Thanks to a change in how Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) handled licensing requirements this year, the agency increased its revenue by nearly $16 million in 2019. That’s a 20% increase since the previous fiscal year. In fact, according to The Denver Post, the total license sales for 2018-19 were $96,269,926 – up from the previous total of $80,499,026.

What was the change? Well, beginning last year, those who applied for big game licenses had to first purchase qualifying licenses. Those included small game hunting licenses, spring turkey licenses, resident combo licenses for small game hunting and fishing or a veteran’s lifetime combo license for residents, according to The Denver Post.

“Those work as a qualifying license in order for you to apply for big game hunt,” said Jason Clay, a public information officer for CPW. “The vast majority of that $16-million increase is from that. You could purchase your qualifying license at the same time as you’re applying (for a big game license), but you could not apply without having that in the queue or having done so previously.”

Interested in Colorado’s 2019 season breakdown? Here’s a few numbers from CPW: