Drum,
A shed hunting "season" is very controversial for several reasons, one of which Brad Phelps hit on. A season is needed, but only in a handful of higher elevation, high profile places, like the Gunnison Basin. There are vast tracts of public land/winter range all over Colorado that simply do not have winter weather or snowpack even remotely approaching the conditions you see in places like Gunnison, so a statewide season would really accomplish little in the big picture.
Second is enforcability. Our DWMs and BLM/USFS officers are already stretched awfully thin in this state, and frankly no one I know, including the DWMs, thinks there is any realistic way for them to enforce such a closure, except perhaps on a handful of high-profile, easily-accessible, critical areas, which they are already doing via existing wildlife harrassment laws.
Singling out shed hunters is a joke because enforcement is further compromised by all the other legal activities occuring at the same time: small game seasons run through February 28, coyote hunters and fur trappers are in the field throughout the timeframe they've listed for the closure, and there's no lack of winter recreationists in this state either (cross country skiers, snowshoers, snowmobilers, etc). So if we are serious about protecting deer from harassment and stress during critical timeframes, then we need to close entire areas to all human activity, not create seasons and restrict particular activities.
Finally, the language they offered up for the closure was ridiculously vague and anyone wanting to continue collecting sheds had any number of ways to circumvent the ruling. I'll be interested to see whether they actually approved it or not.
Hope that helps you understand where a lot of shed hunters are coming from. As with most things, the surface concept seems sound, but the devil is in the details.
