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When Tom Burke was 18 years old, he attended a Republican fundraiser with his father. There, he met then-Governor John Love, and he saw his opportunity.
There and then, Burke made his first appeal to sit on the Colorado Wildlife Commission.
“He said, ‘Tom, maybe you’re a little young. Maybe you have to wait a little,’” Burke recalled this week, laughing.
“Well, it was 27 years later before we had another Republican governor,” Burke said, with his easy laughter. “It was something I had wanted to do for a long time.”
Gov. Bill Owens appointed the Grand Junction businessman to the commission in 2000.
This spring, Burke will step down from the commission after serving two terms, the maximum allowed under Colorado law. He now chairs the commission.
Last week, he recalled his brief stint working for the Denver Broncos, then growing up in Grand Junction, his introduction to wildlife and ultimately, his tenure on the commission, the fun times and challenges helping manage Colorado’s wildlife.
As a boy in the Denver area, his family lived near Denver Bronco Marv Matuszak. Matuszak asked Burke if he’d like a summer job, so “my whole summer I spent being a ball-boy for the Broncos. It was by far the best job a kid could ever have,” he said.
The family’s move to Grand Junction later that year ultimately introduced Burke to wildlife and developed in him a passion for the outdoors and game animals.
Again, a neighbor played a role in getting Burke a job; this time, at ranches in DeBeque and Burns.
“I said, ‘That sounds like fun.’ Being a cowboy is a kid’s dream,” Burke said.
“That sort of started my exposure to the inter-relationships with ranching and wildlife, and realizing what the private landowner provides to Colorado’s wildlife.”
It’s where he started watching wildlife, and “naturally, that’s where I learned to fly fish, where I started archery hunting.”
Burke studied at Mesa College and Colorado State University, where he gave serious thought to becoming a game warden, “Until I realized they didn’t make any money, and so my entrepreneurial capitalism took precedence over wanting to be a game warden,” he said.
He started Burke Construction in 1976, and it’s been going strong since. He learned business from his parents, Jim, who owned an engineering consulting firm, and Keota, who owned Horizon Travel.
Burke Construction provides him the opportunity and time to devote to the boards he’s served on over the years, including the Grand Junction Lions Club, the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce, US Bank, Hospice and the Grand Junction Economic Partnership. Burke helped found the Grand Junction chapter of Ducks Unlimited, serving as state chairman as well, before his 2000 appointment to the Wildlife Commission.
As a volunteer on the commission, “There have been years I’ve spent 70 days out of the office.”
The commission sets policy for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. As such, it decides when people may hunt which species. It even decides the minute details of how many individual animals should be harvested from each area in the state, every year.
For example, in recent years, dozens of “problem bears” have been euthanized in the Aspen area. So wildlife officials must consider how that affects the number of bear licenses to issue.
With eight years on the commission, Burke has been through that steep learning curve with respect to the number of animals, the various species and how they interact year after year with respect to reproduction, disease, predator pressure and, of course, hunting.
He’s got the experience to ask the questions of the trained staff.
“It’s a concern we don’t overharvest a particular species,” Burke said. “Should we have a concern, that’s where time and service sort of lets you know you have to ask those questions.”
The commission also approves fishing rules and makes regulations for non-game animals like prairie dogs, coyotes and the like.
Burke was appointed as a representative of wildlife organizations from his affiliation with Ducks Unlimited. That became contentious with some environmental groups, he said, because he was a consumptive user of wildlife, a hunter and angler.
Looking back, he believes people will be pleased with his service.
“To a person, you can ask them if I represented them well, and I think they will all say they were very pleased with my individual philosophy about wildlife and making sure from an environmentally conscious standpoint I upheld their philosophies in most cases,” Burke said.
Burke said he’s most proud of these issues during his tenure on the commission — preventing the overharvest of female mountain lions and introducing a habitat stamp to raise money for habitat protection.
