CPW Commissioners’ personal opinion piece draws fire
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioners Jessica Beaulieu and Jack Murphy wrote an opinion piece published in the Durango Herald urging a vote to ban mountain lion and bobcat hunting.
According to CPW policy, the commission should speak to all constituency groups with a single voice to successfully carry out its communications function for the benefit of the division and the public it serves. Policy also dictates that individual commission members who speak for themselves will clearly establish that they are not speaking for the commission.
The first line of Beaulieu and Murphy’s letter reads: “We are current and former Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners, which is the body that sets wildlife policy, including a former chair, and we encourage a “yes” vote on Proposition 127.” The former commissioner the letter refers to is James Pribyl, a former member of the Colorado State Parks Board, Greater Outdoor Colorado Trust Fund and chair of the Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Colorado statute clarifies that “all meetings of two or more members of any state public body at which any public business is discussed or at which any formal action may be taken are declared to be public meetings open to the public at all times.”
The two were narrowly confirmed to the commission after being appointed by Gov. Jared Polis, despite an outcry from residents of western and rural Colorado.
The letter urges voters to outlaw mountain lion and bobcat hunting as it “in no way contributes to our bright future of ethical outdoor recreation in our great state of Colorado.”
THE STATUTE
According to Title 33 of the Colorado state statutes, “it is the policy of the state of Colorado that the wildlife and their environment are to be protected, preserved, enhanced, and managed for the use, benefit, and enjoyment of the people of this state and its visitors. It is further declared to be the policy of this state that there shall be provided a comprehensive program designed to offer the greatest possible variety of wildlife-related recreational opportunity to the people of this state and its visitors and that, to carry out such program and policy, there shall be a continuous operation of planning, acquisition, and development of wildlife habitats and facilities for wildlife-related opportunities. Statute also defines the role of the state to “utilize hunting, trapping, and fishing as the primary methods of effecting necessary wildlife harvests.”
This week, the Colorado Wildlife Employees Protective Association passed a resolution supporting science-based wildlife conservation pursuant to the mission of CPW and as prescribed by the tenants of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation.
Beaulieu and Murphy said, “to be clear, CPW offers mountain lion hunting to serve mountain lion hunters alone, for a recreational opportunity” and offer California as an example of management without hunting. “Proposition 127 is based on not a little, but more than a half-century of the best science as evidence for commissioners to confidently tell the voters that lion populations will stabilize, not increase, without hunting. In California, without lion hunting, populations are stable, not increasing, and at the same level as they are here in Colorado.”
Beaulieu’s appointment was sent by the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee to the full Senate without a favorable recommendation. Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Summit County, is the chair of the committee and represents the Senate District most adversely affected by the wolf depredations, voted against Beaulieu.
Roberts told The Fence Post, “The people of Colorado should be able to trust that state agencies like CPW are being guided by science and fact-based decision making, and that their leadership is not influenced by politics or activism. While I respect everyone’s first amendment rights, I’m disappointed to see some CPW commissioners put their personal ideologies over their oaths as commissioners.”
Beaulieu admitted that she hadn’t visited any state parks outside the Front Range prior to her appointment as a state parks representative, nor had she ever purchased a state parks pass. In response to her admitting she asked Department of Natural Resources leadership which stakeholders she ought to introduce herself to, Roberts said having knowledge of the stakeholders a commissioner is tasked with representing is a prerequisite to nomination.
Beaulieu was confirmed on a 19 to 15 vote, with four Democrats — Roberts, and Sens. Rachel Zenzinger, James Coleman and Nick Hinrichsen — voted against, along with the Senate’s 11 Republicans. Murphy, the only appointee to win a favorable recommendation from the ag committee, was confirmed on a 23-11 party-line vote. The third appointee, Gary Skiba, withdrew his nomination.
