Cliff Coghill

The Colorado Wildlife Employees Protective Association has created the “Cliff Coghill Career Achievement Award” to recognize Colorado Wildlife Officers who have provided many years of dedicated service to the wildlife resource of the State of Colorado.  

The award is named in honor of Cliff Coghill, former “Game Warden” in Gunnison who retired in 1997 after a distinguished career of 47 years with Colorado Game and Fish Department, Colorado Game, Fish and Parks Department and finally with the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Cliff began working for the Colorado Game & Fish Department in 1950 serving as a sharpshooter culling deer and elk in Durango, Montrose and where needed across the west slope of Colorado. In the late 1950’s, Cliff took an assignment as the only game warden stationed in the Gunnison Basin. 

Throughout Cliff’s career, he wore the titles of Conservation Technician, Game Warden, Wildlife Conservation Officer and District Wildlife Manager. The duties he carried out were as varied as his professional titles. During his career, Cliff Coghill worked to master all aspects of the game warden profession.  Along with Cliff’s ability to shoot a rifle (a skill he mastered in the military during World War II), Cliff was asked to buy, train, board and distribute the first ever state-owned horse herd which belonged to the Game and Fish Department. Cliff became known for his ability to pick out the best horses suited for the game wardens stationed in the back country of western Colorado. Cliff served as packer and guide for politicians and dignitaries on a tour of what would later become the West Elk Wilderness.

Cliff was very interested in the biological aspects of the job. Cliff engineered the first “walk-in” elk trap designed such that elk would jump onto heavy netting suspended to keep the elk off of the ground so that trappers could tag them and either load them into a horse trailer for transport or drop the net and release them. Cliff also helped develop clover traps that are still used for trapping deer, elk and mountain goat. He also assisted in many research projects that aided in developing the foundations of wildlife management still used today. Cliff led some of the early efforts to establish, re-establish and manage populations of bighorn sheep, elk, pronghorn, turkeys, Canada geese and Gunnison Sage Grouse.  Whether by horseback, airplane, truck or off his back, throughout his career, Cliff stocked many decades worth of fish in high mountain lakes and streams. Cliff was part of the many big game winter feeding efforts that the Gunnison Basin has become known for. In the early 1960’s, Cliff helped negotiate with the federal government for the mitigation of 22 miles of the Gunnison River lost to anglers by the creation of Blue Mesa Reservoir. This mitigation has protected and opened many miles of river and stream to public fishing.

As a game warden and wildlife officer, Cliff Coghill worked tirelessly to protect the wildlife resource from poachers. He often ventured far into the backcountry “a horseback” to check hunters at all times of the day and night regardless of the weather conditions. Cliff Coghill’s reputation for being a tough, dedicated and yet fair enforcer of wildlife law became common knowledge in the Gunnison Basin and across western Colorado. 

In 1939, the Game and Fish Commission declared that “wardens will be careerists that will have the background, education and mental equipment of high order. They must be capable of talking before audiences to spread the gospel of conservation, sportsmanship and respect for law. They must furthermore be plenty tough to deal with poachers and other hard-boiled offenders”. Cliff Coghill gave honor to that declaration of game warden.