O’Donnell: Colorado’s new wildlife commission will conserve everything—except common sense

By Mike O’Donnell | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

The Democratic Party swept to power in Colorado in the 2018 general election (the first time since 1936) under the guise of being a progressive party with the best interests of all Coloradans at heart.

When they assumed office they embraced, en masse, the philosophy of the RadicalxChange movement, which—depending on your level of cynicism—shares some unsettling parallels with those catchy World Economic Forum slogans about how we’ll all “own nothing and be happy” by 2030. (No, that line’s not in the RadicalxChange handbook, but the vibe isn’t far off.)

The movement also espouses adopting a “more democratic” concept for elections known as quadratic voting.

Colorado was THE first test case for quadratic voting EVER in the public policy realm when it was quietly introduced in 2019 by the Democratic legislative caucuses to rank their internal spending priorities—because nothing says “democracy” like secret math experiments.

Five years later, in January 2024, Denver District Court Judge David H. Goldberg finally ruled that this covert scheme DID NOT comply with Colorado’s open meetings laws—turns out, voters expect transparency even when the legislature tries to game its own process.

The intended damage had already been done, nonetheless, and haven’t Coloradans experienced more than their fair share of radical legislation since 2019 as a result?!

Coloradans may still have to endure at least one more legislative session of moronic and radical laws before the 2026 general election offers a chance to course-correct.

The handbook for the RadicalxChange movement is Radical Markets by Posner and Weyl. If you’d like to understand what motivates the Colorado Democratic Party’s activist wing, I encourage you pick up a copy at your local library. It is an easy, albeit troubling, read.

Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao would be very proud of the Colorado legislature.

I mention all this in passing (although it isn’t something you should pass by—share it with everyone you know!) to reference a proposed ballot initiative for 2026 that is asking voters to approve the creation of a new Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation Commission.

For what purpose? Its stated objective—among others—being to “ensure the continuity of wildlife protections in the event that existing conservation agencies such as Colorado Parks and Wildlife are defunded, disbanded, or rendered operationally nonfunctional”… which means it will be doing similar work to Colorado Parks and Wildlife because we Coloradans, apparently, can never have too many state government employees doing repetitive busy work.

Among other primary objectives, the proposed new commission will “oversee species protection and ecological integrity” (however they might choose to define that) and create “a Colorado Wildlife Corridor Network to enhance habitat connectivity.”

This latter goal is raising the hackles of many livestock producers, farmers and landowners.

Why? Because it seems to be a thinly disguised attempt to impose on Coloradans the UN’s objective of ensuring that at least 30% of all land areas are conserved by the year 2030—an objective echoed by whomever it was that was controlling President Biden when he issued his executive order in May 2021 creating a national goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands by 2030.

The proposed new Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation Commission, still in the draft stage but already raising eyebrows among rural Coloradans—not just for how much power it would consolidate, but how little practical knowledge it appears to involve—comes with some tantalizing incentives.

Want a payoff? According to the draft, private landowners who hand over 30% of their land to the Wildlife Corridor Network may receive a 25% or 50% property tax reduction (I wonder if the local county commissioners know about this?) or a state income tax credit equal to 20% of approved conservation expenses, including habitat restoration, fencing modifications, and monitoring compliance.

In other words, nothing to write home about.

Which means about 40% of Colorado is already technically conserved—before any new commissions start drawing lines on your pasture.

If this new commission is desirous of additionally conserving—or shutting down—30% of the remaining 60% of the state’s land mass (and a good chunk of this is already urban sprawl), the agricultural industry in Colorado will be dealt a massive blow that will decimate many rural communities.

Especially by a new Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation Commission that will operate under the oversight of nine appointed commissioners—according to the draft language, none may have financial ties to agriculture, energy or development.

Chalk that up as bureaucrat-speak for “no farmers, no ranchers, and definitely no one who actually works the land.”

And its first source for funding (after an initial allocation of $2.5 million we don’t have from taxpayers) will be the fines it levies on landowners for noncompliance with the rules it gets to arbitrarily make up.

Definitely a recipe for still more disastrous government overreach in this once great state.

But then again, this is exactly what the feeble-minded disciples of the RadicalxChange philosophy—and their gullible Colorado voter supporters—seem to want.

Mike O’Donnell is a small business advocate, nonprofit executive and economic development leader based in Kirk, Colorado. He currently serves as Executive Director of Prairie Rose Development Corp., a mission-driven lender supporting underserved entrepreneurs across the state.

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.