Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioner Jessica Beaulieu told the Commission she read the public comments submitted prior to last Thursday’s meeting and wanted to clarify she and Commissioner Jack Murphy did not communicate about writing the op-ed that appeared in papers across the state in support of a measure to ban mountain lion hunting. She said she did not email, call or participate in virtual meetings with Commissioner Murphy concerning the development of the oped and apologized for breaking the rules of communication set forth for the commission.

Commissioner Murphy echoed Beaulieu and said, “we simply signed off on a letter” and “not one single word was written by either of us.”

This begs the question of who the hell penned the piece and who asserts so much control over these two commissioners that they would merely sign off on a piece for wide publication.

It’s frustrating the two commissioners have a total disregard for their positions and the rules they are required to follow and there will be no recourse. It’s frustrating they don’t appear to support the wildlife professionals within CPW. And it’s frustrating they don’t appear to support the North American Model of Wildlife Management. The two Polis appointees don’t seem to have gleaned anything from a brutal day before the Senate Ag Committee and a narrow Senate confirmation. The commissioners are appointed to represent their stakeholders, hopefully Beaulieu has met a few by now, and not special-interest groups.

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Agriculture, rural communities and the hunting and angling community weren’t caught flat footed by the proposition seeking to ban mountain lion hunting. It’s one of the lessons learned from the narrow passage of Proposition 114 which mandated the release of wolves. Voters, it appears, also took note of the beleaguered wolf program and did not turn out to pass the ban pushed by Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATS).

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has closely adhered to Prop 114 on their answers to multiple requests, including an October request to pause the scheduled December release of more wolves, by Colorado Counties Inc., which represents 63 of 64 Colorado counties and was passed unanimously. The mantra has been the will of the people is to reintroduce wolves and manage them for a sustainable population.

After a decisive loss to common sense, science-based wildlife management, and actual expertise, the CATS folks are eyeing the CPW Commission and the Eastern Slope Lion Management Plan. Apparently adhering to the will of the people only holds water when it goes the way of activists.

The management plan has been guided by the experts at CPW and through the stakeholder process. CATS are encouraging their supporters to google the location of Lamar and show up to high-jack the discussion and vote to pass the management plan.

My assumption and hope is the Commission members will take note of the ballot results in which Colorado opposed plucking the management of lions from the experts within the agency and hand it to the likes of Carole Baskin and her cool cats and kittens. My assumption is the Commission will show the CPW staff they support the work they’re doing.

Colorado had a taste of what lion management in California looks like on Nov. 8 when law enforcement shot a mountain lion at an elementary school in Greeley, of all places. Prior to that report, a Boulder County man rescued his French bulldog from a mountain lion. In early October, a Canon City-area man killed a lion with a shovel after it wandered near his camper. Things like this will continue to happen in a state with 6 million people encroaching on wild spaces, but if given a choice between a lion taken by a hunter or shot by CPW or law enforcement out of necessity, I’ll always choose the hunter.

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.