I not only have a 13-year-old daughter, I taught middle and high school for about 15 years. I am acutely aware of and able to recognize eye rolling, angsty gasps, and the dramatic head shaking precipitated by hearing an unwanted opinion.
The most recent in-person Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meetings have been wrought with teeth gnashing and eye rolling from the anti-rancher/hunter crowd every time they hear an opinion not in line with the one that was emailed to them in preparation for the meeting.
Their most recent target, especially online, appears to be Pitkin County rancher and Commissioner Tai Jacober, who calmly described, not once but twice, how a neighbor’s cattle were scattered and harassed by wolves just hours after the range rider left the area during the July 7 meeting about the Copper Creek/Capital Creek pack. Jacober looked steady and calm as Commissioner Jay Tutchton questioned the circumstances.
“You know, I don’t know why this guy’s cows took off on a Friday night,” Tutchton said. “I do know it was the Fourth of July, but if it’s National Forest, all sorts of crap goes down on the national forest on a holiday weekend.”
Commissioner Jack Murphy said “there’s still stuff to learn, and I think all sides need to relax a little bit and allow this to kind of play out a little bit more.” He said he feels for the ranchers who are having problems, including the rancher Jacober told the commission about.
“Yes, it is a tough situation,” Murphy said. “Change is always difficult. I mean, I live in the city, and I’m having to put up with traffic, and it gets on my nerves too.”
Murphy’s comment prompted Commissioner Murphy Robinson to defend ranchers.
“I will make one note, though, I don’t think we can bring a nexus between driving through traffic and people losing livestock, which is their livelihood,” Robinson said. “I just don’t think that’s the same thing, and I think we have to be very cautious on how we kind of equivocate that, you know, these producers, oh, they’ll be fine. They’ll get over it one day. This is, I think, a little heavier than we realize.”
I am not privy to the emails sent to Robinson and Jacober, but based on a few online comments, I deduce they’re completely out of bounds. I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of meetings about wolves. I’ve stood in Don Gittleson’s shop and listened to CPW Director Jeff Davis and staff speak to ranchers in the area. Not once have I seen a rancher lose his cool. Not once have I seen a rancher roll his eyes, gnash his teeth, and shake his head when someone with an opposing view speaks. I can’t say that about the anti-rancher contingency.
After the most recent round of CPW Commission appointments, we’re left with a dwindling number of commissioners with the ability to represent their stakeholders based on earned experience and relationships within the community they’re to represent. I offer more details on the two newest appointees in this issue.
Polis’ time in office is running short and he and the First Gentleman are gunning for hunting and agriculture more now than ever. If there were ever a time to pay attention, it is now. There will be a slew of petitions before the CPW Commission which is stacked with individuals likely to support them.
The ballot proposal process, which leaves rural Colorado out in the cold consistently, is also gearing up. The most egregious initiative making its way through the title board process is Initiative 98, Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation Commission. It has been through multiple iterations and Legislative Council staff reviews to potentially have a title set and be approved for circulation, but that’s been a difficult road given the content. Initiatives are required to be a single subject that can be answered with a yes or no vote. The text is currently 10 pages long.
One of my main concerns with the Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation Commission is the complete omission and restriction of involvement from ranchers. A close second is the goal of seeking to override state and federal agencies with a group of unaccountable activists.
The initiative seeks to establish the conservation commission and specify who they deem acceptable to hold membership. It seeks to authorize the commission to designate “state-specific endangered species and keystone species,” establishing a statewide network of wildlife corridors, approving or disapproving public and private infrastructure projects and land-use practices, imposing and collecting fines and fees, seeking and expending grants from public and private sources, and adopting rules; establishes property tax reductions to incentivize landowners to participate in a statewide network of wildlife corridors; enacts new requirements and prohibitions for public and private infrastructure projects and land use practices; and establishes revenue sources to fund the commission.
This initiative attempts to create this commission as an entity of state government with all the statutory powers and duties that entails, despite the framework for those agencies of the executive department defined in the Colorado Constitution. This initiative attempts to circumvent the Department of Natural Resources and CPW entirely, both agencies held accountable to all stakeholders, not just the ones proponents of this initiative agree with.
The initiative seeks to trample upon the Endangered Species Act by designating their own state-listed endangered species, I suppose based upon their own expertise, though it’s unclear what that might be.
The cherry on top of the overreach sundae is the initiative’s proponents seeking to target private landowners who aren’t using or developing their private property in such a way that the WECC deems acceptable and grants the commission the power to investigate, issue subpoenas, inspect private property and refer cases for prosecution.
The most recent memo from the Legislative Council Staff and Office of Legislative Legal Services is 18 pages long. This will not have a title set in its current form, but it is either a distraction while something else nefarious is shoved through, or it is the blueprint for the remaining years of this administration.
