Colorado’s largest coalition of hunters, anglers, and wildlife conservation groups is urging state lawmakers to reject two of Gov. Jared Polis’ latest nominees to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, setting up a contentious confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee next week.

Gaspar Perricone, speaking for the Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project, told Colorado Politics on Friday that Colorado’s hunting, angling, and wildlife conservation community “is calling for greater balance and more authentic representation on the CPW Commission.” He said the majority of current commissioners “have sought radical reform to the agency’s culture and values,” which he argued has come at the expense of hunters, anglers, science‑based wildlife management, and the agency itself.

The three appointees are John Emerick of Redstone, Frances Silva Blayney of Colorado Springs and Christopher Sichko of Boulder.

Emerick was appointed in July as a member-at-large. Blayney, also appointed in July, is designated to represent outfitters, and Sichko, appointed in February, is designated to represent hunters and anglers in the sportsmen’s seat.

Those designations are set in state law.

Emerick is treasurer of Colorado Wild, one of the state’s wolf advocacy groups. He is also tied to the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, the main backer of Proposition 114, which led efforts to bring the state’s wolf reintroduction program through a ballot initiative in 2024.

The president of Colorado Wild is Emerick’s partner, Delia Malone, who is also the wildlife chair for the Colorado Sierra Club and a frequent attendee at Colorado Parks and Wildlife commission meetings, where she advocates for wolves and against hunting.

A letter sent Thursday by the Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project outlined its objections to the nominations of Emerick and Sichko.

The coalition noted that Emerick signed a citizen petition urging the commission to reduce compensation for wolf depredation and to require preventative measures before producers could qualify for payments — a position the group said conflicts with the state’s wolf management plan.

Emerick has never recused himself from CPW votes on the issue, nor has he disclosed what the coalition calls potential conflicts of interest, the letter stated.

Longtime outfitters, including the president of the state outfitting association, said at the time of Blayney’s appointment that they had never heard of her.

She replaced Marie Haskett, a third‑generation outfitter who served two terms on the commission and was praised in her final meeting for her advocacy on behalf of Western Slope outfitters and ranchers.

Sichko was appointed to represent hunters and anglers, but the letter sent to lawmakers ahead of next week’s hearing said he lacks that experience.

The coalition noted that it submitted recommendations to the governor for the sportsmen’s seat, calling for “experienced, knowledgeable big-game hunters.”

That matters, the coalition wrote, because hunting funds 85% of CPW’s wildlife budget. Those funds also support CPW partnerships, some of which have been put into jeopardy because of the mismanagement of the wolf reintroduction program and the consequences of relocating wolves into counties where ranching is big business and where more than five dozen livestock have been killed by wolves in the past two years.

Sichko does not currently possess the depth of experience or knowledge required to represent the hunting community effectively, the coalition wrote.

That’s been a frequent complaint about the majority of people Gov. Polis has chosen in recent years to serve on the commission.

In 2024, the Senate Agriculture Committee recommended against appointing Jessica Beaulieu to represent state parks and Gary Skiba to represent sportspersons.

During the committee hearing, Beaulieu admitted she’d never held a state parks pass and had visited only a few state parks in the Front Range prior to her nomination. There are 42 state parks in Colorado.

She also could not say how she found out about the commission opening, but at the time, she was a volunteer at an animal sanctuary where Marlon Reis, Polis’ husband, served as an honorary board member. She also admitted she had asked for help in figuring out who her constituents were.

Skiba was previously associated with Defenders of Wildlife, which described him as “the primary author of Colorado’s wolf conservation plan” in a 2021 lawsuit filed against the state of California.

Both nominations were rejected by the Senate Agriculture Committee. Beaulieu was later confirmed by the full Senate, while Skiba withdrew his nomination.

The coalition wrote that since taking office in 2019, the Polis administration “has sought a shift in Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s culture and values” by appointing commissioners with “extreme animal‑rights and anti‑hunting agendas.”

The group said those appointments have led to decisions that conflict with science‑based wildlife management, broader conservation efforts and collaborative stakeholder involvement central to CPW’s mission.

That includes allegations of Reis’s interference in the wolf program.

In his announcement of Blayney and Emerick’s nominations, the governor said he was excited to appoint “two well-qualified Coloradans who will bring people together and bridge divides…Together, these appointments will help bring down the temperature and move away from any politicization of this board.”

Emerick and Blayney’s terms expire July 1, 2029. Sichko, who replaced Murphy Robinson, is serving a term that ends July 1, 2027.

Three commissioners have terms expiring this year: chair Richard Reading, Eden Vardy (term‑limited), and Gabriel Otero.