By Lindy Browning | Contributing Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
Colorado Parks and Wildlife senior staff in Denver told the joint Senate and House Agriculture and Natural Resource Committee that their lack of transparency and secrecy is because of their local field staff having been threatened, followed and harassed as they perform the 2025 wolf reintroduction operations.
Elected officials from both sides of the political aisle aren’t buying it.
It became more than clear at the meeting between CPW senior staff and legislators, held Jan. 15, that not only is CPW senior staff keeping the public on the Western Slope in the dark, but also elected officials.
All of the elected Senate and House members criticized the senior staff for their lack of transparency, not only with the public, but with them, too. When House District 57 Democrat Elizabeth Velasco told Dan Gibbs, director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and Reid Dewalt, deputy director of CPW that “the lack of transparency was becoming more of an issue than the wolves themselves,” she wasn’t alone in thinking that, and she wasn’t wrong.
Officials on both sides of the aisle expressed disappointment and annoyance that they were briefed only hours prior to releases in or near their districts. County commissioners likewise, were only given hours of notice.
These alleged behaviors didn’t happen in a vacuum; it’s the lack of transparency and timely communication with the public, implemented as policy by CPW senior staff, which has caused the mistrust, fostered rumors and misinformation that has fueled this alleged behavior.
If CPW leadership had been putting out the factual and timely information that people need, it would have greatly reduced the promulgation of rumors and misinformation in the public, and it would go a long way for beginning to rebuild the trust and confidence, and credibility of the agency.
It’s really too bad, and grossly hypocritical, that CPW Commissioners and senior CPW staff didn’t express the same concern when the pro-wolf people vilified the people who were asking for a pause in the wolf program.
CPW commissioners and senior staff sat silent and allowed mean spirited and threatening comments directed at ranchers and others from Western Colorado to continue for hours.
Ranchers and supporters of the pause were called murderers, grifters, lazy and entitled. Pro-wolf people hurled the vilest and unsubstantiated accusations against people from the Western Slope who are trying to find a way to live with the impacts of a law they didn’t want and didn’t vote for.
It seems that the upper echelon at CPW are gloriously unaware that their secrecy tactics have caused tensions to rise to a boiling point.
This also falls at the feet of Gov. Jared Polis, who has stood idly by while his leadership at CPW continues to gaslight the elected officials and constituents on the Western Slope.
It has not yet occurred to senior leadership that their overabundance of secrecy has left a vacuum that, according to the laws of nature, will be filled.
The people and elected officials on the Western Slope know that voters, predominantly along the I-25 corridor, passed a law that mandates wolf reintroduction, and that unless and until that law is repealed, wolves will continue to be reintroduced.
They may not like it, but they are resigned to the fact that it is now law. All they are asking for is to be given full transparency and some consideration concerning approximate timing of the operations.
To do less has resulted in people who are not necessarily in the ranching business, but people who feel the plight and frustration of their neighbors, trying to find information that will help their neighbors in the West.
It is true that there were people using a flight tracking application to keep track of the plane associated with the wolf transport from Canada, and it is true that people were watching airports to see where the plane landed, hoping to understand what CPW leadership was keeping secret.
It is also true that people took photos of CPW vehicles on a public road. None of the above mentioned activities are a crime, and all of it could have been avoided if CPW leadership had been less secretive on their mission.
It’s also important to know that there have been no crimes reported in Garfield County pertaining to alleged “threats”.
By this time the upper echelon of CPW should also understand that the people that voted for the law are not the same people who are having their lives, livelihoods and traditional lifestyle upended.
People on the Western Slope are trying to deal with the reality that their income and traditions are threatened and trying to adapt to a mandate that, they do not want and did not vote for.
As CPW leadership traveled around the western half of the state talking about mitigation programs over the last six months, many of the livestock growers, outfitters and hunting enthusiasts came to those meetings in good faith, trying their best to find ways to navigate how they would best mitigate the damage to their animals and maintain their contribution to the Colorado economy and food supply chain.
It’s beginning to look a little suspect that implementing the law isn’t enough for this governor, CPW leadership and the members of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, who sit on the ad-hoc advisory board working with CPW. To the people that are living with the consequences, it’s beginning to look as if the intent is to add insult to injury to half the state’s residents.
What did CPW Denver think was going to happen in the absence of transparency and timely communication with the people who are most likely to feel the impacts of this latest wolf release?
People need to know when and where the wolves are going to be placed in order to do what little they can to try to protect cows and calving operations that coincide with the timing of the releases, and protect pets and other livestock they care for.
Obviously, there are limits to what they can actually do to protect their livestock, since most of the mitigation programs are not fully funded, nor are they operational for this year’s release.
No one expects CPW to provide an exact location and a specific time for wolf releases, people can understand that it’s not good for anyone to have that degree of specificity.
However, no reasonable person could object to naming the county designated for the release, and a weeks’ notice of those releases to allow people to be as prepared as they can be prior to the release.
Gov. Polis should get his house in order and demonstrate some leadership and oversight of the agency and senior staff at CPW. It is his agency to direct.
CPW leadership’s actions and inactions have led to resentment and mistrust from the public and the elected leaders on the Western Slope and beyond.
In the end, it is this governor that has allowed this to reach a boiling point, and he better throw some cool water on it before it boils over. Now more than ever it is time for him to be the governor for all Coloradoans, not just the special interest groups and political agendas from people along the I-25 corridor.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.