Ballot box biology threatens to interfere with Colorado's wildlife expertise
A mountain lion in Colorado. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)
Wolf reintroduction and management issues, threats to lynx habitat, and mountain lion harvest limit reductions have all been newsworthy in recent weeks. Colorado citizens hold such diverse perspectives and some lay at polar opposites. You may wonder, how can any sense be made of these controversial matters?
We suggest that you can have confidence that Colorado Parks and Wildlife is absolutely the best place for these difficult decisions to be made. They have the professional expertise, nationally recognized credibility, and conscientious public involvement processes to arrive at foresighted decisions that are in the best interest of wildlife and the citizens of Colorado.
We are three retired CPW employees who collectively have nearly 100 years of experience managing Colorado's wildlife. We wholeheartedly thank the 1.7 million Coloradans who voted to support CPW's scientific and professional wildlife management this past election, when Proposition 127 was so soundly defeated.
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Sportsmen and women, and CPW and its employees, are too often unsung heroes in the wildlife management story. During the November ballot issue campaign, Proposition 127 proponents tried to characterize sportsmen and women and CPW as being filled with barbaric bloodlust. It is sad commentary on the extremes that the well-funded, out-of-state, radical anti-hunting groups will go in creating bizarrely twisted storylines in vain attempts to appeal to the mainstream and level-headed voters in Colorado.
Here are a few examples of what CPW and sportsmen and women have achieved in just the past 50 to 100 years: restored river otters, lynx and peregrine falcons; worked with the Colorado Department of Transportation to construct over 40 underpasses and three overpasses for wildlife; recovered the state mammal, bighorn sheep, from near extinction in Colorado to occupancy in nearly all available habitat; and expanded the abundance, ranges and habitat quality for pronghorn, mule deer, elk and moose.
CPW has ongoing partnerships with private landowners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management, the Ute tribes, and Colorado Trust Lands to conserve and protect natural habitats for all wildlife, from moths and butterflies to boreal toads, native big river fish in the Colorado River, bats, black-footed ferrets, and even genetically rare native cutthroat trout.
We could go on for pages, but we know you understand that science, research and sound management have made these achievements possible. Sportsmen and women and CPW and its employees are dedicated to working for the benefit of all wildlife and the conservation of wild habitat.
We each actively opposed Proposition 127 and its attempt to criminalize responsible hunters and to strike down science-based wildlife management. Proponents used deceptive messages and emotional appeals to advance arguments against legal hunting methods. Anti-hunting radicals will continue to use these same tactics if and when they return to ballot box biology to further their special interests.
Wildlife management requires knowledge and skill in biology, ecology, sociology and political science. The science is complex and at times confounding. But you would never ask your eye doctor to repair your HVAC system or your plumber to repair your torn shoulder joint. Wildlife management needs to remain in the hands of trained professionals who possess the expertise, knowledge, and scientific background necessary to make informed decisions.
We hope Coloradans will continue to recognize, oppose and ultimately defeat this type of misguided extremism. Additionally, we encourage Coloradans to demand legislative, perhaps even constitutional, changes to the citizen initiative process, ensuring that initiatives truly represent Colorado's geographic and demographic diversity.
Doing so is the only way to put an end to the harmful practice of ballot box biology.
The authors are retired Colorado Parks and Wildlife employees, each with near 20 to 40 years of experience as a wildlife officer, area manager, carnivore biologist, and/or hunting program manager.
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