“It’s a concern with any species that you don’t overharvest the population that bears young,” Burke said. With mountain lions, it’s difficult to discern gender, so the commission devised a program that required hunters to take a test to identify gender before hunters received licenses.
“Hunters are all a little Teddy Roosevelt. We’re all conservationists at heart,” so when a hunter sees a female, he can choose to let her go, to protect the species long term, Burke said.
The habitat stamp allows money to be set aside to protect habitat for game and non-game species and fishing access. It generates around $6 million annually. In Burke’s time on the commission, it has protected 36,000 acres of habitat, he said.
The habitat stamp income helps the Division of Wildlife because it receives no taxes from the public. The Division of Wildlife is operated by funds from hunters, from the lottery and some from a national tax from the sale of licenses.
“It is not your tax money. It comes from sportsmen,” Burke said.
Being on the commission has been “a wonderful experience for me. I’ve had some great experiences,” Burke said, counting among them lynx releases, trips to Utah to trap moose, trapping moose and turkeys and releasing them later.
“That’s been more fun than I can tell you,” Burke said. “To actually go get an animal and move it to another part of the state and watch that herd grow. It’s just a great deal.”
He also got his granddaughters involved too. At ages 4 and 7, they were able to look at sedated lynx up close and “they got to pull the gate on the cage,” during a release. “It’s something they’ll never forget,” Burke said.
Burke will serve on the commission until Gov. Bill Ritter appoints his replacement. Burke intends to participate at least through mid-June, when the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will consider recommendations to protect wildlife in drilling areas of the state.
He hopes the two state commissions meet on common ground.
“That’s our job. We were appointed to be the spokesmen for Colorado’s wildlife and to protect them,” Burke said. “Just like we understate some other people’s job is to do whatever they need to do to extract minerals, whether it be mining or drilling.
“At times we just need to agree to disagree. Let’s come to the table and do what we need to do ... hopefully we’ll find a place in the middle.
“They’re not going to be 100 percent happy. We’re not going to be 100 percent happy, but there will be some protection for wildlife.”
Reach Marija B. Vader at mvader@gjfreepress.com.
There and then, Burke made his first appeal to sit on the Colorado Wildlife Commission.
“He said, ‘Tom, maybe you’re a little young. Maybe you have to wait a little,’” Burke recalled this week, laughing.
“Well, it was 27 years later before we had another Republican governor,” Burke said, with his easy laughter. “It was something I had wanted to do for a long time.”
Gov. Bill Owens appointed the Grand Junction businessman to the commission in 2000.
This spring, Burke will step down from the commission after serving two terms, the maximum allowed under Colorado law. He now chairs the commission.
Last week, he recalled his brief stint working for the Denver Broncos, then growing up in Grand Junction, his introduction to wildlife and ultimately, his tenure on the commission, the fun times and challenges helping manage Colorado’s wildlife.
As a boy in the Denver area, his family lived near Denver Bronco Marv Matuszak. Matuszak asked Burke if he’d like a summer job, so “my whole summer I spent being a ball-boy for the Broncos. It was by far the best job a kid could ever have,” he said.
The family’s move to Grand Junction later that year ultimately introduced Burke to wildlife and developed in him a passion for the outdoors and game animals.
Again, a neighbor played a role in getting Burke a job; this time, at ranches in DeBeque and Burns.
“I said, ‘That sounds like fun.’ Being a cowboy is a kid’s dream,” Burke said.
“That sort of started my exposure to the inter-relationships with ranching and wildlife, and realizing what the private landowner provides to Colorado’s wildlife.”
It’s where he started watching wildlife, and “naturally, that’s where I learned to fly fish, where I started archery hunting.”
Burke studied at Mesa College and Colorado State University, where he gave serious thought to becoming a game warden, “Until I realized they didn’t make any money, and so my entrepreneurial capitalism took precedence over wanting to be a game warden,” he said.
He started Burke Construction in 1976, and it’s been going strong since. He learned business from his parents, Jim, who owned an engineering consulting firm, and Keota, who owned Horizon Travel.
