Latest news with #Proposition127
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Colorado settles lawsuit claiming wildlife commissioners violated open meeting law
Colorado Parks and Wildlife settled a lawsuit brought by two national hunting groups accusing two Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners of violating the state's open meeting law. Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation and Safari Club International brought the lawsuit against wildlife commissioners Jessica Beaulieu and Jack Murphy. The complaint filed Nov. 21 in Denver District Court accused the two of having communication in violation of the open meeting law while authoring an opinion piece published Oct. 12, 2024, in the Durango Herald that encouraged a yes vote for Proposition 127, a citizen initiative to ban hunting of mountain lion, bobcats and lynx. That measure failed in November with 55% voting against and 45% for the measure. The suit claims the two commissioners met to discuss public business regarding the citizen initiative and that, "All meetings between two or more public officials where public business is discussed must be open to the public after notice of such a meeting is provided." The Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation said in a news release that Colorado Parks and Wildlife made the correct decision to settle the case. "We filed this suit to hold the commissioners accountable for violating the open-meeting law and making blatantly false statements about state hunting regulations in a failed attempt to persuade voters," Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel for Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation, said in the release. "This settlement does that. And the commissioners will have no excuses for future violations." CPW spokesperson Travis Duncan told the Coloradoan that immediately after the op-ed was published, the agency started getting emails from the public stating the commissioners must have met in private to develop the op-ed in violation of the open meetings law. "But that never occurred," Duncan wrote. "As explained by Commissioners Beaulieu and Murphy at the commission's November meeting in Lamar, the op-ed at issue was written by a third party and the commissioners just signed off on it, separately and without ever communicating with one another. Doing so didn't violate any law." He said once the state proved in the lawsuit that the commissioners never communicated, plaintiffs decided to settle for $2,332 to avoid the expense of litigation. The Sportsmen's Alliance Foundation said the settlement also included a requirement for the commission to receive training on the current open meeting law regarding serial communications, referred to as "daisy chains," as well as training on regulations regarding the take of mountain lion, bobcat and lynx because the opinion piece contained factual errors. This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado settles lawsuit over commissioners' mountain lion op-ed
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
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. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 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. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
