Next week’s Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting in La Junta is likely to open under the cloud of threatened legal action.

Safari Club International and the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation warned the commission this month that its July vote imposing a two-bag limit on furbearers may have violated Colorado’s Administrative Procedures Act.

In a letter to commissioners, the groups said the public received no notice that such a low limit would be considered and that neither the two-bag proposal nor the study that allegedly justified it appeared on the July agenda.

They argued that the state Supreme Court has made clear that agencies must comply with notice-and-comment requirements before adopting binding rules, and that the commission’s vote is therefore invalid.

The groups also said the public was allowed to comment only on higher limits — four, eight or 15 — and that Commissioner Rebecca Niemiec introduced her two-bag proposal only after the comment period had closed.

Her motion did not include reopening public comment. The letter criticized Niemiec for relying on “her own social and moral judgments” and asked the commission to postpone implementation and reconsider the vote with proper notice.

No such notice appears on the Sept. 2 and Sept. 3 agenda, though commissioners plan an executive session with attorneys to discuss the letter.

The two-bag limit is scheduled to take effect Sept. 1.

The dispute stems from the commission’s July 16 vote, which narrowly approved the lower limit on mink, pine marten, badger, red fox, gray fox, swift fox, Western spotted skunk, striped skunk, beaver, muskrat, long-tailed weasel, short-tailed weasel, bobcat, opossum, ring-tailed cat, raccoon and coyote.

Staff had initially recommended a 15-bag limit last March, but commissioners asked for a smaller number. For the July meetings, staff returned with species-specific limits of four or eight, while noting that current harvest estimates were conservative, sustainable and consistent with scientific literature.

CPW also explained that population abundance estimates for small species are rarely generated because they are costly, quickly outdated and of limited utility.

Animals assigned an eight-bag limit included badger, bobcat, beaver, coyote, muskrat, striped skunk, Western spotted skunk, raccoon and red fox. Mink, opossum, pine marten, ring‑tailed cat, gray fox, swift fox, long-tailed weasel and short-tailed weasel were placed under a four-bag limit.

More than four hours into the July 16 discussion, Niemiec, a new commissioner who has not yet been confirmed by the Senate, introduced a non-peer-reviewed study she wrote and published the day before the meeting.

The survey of 534 paid online participants indicated support for a limit of zero to two animals. Niemiec had not shared the study with CPW staff beforehand.

She told commissioners the lower limit would “make people feel better” about hunting.

Niemiec is an assistant professor at Colorado State University and co-director of the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence and Animal-Human Policy Center.

She was nominated by Gov. Jared Polis in June and previously supported Proposition 127, the failed 2024 ballot measure to ban trophy hunting and trapping of mountain lions, bobcats and lynx.

That fight, along with Polis’ appointments and recent legislative actions, helped drive Proposition 302, the measure to add hunting and fishing protections to the state constitution. It qualified for the November ballot last week.

The commission’s two-day meeting begins at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 2, in the Rizzuto Banquet Room at Otero College’s student center in La Junta.