Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials have apologized for the lack of transparency and communication with local officials and ranchers about the wolf release. They have promised to mend the proverbial fences. They have been made aware private gates have been closed to them. They have sat through SMART Act hearings where legislators grilled them.

Apologies and assurances mean nothing so long as no one is willing to stand against Gov. Jared Polis’s extremist appointees and demand special interests not be given free rein. Jessica Beaulieu, Gary Skiba and Jack Murphy, the governor’s three most recent CPW Commission appointees who have not yet received Senate confirmation, ought not be confirmed by the full Senate.

Voting against this confirmation is a small step that carries a huge message. If voters are unwilling to draw a line in the sand and refuse to allow the governor to run roughshod, packing commissions like CPW with those willing to push agendas favored by environmental groups, the special-interest crowd will remain emboldened.

Voters must stand up for the continued use of public lands as intended and defined by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA). Multiple-use lands are to be managed for sustained yield and multiple uses. There’s little doubt in my mind criminalizing hunting on public lands in Colorado is the endgame for the noisy minority. CPW is funded primarily by license fees. It doesn’t pencil.

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Voters must stand up for wildlife management aligned with the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. When the next case of ballot-box biology comes about — misguided mountain lion hunting bans, for example — CPW must be allowed to clearly communicate the advantages and consequences of the question left to voters.

Legislators and stakeholders must tell the Polis administration they are no longer willing to allow him to pack commissions with cronies who share an agenda that flies in the face of the purpose and mission of those commissions. On the CPW Commission alone, there are ties that bind and, left unraveled, they’ll eventually bind the hands of stakeholders.

Jay Tutchton, a Polis appointee to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission representing Outdoor Recreation, Parks Utilization and Nonconsumptive Wildlife, was previously an attorney for EARTHLAW that represented groups including Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, Wild Earth Guardians, Friends of the Earth, and others. He was also the director of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law.

Tutchton works at the Southern Plains Land Trust which was founded by current executive director Nicole Rosmarino. She was previously a scientist (Wildlife Program Director) with Wild Earth Guardians and is the governor’s office’s policy advisor for wildlife, agriculture and rural economic development.

SPLT has received $1.3 million in funds from lottery proceeds via Great Outdoors Colorado. CPW Commission Chair Dallas May’s wife, Brenda, is a member of the GOCO board, as is Tutchton.

According to reporting by Marianne Goodland in Colorado Politics, Gary Skiba, the appointee for the sportsperson’s spot on the commission, is a former wildlife biologist for the Department of Wildlife (the predecessor to CPW) who has close ties to organizations that sponsored the wolf ballot measure in 2020.

According to Goodland, Skiba is not well-known as a sportsman, hunter or angler. He is more prominently known as the author of the effort to bring wolves to Colorado. Skiba is a member of Defenders of Wildlife and was named plaintiff in a 2021 lawsuit against the state of California in its efforts to delist the gray wolves in that state. A filing by the plaintiffs pointed out Skiba was “the primary author of Colorado’s wolf compensation plan.

Jack Murphy, who was appointed at the same time as Skiba and Beaulieu, is the co-founder and president of Urban Wildlife Rescue. According to Goodland’s reporting, Beaulieu and Murphy were named as representatives of outdoor recreation and parks utilization, though “neither appears to have any background in recreation or wildlife management, a core mission of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.”

According to Beaulieu’s biography on the website maintained by Animal Welfare Association of Colorado, she manages the University of Denver’s Animal Law program. Previously, she was a fellow at the Center for Biological Diversity. Beaulieu is a volunteer at Luvin Arms Sanctuary where First Gentleman Marlon Reis is an honorary board member.

Rich Reading is married to Defenders of Wildlife’s Lauren McCain. McCain was appointed by Polis to the Colorado Wildlife Habitat Stamp Committee, tasked with reviewing proposed projects for expenditure of Colorado wildlife habitat stamp funds and making recommendations to the wildlife commission. Reading’s wildlife photography has been featured in documents circulated by SPLT and he has been a professional source in articles distributed by Wild Earth Guardians. Reading is also the vice president of science and conservation of the Butterfly Pavilion. First Gentleman Marlon Reis was named an honorary board chair of the Butterfly Pavilion in 2022.

Enough apologies. It’s time to be clear with Gov. Polis, who appears to be the man behind the curtain in Oz. Enough.

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.