Much of the land around Vail that is now developed as resorts, ski slopes and golf courses first belonged to sheep ranchers with Greek roots. By the 1960s, development was pushing them out of the valley and activists were bemoaning the negative effect on wildlife that took place when livestock grazing was replaced by progress.

In 1998, Vail Resorts was on the cusp of developing 2,200 acres of backcountry. The plan riled activists, especially those devoted to preserving the habitat of elk and Canada Lynx that thrived before development came to town.

Members of the radical Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and the now defunct-Rocky Mountain Animal Defense (RMAD) marched and chanted through Vail with police on their tails, wielding decibel meters. According to 1998 reporting by Alex Markels, RMAD activists spotted a woman emerging from a fur salon wearing a mink coat and an altercation ensued. An RMAD member told the woman, “You’d look a lot sexier without 65 dead animals on your back!”

Nicole Rosmarino, the sole finalist for the director of the Colorado State Land Board job, was a University of Colorado grad student at the time and the wildlife coordinator for RMAD. She told the reporter she was one of the new breed of animal and environmental rights activists and said she had “absolute adoration, even quasi worship, for wildlife.” She, too, marched the streets of Vail and during and after the fur coat altercation, and reportedly refused to calm the other activist involved. She told a reporter she had “no problem with RMAD activists telling that lady off. That’s why the lynx are in the shape they’re in. And I’m disappointed in environmentalists who can’t see that.”

The fight to block the expansion continued until October 19 when daylight exposed the ground scorched by arsonists to the tune of more than $12 million in damages. Four ski lifts were damaged and the ski patrol headquarters and the $5 million Two Elk Lodge were no more than ashes. Two days later, federal officials received an email: “Putting profits ahead of Colorado’s wildlife will not be tolerated. This action is just a warning. We will be back if this greedy corporation continues to trespass into wild and unroaded areas. For your safety and convenience, we strongly advise skiers to choose other destinations until Vail cancels its inexcusable plans for expansion.”

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ELF claimed responsibility for what was called the most destructive act of environmental sabotage in U.S. history. It was the same group that claimed responsibility for the 1997 and 1998 attacks including the burning of a corral in Oregon used to round up and load feral horses for slaughter and the arson of a U.S. Department of Agriculture building where wild animals were reportedly euthanized.

Rosmarino called the Vail arson “one of the most beautiful acts of economic sabotage ever in this state,” and told the reporter she was, “jumping up and down with delight.” According to Markels’ reporting, Rosmarino called the arsonists heroes.

“This was not terrorism — it was economic sabotage. And it did more for the cause than anything that came before it!” Rosmarino said. “The reaction from those who purport to speak for wildlife is really a reaction of fear. If they don’t have the courage to light the match, that’s fine. But to attack those who did is sheer hypocrisy.”

Perhaps Rosmarino has mellowed since she cheered the criminal actions of domestic terrorists. That’s the same year she founded Southern Plains Land Trust (SPLT) to create shortgrass prairie preserves to remove cattle, hunting, oil and gas, and row cropping from otherwise productive land to be replaced by prairie dogs and bison. Given her founding of SPLT that year, I can’t imagine anyone can claim she has changed idealistically since those damning comments were made.

Proponents of HB25-1332, State Trust Lands Conservation and Recreation Work Group, coincidentally, tell me they were neither aware of Rosmarino’s potential post nor should there be connections drawn between this decision and their bill, now law.

HB25-1332 creates a work group with no statutory power to study opportunities to advance conservation and recreation all while adhering to the State Land Board’s mission to manage trust lands for the benefit of public schools. This doesn’t change the uses of trust lands nor was the bill’s intention to pave the way for an extremist to be handed the keys to the kingdom.

This appointment should raise the proverbial hackles of every hunter in the state, every family that depends upon oil and gas, every person who recreates, consumers, stakeholders of public schools, and agriculture producers on both sides of the state. The State Land Board’s next public meeting is June 11 and 12 in Denver. The members of the board will decide upon Rosmarino’s appointment.

In April, two new SLB members were confirmed, James Pribyl, citizen-at-large representative, and Mark Harvey, production agriculture representative.

Pribyl is a former Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioner, and he signed the letter also signed by current Commissioners Jessica Beaulieu and Jack Murphy supporting a ballot measure to criminalize mountain lion hunting. The letter was the impetus for a suit and settlement reached by the state with Safari Club and the Sportsmen’s Alliance for violating open meetings laws. His disregard for open meetings laws as a CPW commissioner and his connection with Cats Aren’t Trophies (CATS), who allegedly penned the letter for the three signors, offers little hope Pribyl will act on the SLB with a heart for prioritizing agriculture and recreation, including hunting.

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.