to five free big game tags a year at a 40 percent rating. Colorado's equivalent for big game is much narrower and reaches only members of the Wounded Warrior and Safe Harbor programs. The license is valid only while Colorado residency continues. A veteran has to apply rather than simply buy it, through cpwshop.com, by email to the disability applications address, or by mail. CPW asks for a VA letter confirming a discharge under conditions other than dishonorable along with the 50 percent rating, and requires six months of Colorado residency and a valid Colorado driver license or ID. Purple Heart recipients qualify on a Purple Heart Certificate or a DD214 showing the award. Several separate provisions cover service members rather than veterans. A Colorado resident on active duty outside the state may fish without a license while home on leave, up to 30 days a year, carrying leave papers. Nonresident active duty members stationed in Colorado under permanent orders, and their dependents, buy hunting licenses at resident rates, which does not extend to reserve or Guard status unless on federal active duty. Active duty, reserve, veterans, and Guard members may also test out of hunter education with a score of 90 percent or better. The test costs $34.95, may be taken once, and has to be finished online in a single 30-minute session. Colorado also runs separate waterfowl seasons restricted to veterans and members of the armed forces, including Guard and reserves.