Burke Construction provides him the opportunity and time to devote to the boards he’s served on over the years, including the Grand Junction Lions Club, the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce, US Bank, Hospice and the Grand Junction Economic Partnership. Burke helped found the Grand Junction chapter of Ducks Unlimited, serving as state chairman as well, before his 2000 appointment to the Wildlife Commission.
As a volunteer on the commission, “There have been years I’ve spent 70 days out of the office.”
The commission sets policy for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. As such, it decides when people may hunt which species. It even decides the minute details of how many individual animals should be harvested from each area in the state, every year.
For example, in recent years, dozens of “problem bears” have been euthanized in the Aspen area. So wildlife officials must consider how that affects the number of bear licenses to issue.
With eight years on the commission, Burke has been through that steep learning curve with respect to the number of animals, the various species and how they interact year after year with respect to reproduction, disease, predator pressure and, of course, hunting.
He’s got the experience to ask the questions of the trained staff.
“It’s a concern we don’t overharvest a particular species,” Burke said. “Should we have a concern, that’s where time and service sort of lets you know you have to ask those questions.”
The commission also approves fishing rules and makes regulations for non-game animals like prairie dogs, coyotes and the like.
Burke was appointed as a representative of wildlife organizations from his affiliation with Ducks Unlimited. That became contentious with some environmental groups, he said, because he was a consumptive user of wildlife, a hunter and angler.
Looking back, he believes people will be pleased with his service.
“To a person, you can ask them if I represented them well, and I think they will all say they were very pleased with my individual philosophy about wildlife and making sure from an environmentally conscious standpoint I upheld their philosophies in most cases,” Burke said.
Burke said he’s most proud of these issues during his tenure on the commission — preventing the overharvest of female mountain lions and introducing a habitat stamp to raise money for habitat protection.
“It’s a concern with any species that you don’t overharvest the population that bears young,” Burke said. With mountain lions, it’s difficult to discern gender, so the commission devised a program that required hunters to take a test to identify gender before hunters received licenses.
“Hunters are all a little Teddy Roosevelt. We’re all conservationists at heart,” so when a hunter sees a female, he can choose to let her go, to protect the species long term, Burke said.
The habitat stamp allows money to be set aside to protect habitat for game and non-game species and fishing access. It generates around $6 million annually. In Burke’s time on the commission, it has protected 36,000 acres of habitat, he said.
The habitat stamp income helps the Division of Wildlife because it receives no taxes from the public. The Division of Wildlife is operated by funds from hunters, from the lottery and some from a national tax from the sale of licenses.
“It is not your tax money. It comes from sportsmen,” Burke said.
Being on the commission has been “a wonderful experience for me. I’ve had some great experiences,” Burke said, counting among them lynx releases, trips to Utah to trap moose, trapping moose and turkeys and releasing them later.
“That’s been more fun than I can tell you,” Burke said. “To actually go get an animal and move it to another part of the state and watch that herd grow. It’s just a great deal.”
He also got his granddaughters involved too. At ages 4 and 7, they were able to look at sedated lynx up close and “they got to pull the gate on the cage,” during a release. “It’s something they’ll never forget,” Burke said.
Burke will serve on the commission until Gov. Bill Ritter appoints his replacement. Burke intends to participate at least through mid-June, when the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission will consider recommendations to protect wildlife in drilling areas of the state.
He hopes the two state commissions meet on common ground.
“That’s our job. We were appointed to be the spokesmen for Colorado’s wildlife and to protect them,” Burke said. “Just like we understate some other people’s job is to do whatever they need to do to extract minerals, whether it be mining or drilling.
“At times we just need to agree to disagree. Let’s come to the table and do what we need to do ... hopefully we’ll find a place in the middle.
“They’re not going to be 100 percent happy. We’re not going to be 100 percent happy, but there will be some protection for wildlife.”
Reach Marija B. Vader at mvader@gjfreepress.com.
