Nicole Rosmarino, the sole finalist to become the next executive director of the Colorado State Land Board, is drawing concern from ranchers and lawmakers due to her history of views perceived as anti-agriculture.

With 30 years of experience advocating for the restoration of agricultural land to native prairie, Rosmarino is expected to be confirmed by the board on Thursday.

Rosmarino refused to provide a comment to Colorado Politics ahead of Thursday’s meeting. 

Sources told Colorado Politics that other candidates were “rejected” to ensure Rosmarino would receive the position.

The Colorado State Land Board, part of the Department of Natural Resources, has a history of sending $2 billion to schools through the state’s Building Excellent Schools Today program.

Behind the Department of Education, the land board is the state’s second-largest landowner, controlling leases for 2.8 million surface acres and four million mineral-estate acres, with 98% of the surface land leased for agricultural use.

Colorado agriculture is among the largest funders of public school capital improvements.

Rosmarino is the founder of the Southern Plains Land Trust in Bent County, referred to as the “American Serengeti” on its website. The group’s mission is to purchase land and restore it to shortgrass prairie as a means of restoring habitat, primarily in southeastern Colorado, which is predominantly agricultural land.

On its website, the Southern Plains Land Trust (SPLT) noted it removes “human-made structures of our land that serve as a high perch for potential predators, such as birds of prey. These structures, such as electricity poles and cattle corrals, do not belong in a natural habitat, as grasslands are open and flat. All grassland birds profit from not having this extra anthropogenically created pressure.”

The group’s Instagram page went further.

“Cows be gone!” said one post from April 2024. “We only allow native grazers. Follow our struggle to keep neighbouring cows out of our preserves.” 

The SPLT currently owns about 60,000 acres on three preserves in Bent and Prowers counties.

Before founding the SPLT, Rosmarino served as the wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians. Jay Tuchton, now the preserve manager for the Southern Plains Land Trust, was its general counsel. He is also now a commissioner with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, which partners with the land trust, including funding activities that the land trust manages, according to the trust’s 2024 annual report.

WildEarth Guardians is a member of the coalition backing wolf reintroduction in Colorado.

For the past several years, Rosmarino has been the governor’s policy advisor for Wildlife, Agriculture, and Rural Economic Development. She’s also a board member of The Rewilding Institute’s Rewilding Leadership Council.

Rewilding is, according to one source, “letting nature run its course” on land cultivated by humans. “This includes the reintroduction of species that have been driven away from the area by human activity or become locally extinct.”

In a 2018 piece on the Rewilding Institute website, Rosmarino wrote, “We cannot depend on public lands in the southern Great Plains to preserve biodiversity, as they are broadly utilized for livestock grazing and energy development, 90% of the land within our region is private, and the wildlife is often heavily hunted on public and private lands alike. Large-scale private refuges are vital to prevent the conversion of native grasslands to crop agriculture, energy development, and other land uses that would irreversibly alter shortgrass prairie plant communities.”

Rosmarino’s advocacy for rewilding has raised concerns for the agricultural industry and lawmakers.

The legislature’s 17-member rural caucus, which includes House Speaker Julie McCluskie, penned a letter to the governor and the state land board with their concerns late last month.

The lawmakesr said they had spoken to Rosmarino and expressed their concerns about the “apparent disconnect” between the goals of SPLT and The Rewilding Institute, and the foundational mission of the land board.

Rosmarino, the caucus added in the leter, “assured us that she values the work of Colorado’s agricultural producers and recognizes the essential role that livestock grazing plays in sustainable land management.” She also committed to uphold the mission of the land board, and to be transparent, foster open dialogue and collaborate with all stakeholders, the caucus said.

The signatories, who included McCluskie, state Sens. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, and Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, and Assistant Senate Minority Leader Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, said they intend to hold her to those promises.

“We expect Colorado’s agricultural producers to remain central to the use and stewardship of our state trust lands. Any shift toward ideological land management at the expense of proven partnerships would be a disservice to the land, our rural communities, and the school trust itself,” they warned.

Rosmarino’s past before SPLT has also raised eyebrows.

Rosmarino served as the wildlife coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Animal Defense Project while pursuing her doctoral degree at CU-Boulder. Among the group’s volunteers was Jennifer Kolar, later with the Earth Liberation Front, who was convicted of conspiracy, arson, and bomb charges related to an attack at the University of Washington in 2001. She was sentenced to five years in prison.

