History

History of CWEPA

The Colorado Wildlife Employees Protective Association (CWEPA) is one of the oldest employee associations in the State. It was formed in 1947 as the Colorado Game and Fish Employees Protective and Purchasing Association and was formed to protect individual state employees (mostly game wardens) from lawsuits and to get individuals needed equipment. At that time, there were about 75 to 80 people with law enforcement commissions, but not all of them were game wardens.

In the mid to late 40s there were very few rules spelled out in the conduct of business by state employees. Gil Hunter, the State Game Manager, was able to acquire various sporting goods items, including firearms and ammunition, for state employees to purchase for state and personal use. Gil Hunter had an arrangement with a sporting goods wholesale house called “Whitney’s”. Employees could go in and pick out the items they wanted and Gil Hunter would make contact with a salesman and the employee would purchase the items at wholesale or State price. This was done with the blessing of Bill Hunn, Chief of Law Enforcement. Back in those days, wardens (and others) weren’t as well equipped as they should have been and this was a way of letting them get some of the things they needed not only in the line of duty, but for personal use. (Information obtained from Larry Riordan, retired Deputy Director in the early 70s, in personal communication with Bob Thompson, recently retired Assistant Chief of Law Enforcement.)

Since 1947 the association has undergone several name changes. In 1965, the State combined two different departments and the agency became known as the Department of Game, Fish and Parks with some members having an interest in wildlife issues and some members having an interest in parks issues. In 1972, the department became the Department of Natural Resources with the Division of Wildlife (DOW) and the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation (DPOR) coming into existence. The association then included employees of these two Divisions and the association was known as PAW (Parks and Wildlife). From 1972 on, each Division grew tremendously with each having a lot of different issues pertaining only to that Division. It was decided to split PAW into two different associations so that employee members of each agency (Division) could better address issues common to other employees within that Division. CWEPA in its current form was organized in 2001 and has been operating as such since then.