The three appointees of Gov. Jared Polis to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission faced the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday. It was as fiery as I could have anticipated and, with the committee sending Gary Skiba and Jessica Beaulieu to the full Senate, saddled with an unfavorable recommendation. Jack Murphy goes to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation by the skin of his teeth.

Colorado Politics reporter Marianne Goodland’s coverage of the hearing is more comprehensive than can be found anywhere else and she detailed the concerns about the three appointees the agricultural, rural, hunting, angling and other reasonable groups have brought to the surface.

Committee chair Dylan Roberts, D-Summit County, whose district has disproportionately been affected by the recent wolf release and chronic depredation in the North Park area, voted with his constituents and against Skiba and Beaulieu.

According to Goodland’s reporting over the past eight months, Beaulieu is an environmental lawyer and formerly with the Center for Biological Diversity, which works to protect endangered species. Skiba, a former CPW biologist, was previously associated with Defenders of Wildlife, which called him “the primary author of Colorado’s wolf conservation plan” in a lawsuit filed against the state of California in 2021, along with the Center for Biological Diversity.

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Skiba certainly faced the toughest questions from the committee, bringing out the best parts of Roberts’s career experience as a deputy district attorney for Eagle County. It was fantastic to witness. The nominees were all questioned about whether they believe in the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, which has made possible the management and recovery of species in the state, their backgrounds, their experience and how they learned of the open seats on the commission.

Beaulieu particularly struggled with the questions posed to her, unable to name state parks outside the immediate Front Range she had visited prior to her nomination; admitting that, as a state parks representative, she’s never purchased a state parks pass; and potentially more damning, admitting she had to ask Department of Natural Resources leadership which stakeholders she ought to be introducing herself to.

I agree with Roberts’s assessment having knowledge of the stakeholders a commissioner is tasked with representing is a prerequisite to nomination.

CPW Director Jeff Davis continued to apologize and assure members of the committee he is actively attempting to mend the fences CPW shares with agriculture producers, particularly the ranchers affected by wolves in the state.

The lack of a reasonable definition of chronic depredation, the condition Davis ruled wasn’t a factor in the 20-some depredation events by two wolves in the North Park area when he denied rancher Don Gittleson’s request to remove those two wolves, also surfaced.

Most ranchers in wolf country are mere weeks away from calving season, which is similar to tax season for accountants, the playoffs for a coach and the Christmas season for retailers. It is a particularly precarious time to enter without that certainty that was promised. It’s also reckless to force ranchers, who are allowed, if only on paper, to defend their livestock during an attack to face that possibility any longer without clarification of the legality of shooting an attacking wolf at night or by the light of a pickup or spotlight. It sounds to me like an avenue to make a felon out of a rancher who thought he was adhering to the law, no matter how unlikely the scenario of catching a wolf in the act is.

The three nominees now face the full Senate and I’m not privy to how the votes will be tallied when the dust settles. I’m imploring readers — the most reasonable and realistic among readers, who are also unwilling to allow CPW commissioners who don’t represent those they are tasked to represent, to be confirmed — to speak up. There are many senators across the state who should vote against Skiba and Beaulieu to represent their constituents rather than their caucus. Those constituents, of course, must contact their senators and urge them to adhere to the recommendations of the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Please.

If the Senate votes against the recommendations of the committee who is the most familiar with the ins and outs of CPW and the rural communities that were shackled with wolves by Front Range voters, it’s another nail in CPW’s coffin. I truly believe if the question of wolf reintroduction went before voters today, especially knowing what is now known, it would fail. This is a shining opportunity for Front Range voters to refuse to, again, throw rural Colorado to the wolves.

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.