The five-page document outlining Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’s priorities for Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Director Jeff Davis reads like it was ripped from the handbook of a wildlife advocate group. It could also double as a list of items that ought not be left to the legislature or the governor to cram through. Cue the wolverines.

Polis’s priorities for CPW, according to this May document, obviously includes mention of wolf reintroduction. More specifically, Polis clarifies “provisions for lethal take of wolves have an important sideboard: prior to approving a take permit, the Region Manager must consult with the CPW Director.” You know, lest we forget where the administration stands, or their power.

I had hoped the murmurings of wolverine reintroduction were unfounded, but they are in this document in black and white. Previous wolverines – who make badgers look like Bichon Frises, by the way – that have found their way into Colorado have left again after concluding that there are too many people here. According to the document, the administration has advocated for wolverine reintroduction (reintroduction, mind you) since 2019 and he “expects that it will be completed before his term in office is over.”

Though species for listing under the Endangered Species Act require legislative approval, you might be able to guess with some certainty how that vote might go. As if on cue, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced on Nov. 29 the North American wolverine will receive federal protection as a threatened species under the ESA. Public comments are now open on the Federal Register. In 2013, USFWS sought to establish a nonessential experimental population for wolverine in the southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, northern New Mexico and southern Wyoming. I anticipate history will repeat itself. According to the document, the administration will either seek a wolverine reintroduction bill in the upcoming session or reintroduce them as an unlisted species, which isn’t necessary given the USFWS decision.

The governor drew outrage from a broad swath of stakeholders when he prompted the CPW Commission to move more quickly than even voters mandated to get wolf “paws on the ground.” That seems to be the theme here as well as the administration said they would “like to conduct this reintroduction as promptly as possible, striving for paws on the ground within the next 1-2 years.”

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I’m not as well versed on wolverines since they’re not a species I’ve dealt with here, but this document puts on display the audacity of the administration when it comes to making decisions legislatively rather than looking to wildlife management experts to manage wildlife.

This pattern continues in the document as the administration outlines plans to add bag limits on furbearers and to curtail trapping. Further, “the Governor is also supportive of ending fur trapping altogether.”

The species I am quite familiar with, prairie dogs, is also listed as a species that should receive conservation through legislative and regulatory actions. The administration outlines the protections necessary for prairie dogs, including repealing statutory translocation restrictions which require county approval. My part of the state will receive the short end of this stick. The administration also plans to partner with the Colorado Department of Agriculture and State Land Board to “reform laws and regulations that focus on lethal control rather than conservation.” The CDA currently defines prairie dogs accurately as “destructive rodent pests,” a definition the administration wants removed from prairie dogs so the administration can end the currently required prairie dog control on state lease property.

The administration also spells out the governor’s desire to protect black bear and mountain lions. This was certainly a topic at the most recent CPW commission when some commissioners sought to raise bear tags to the highest amount allowed by statute. It prices hunters right out of the state, though the detriment to the billion-dollar hunting industry, CPW funding from licenses and the small communities who capitalize on those hunting dollars goes unmentioned.

Finally, no list of enviro priorities is complete without mention of the lesser prairie chicken, Gunnison sage-grouse, and Greater sage-grouse. “The Governor remains focused on ensuring paths forward for protecting wildlife habitats, while at the same time wildlife issues are not used as a NIMBY tool for needed renewable energy generation.”

This list of priorities again fails to take into account stakeholder input and keeps the agriculture and hunting industries solidly stationed as the red-headed stepchildren expected to foot the bill.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.