The Department of Natural Resources announced Monday that Laura Clellan, who is currently serving as acting director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, is the only finalist for the job.

Clellan has been acting director of CPW since Nov. 25, when she replaced Jeff Davis, who served as the agency’s director for just over two years.

Davis was terminated weeks after failing to persuade Washington state’s wildlife commissioners to grant Colorado wolves for its relocation program.

The Washington group voted, 8-1, to deny Colorado the wolves, in part because of public worries that Colorado is “failing” the wolves in the reintroduction program. Of the 25 wolves brought to Colorado from Oregon and British Columbia, 12 have died since late 2024.

Clellan, a retired Army major general, also retired on Oct. 18 from the Colorado Department of Veterans and Military Affairs.

Davis has since been hired by Wyoming’s Game and Fish Department as deputy director, a position he began on Feb. 2.

Clellan’s pending appointment has drawn praise from parts of the wildlife community that were, at times, critical of Davis.

Gaspar Perricone, a former CPW commissioner who chairs the Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project, participated in the evaluation process.

“Trying times call for steady heads, and Director Clellan has provided them,” Perricone told Colorado Politics. “Her leadership as acting director has courted the respect of the sportsmen community as well as CPW staff. We are pleased to see her remain at the helm and look forward to working with her into the future.”

Dan Gates, who chairs Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management, also a sportsmen’s group, told Colorado Politics that with Clellan’s selection, sportsmen and women should feel, based on her first two months as acting director, “we’re getting an individual deeply interested in sportsmen and women issues, will maintain the integrity of the agency while adhering to the statutory mission and doing what’s best for all of the wildlife resources” and to the people of Colorado and its visitors.

Gates said her previous career makes her well-suited for an agency of this size and even larger, and that she can make the appropriate decisions when they need to be made.

Polis’ decision continues to raise questions among lawmakers about just who makes the call.

State law (CRS 33-9-103) says that the commission, with the consent of the executive director of the Department of Natural Resources, shall appoint the director.

The commission held a special meeting on Feb. 2 to conduct confidential interviews of candidates in executive session and to obtain legal advice on the commission’s role in appointing the director.

Once the executive session ended, the commission, which had four candidates, voted to express an opinion that a new candidate, a fifth, was their top choice. No candidate was identified by name.

But the commission’s decision wasn’t unanimous. Two commissioners did not want to express a preference and left it to the final interviews.

That Feb. 2 meeting came about 10 days after lawmakers grilled the Department of Natural Resources head, Dan Gibbs, on just who is making decisions about the next director.

During the Jan. 23 oversight hearing in the joint House and Senate agriculture committees, Sen. Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, asked just how involved the governor is in selecting a new director.

There have been many questions about the process, Gibbs told the committees. More than 100 people have applied for the position, and Gibbs said he and Commission Chair Richard Reading whittled that list down to five. The commission would then make a recommendation to Gibbs.

That’s where Gov. Polis comes in, Gibbs indicated. The position is part of the Senior Executive Service in state government, a type of senior management position. The governor is always involved in decisions, Gibbs explained. “So he’ll also be part of the interview process at the end,” he added.

Pelton responded that CPW is a Type 1 commission, meaning it exercises statutory duties, including rule-making, independent of the executive director. “There is not supposed to be any political interference from any political office. That is political interference,” he told Gibbs.

Gibbs said that’s the process that has been followed during his time at the Department of Natural Resources. “This is the process that everyone has agreed to … what we’ve all agreed to. This is how we’re moving forward with the process.”

Gibbs also later admitted, after a question from Sen. Marc Catlin, R-Montrose, that the governor had reviewed resumes for more than just the five finalists.

But “it’ll be my determination as well as CPW’s determination on the next director,” Gibbs said.

The CPW commission is scheduled to vote on Clellan’s appointment on Feb. 23.