House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources

Monday, May 4, 2026·▶ Watch / Listen

The House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources Committee spent its only bill of the day on the annual Species Conservation Trust Fund reauthorization, sending SB26-165's $5 million to Appropriations after a good-natured detour into fish taxonomy and a pointed reminder about the Eastern Plains.

Key Actions

·Species Conservation MeasuresPassed

Notable Quotes

“I will be a yes today. I just, I want to put it on the record, you know, two years in a row, it just seems like it's been very Colorado River, Western Slope focused and we do have a whole portion of the state, 47% of the land mass is Eastern Plains.”
Dusty Johnson — The lone note of dissent-in-spirit on an otherwise unanimous bill — Johnson backed the fund while flagging a regional imbalance he says has persisted across two funding cycles.

+ 2 more quotes

Votes

Referred to Committee on AppropriationsAction

Yes (13)Lori Garcia Sander, Lori Goldstein, Dusty Johnson, Mandy Lindsay, Meghan Lukens, Matthew Martinez, Lesley Smith, Tammy Story, Larry Don Suckla, Ty Winter, Tisha Mauro, Karen McCormick, Katie Stewart

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TranscriptPreview

Representatives Garcia, Sander. Present. Goldstein. Here. Johnson. Here. Lindsey. Here. Lukens. Here. Martinez. Here. Smith. Here. Stuart. Here. Story? Here. Sukla. Here. Winter? Winter is here. McCormick. Here. Madam Chair, Here. We will now HEAR Senate Bill 165. We have the bill sponsors in front of us. Who would like to begin? Madam Chair? McCormick. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senate Bill 165 is the species Conservation Trust Fund bill that comes before us every year. I love this bill because it is putting our funding sources towards really important projects across the state. Thank you to Representative Soper for being on this bill with me this year. It has been in place since 1998 for those of you who are wondering how long this has been around. And it appropriates $5 million from DNR, from the severance Tax Operational Fund, and goes towards conservation research and study efforts on threatened or endangered species across Colorado. And the projects that have been approved by CPW and CWCB are the ones that you are seeing today in the bill. So I will tell you a little bit about the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission projects that this bill will fund. We will…

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