Governor Jared Polis signed a bill into law on Monday that will give Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) stronger enforcement tools to combat illegal wildlife trafficking.

According to a press release from CPW, Senate Bill 25-168 will strengthen penalties for traffickers, support law enforcement capacity, and improve data collection on illegal activity that threatens Colorado’s native wildlife. The legislation will expand CPW’s ability to investigate and prosecute trafficking activity beyond just illegal possession or sale. It will also allow officers to respond to the trafficking of native and non-native species moved through or into Colorado.

“Because of this legislation – and the hard work of our staff partners, and bill sponsors – CPW can now better disrupt the growing black market for wildlife,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis in the press release.

Before, CPW could only address trafficking in limited ways, but the bill allows the organization to enforce trafficking violations more rapidly and across a wide range of species.

“It is past time for Colorado to strengthen our enforcement of illegal wildlife trafficking and I am very glad that this important bipartisan bill is becoming law,” said State Senator Dylan Roberts in the press release. “By making these improvements to our enforcement, penalties, and data collection, we will give CPW and law enforcement more tools to crack down against those that illegally kill and remove wildlife from our state.”

With the new bill, there will be a Class 4 felony for trafficking $10,000 worth of wildlife, or Threatened and Endangered species or CITES Appendix I species. The bill will also create a position designated to collecting biological and population data about Colorado’s reptiles.

Read the full text of the bill and learn more about it here.

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