Urbanites who enjoy America’s playground can thank 36,000 rural landowners for managing and preserving landscapes that make Colorado an ethereal land of awe.

Coloradans who leave the city to hunt, fish, hike, bike, climb, bird watch, camp, stargaze or enjoy countless other outdoor activities can thank rural property owners for voluntarily opening more than 2 million acres of Colorado for public use. The public use of private land is officially coordinated through the Private Land Program of the Colorado Parks & Wildlife service.

“Without private landowners’ support, modern-day Colorado’s remarkable wildlife abundance – and equally rich hunting and fishing opportunities – simply would not exist,” explains the state’s Private Land Program website.

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The open gates offered to visitors might slam shut if Colorado’s urban-rural cultural and political divide continues to grow.

The sociopolitical force of Colorado’s rapidly growing urban Front Range increasingly alienates those who live in, manage and protect the rural frontier. Colorado’s urban culture and electorate have demonized and regulated rural traditions and practices with the grace of a neighborhood bully with a size advantage.

Colorado’s farmers, ranchers and miners have endured a decade of Front Range politicians and voters jeopardizing traditional farming, ranching and mining endeavors.

Legislators and Gov. Jared Polis want to end new oil, gas and coal production and the rural jobs they provide. They plan to outlaw common guns rural residents use to protect their families and investments. They want a world without meat. They want farmers to use electric tractors, combines and pickups.

The most symbolic, in-your-face attack on rural culture came when urban residents voted to release wolves. Not on themselves, but on people they only see on sightseeing trips.

As ordered by voters, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials began releasing wolves in December. Just as farmers and ranchers feared, the wolves kill livestock. As the wolves reproduce, more rural residents will lose more livestock and pets. God forbid, they don’t harm a child.

After a wolf killed a calf near Kremmling this month, the Yuma County Cattlemen’s Association drafted a letter that said farmers and ranchers might stop cooperating with Colorado Parks & Wildlife’s Private Land Program.

“It’s been quiet, but depredation has begun,” said Parks & Wildlife Commissioner Marie Haskett at a Friday meeting.

“I would like to ask people not to blame CPW for the wolf depredations. What we did was mandated (by law).”

Members of the Cattleman’s Association complain they can’t get the agency to define “chronic depredation” – the level of predation that legally justifies lethal force against predatory wolves. They blame Parks & Wildlife officials for acquiring and releasing wolves from packs known to prey on livestock.

Rural property owners are within their rights to withdraw from participation in the Private Land Program and countless handshake agreements that allow public use of private land. No property owner has an obligation to provide recreation space and scenery to strangers.

Rural Coloradans have embraced hospitality as a virtue for generations. They have generously allowed hunting, fishing, skiing, snowshoeing and other recreational activities on their properties – all out of kindness and tolerance.

They have been thanked with apex predators and a slate of anti-energy, anti-agriculture legislation, rhetoric and sentiment that threatens their lifestyles, livelihoods and traditions. They have every reason to enforce boundaries and slam shut the gates when their urban neighbors come asking for favors.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board