According to the Justice Department, the UW fire bombing was one of a string of 17 arsons across the west by the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. The arson spree resulted in tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Those arson attacks included the 1998 Vail Mountain attack.

According to a 1999 report by Mother Jones, Rosmarino called the Vail arson “one of the most beautiful acts of economic sabotage ever in this state.” She she was “jumping up and down with delight” when she heard the news and called the ELF arsonists “heroes.”

For now, the agriculture community appears to be taking a “watch and see” attitude about Rosmarino.

Tyler Garrett, government relations manager for Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, was part of a group that recently spoke with Rosmarino, including challenging her on some of her previous statements regarding agriculture.

According to Garrett, she responded that it isn’t who she is today, despite some of those comments being as recent as seven years ago. She was asked about the priority of the state land board for agriculture, and she acknowledged that the most essential leases are for agricultural use.

“We know she’s likely to get the position,” Garrett said. “We were pleased with her honesty and straightforwardness and willingness to engage. We’re willing to work with her, but will be vigilant to make sure she adheres to the state land board mission and protecting agriculture.”

Carlye Currier, president of Colorado Farm Bureau, told Colorado Politics the group is very concerned.

“Ag is very dependent on those state lands,” with some leases going back generations. “We don’t really know what it means when you appoint somebody to be over the state land board that has a different agenda than protecting agriculture and using those lands to raise money for the schools. We have more questions than answers at this point.”

Her history, including her involvement in the rewilding movement, suggests to him that her agenda is certainly not agriculture, Currier said. The era of going back to the plains is past and it will never come back, he said.

“You won’t get rid of (ag) because people need to eat,” he added.

Erin Karney, the executive director of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, said there is a lot of concern throughout the agricultural community about ensuring grazing lessees have certainty in their state land leases. Those leases are an integral part of their operations, Karney noted.

“When you mess with the land, you’re messing with the livelihood of producers. That’s why there’s been such a strong response to this pick,” she said. 

Rosmarino’s prior comments raise a red flag, Karney said.

“People are allowed to change their views, but everything going on in this state right now is a signal that this administration doesn’t support ag. This just adds one more thing to the list,” she said.

It raises the question of whether agriculture is important to this administration, Karney said.

While she couldn’t speak in support of Rosmarino’s pick as state land board director, former Bent County Commissioner Kim MacDonnell, who spoke to Colorado Politics at the request of the governor’s office, said she’s seen the work Rosmarino has done for the Southern Plains Land Trust preserve in Bent County.

“The work at the land trust is ag-based,” she said.

The group is committed to good land management and good practices, and worked to repair riparian habitats, MacDonnell said. 

Those practices weren’t the most conventional for agriculture, but the group didn’t push anyone to do it their way either, MacDonnell said. 

The land trust grazes bison, cattle and horses, she said.

“My interactions with her have always been good, and they’ve improved what they’ve touched,” which even includes restoring an abandoned school, she said. 

Then there’s the state land board itself.

In April, Gov. Jared Polis appointed Jim Pribyl of Louisville and Mark Harvey of Basalt to the state land board. The Senate confirmed both on May 2.

Pribyl has a history with Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Twice, including late last year, he was responsible for violations of the state’s open meetings law involving the CPW commission. Last year, he penned an op-ed in support of Proposition 129, the measure aimed at prohibiting trophy hunting of mountain lions, bobcats and lynx, and persuaded two current CPW commissioners to sign on. That appeared to violate the open meetings law, as current commissioners are not supposed to meet outside of public hearings.

Both Jessica Beaulieu and Jack Murphy denied having met to work on the op-ed, but CPW settled out of court with hunting groups that sued over the alleged violation.

Trophy hunting has been banned under state law for decades. Lynx are a protected species under the Endangered Species Act.

Voters rejected the measure.

Harvey is a rancher. A check of agriculture leases did not show he held any. He is also a winemaker and president of the board of Ecoflight, which advocates for wildlands, watersheds, and “culturally important landscapes.”

There have also been concerns raised, including last year, that grazing leases held by ranchers opposed to the wolf reintroduction could be in danger, a claim the land board has denied. Nearly 200 leases throughout the state, primarily for grazing, are set to expire later this year and in the first quarter of 2026.

That includes a lease held by the Southern Plains Land Trust. Rosmarino is listed as the leaseholder for 640 acres.