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Tag: Conservation Policy

Arizona Activist Group Revives Effort To Block Wildlife Fur Sales In Colorado
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Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Arizona Activist Group Revives Effort To Block Wildlife Fur Sales In Colorado

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–An out-of-state animal rights group is back for another swing at banning the sale of wildlife fur in Colorado. As with a previous, failed attempt, hunting, fishing and conservation interests are lining up in opposition. As previously reported by Complete Colorado, the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity filed a citizens’ petition for rulemaking in June, 2025 urging the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission to amend agency regulations to “prohibit the commercial sale, barter, or trade of wildlife fur in Colorado.” While that effort never made it past commissioners, the petition has been filed again for another round in 2026 and will be heard by the CPW commission in early March. &nb...
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Colorado’s Land Board swaps agriculture for a revenue experiment
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Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s Land Board swaps agriculture for a revenue experiment

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project Acquiring the Lake Fork Ranch to expand “conservation opportunities”. I saw an interesting press release from our Governor recently. It’s linked first below.Quoting:“The Colorado State Board of Land Commissioners (State Land Board) has approved the acquisition of the approximately 800-acre Lake Fork Ranch, located just west of Leadville in Lake County.”Governor Polis, DNR Director Dan Gibbs, and State Land Board Director Nicole Rosmarino all gushed about the new acquisition. To save space, I attached their quotes from the press release as screenshot 1. The quotes here, touting success for rural communities (Polis) and preserving agricultural use (Gibbs), put me in mind of an earlier rundown of the Nat...
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From Colorado to California wolf conflicts fuel push to delist
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Grand View Outdoors, Approved, National

From Colorado to California wolf conflicts fuel push to delist

By RMEF Staff | Grand View Outdoors As new wolf packs kill livestock in Colorado and California, support grows to delist wolves nationwide. Wolves released by way of a controversial ballot initiative in Colorado, opposed by RMEF, have experienced a rocky start, creating headaches for wildlife managers and ranchers alike and seeing mortalities in their ranks.  In late August 2024, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) announced it was trying to capture and relocate wolves from the Copper Creek wolf pack, which formed from animals CPW released in Grand County in December 2023. Months later, the pack had killed nine cattle and an equal number of sheep.   In early September 2024, CPW announced that wildlife managers had captured the two adult wolves and four pups that ma...
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Colorado’s wolf experiment proves costly mistake for rural communities
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NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum, Approved, Commentary, State

Colorado’s wolf experiment proves costly mistake for rural communities

By Mark Chesnut | Commentary, NRA Hunters’ Leadership Forum The dismal saga that has resulted from the introduction of gray wolves into the mountains of Colorado proves one thing: Wildlife management is best left to trained experts in the field. As some background, after voters narrowly approved the introduction of wolves on a ballot initiative in 2020, 10 wolves from Oregon were released in Grand and Summit counties in the northern area of the state. In January 2025, a second group of 15 wolves from British Columbia was released in Eagle and Pitkin counties. The National Rifle Association and other hunting and wildlife conservation organizations warned that there could be unintended consequences, but since voters approved the ballot initiative, state wildlife managers were forced to...
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Ganahl: Trump’s new MABA commission puts conservation back in the hands of the people
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Approved, Commentary, National, Top Stories

Ganahl: Trump’s new MABA commission puts conservation back in the hands of the people

By Heidi Ganahl | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice While most folks were watching fireworks, President Trump was signing something far more lasting—an Executive Order that could reshape how we care for the land we love. It’s the kind of bold step we need to bring common sense back to how we manage the wild, wide-open spaces that make this country worth fighting for. The creation of the Make America Beautiful Again (MABA) Commission is about more than pretty trails and national parks. It’s about restoring common sense and local control in how we care for the land we love. As a board member of the American Conservation Coalition (ACC), I’ve long pushed for this kind of approach—where conservation doesn’t mean locking up our lands, but opening them to responsible use, careful steward...
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Antiquities Act rebalanced: DOJ says President Trump has authority to cancel national monument designations
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Approved, denvergazette.com, National

Antiquities Act rebalanced: DOJ says President Trump has authority to cancel national monument designations

By Matthew Brown | Associated Press via Denver Gazette BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump's administration say he has the authority to abolish national monuments meant to protect historical and archaeological sites across broad landscapes, including two in California created by his predecessor at the request of Native American tribes. Colorado has nine national monuments, which include Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Chimney Rock National Monument, Colorado National Monument, Browns Canyon National Monument, Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, Dinosaur National Monument, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, and Yucca House National Monument. A Justice Department legal opinion released Tuesday disavowed...
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Montrose Commissioner Pond: Why I’m Drawing the Line and Standing Against Federal Land Grabs
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Approved, Commentary, Local, National, Rocky Mountain Voice, Top Stories

Montrose Commissioner Pond: Why I’m Drawing the Line and Standing Against Federal Land Grabs

By Sean Pond | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice The views expressed here are my own and do not represent an official action or position of the Montrose Board of County Commissioners. I was appointed to represent the people of District 3 in Montrose County, and I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. That includes defending our land, our rights, and our way of life here in Western Colorado. In recent months, there’s been a coordinated push to place more of Colorado under federal control. We already fought back against the proposed Dolores National Monument, a 500,000-acre land grab, and we won.  Then came a 68,000 acre National Conservation Area proposal in Mesa and Montrose Counties. We stood our ground again and stopped it.  But now we’re facing two more ...
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Activism over science? Proposed ballot measure #82 would gut CPW authority, opponents say
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Approved, Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Activism over science? Proposed ballot measure #82 would gut CPW authority, opponents say

By Amanda Hardin | Rocky Mountain Voice Correction: We mistakenly said Initiative #82 was already in the signature-gathering stage. As of June 2, 2025, it hasn’t gone before the Title Board yet and isn’t cleared to collect signatures. We regret the error and have updated the article accordingly. Critics across Colorado’s hunting, ranching, and wildlife management communities are sounding the alarm over a 2026 ballot measure they say could upend science-based conservation and rural land rights. Initiative #82, called the Colorado Wildlife and Biodiversity Protection Act, would create a new regulatory body, the Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation Commission (WECC). The commission would hold far-reaching powers over endangered species protections, wildlife corridors, land use, and ev...
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