Gov. Jared Polis made three new appointments to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission and reappointed both Richard Reading, at-large representative, and vice chair Gabriel Otero, sportspersons representative who resides west of the Continental Divide. Appointed as a production agriculture representative residing west of the Continental Divide, John LeCoq of Silverthorne, is, according to a release, a longtime landowner of 400 acres of grazed land that is held in a conservation easement by American Farmland Trust. He is also a photographer and CEO of a large fly fishing company and serves on the Board of Directors of Woodwell Climate Research Center and the Board of Trustees of the Nature Conservancy, and is co-founder of Science on the Fly, which uses citizen science to collect river water data that informs climate and research policy. He is a Boulder native and attended CU Boulder where he earned a Liberal Arts degree. He is a member of the Endangered Species Coalition. I’m unclear what his role is in production agriculture. 

Dr. Rebecca Niemiec has been appointed as a member at large. She is the past Bureau of Animal Protection manager within the Colorado Department of Agriculture. There, she did work to forge relationships with ag producers, which wasn’t an easy task. She has conducted research about the connections between mental health and animal abuse, and it is applicable to many of the animal abuse cases in the state which are largely confined to backyard operations rather than actual production agriculture. She is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University’s Warner College of Natural Resources, where she founded and co-directs the Animal-Human Policy Center, a policy research center focused on the social science of human-animal relations. Her role on the CPW Commission is at-large, though she does understand rural areas to some degree and is an outdoors recreator. 

Dr. Peter Maguire has been appointed as a sportsperson representative and a member west of the Continental Divide. Maguire is a Colorado State University-trained veterinary neurologist and, according to a release, has held Colorado hunting and fishing licenses for many years. He began hunting during veterinary school in the 1990s and has pursued big and small game annually ever since. Dr. Maguire primarily hunts elk, and also enjoys mule deer, pheasant and blue grouse hunting. It bears mention that Maguire signed an October 15, 2024, letter on behalf of Cats Aren’t Trophies in support of Proposition 127 that sought to outlaw mountain lion hunting.  

One of the first issues the commissioners will be facing is the recent confirmation that a wolf was shot by a ranch employee while the wolf was running toward cows with calves at its side. This was going to happen at some point and that is why it is addressed in the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan that was compiled by stakeholders of all stripes. Facebook comments be damned, the plan says in black and white that lethal removal is viewed by a majority of the two stakeholder groups convened by CPW as being critically important to a successful wolf management program. In the circumstance a wolf is taken in the act of attacking or chasing livestock, a retroactive permit may be issued to any landowner that takes a gray wolf in the act of attacking livestock on their private land or state or federal land that they are legally grazing. A landowner must provide evidence of livestock, stock animals recently (within 24 hours, unless impractical, but no later than 72 hours) wounded harassed or killed by wolves and state or federal agents are able to confirm that the animals were attacked by wolves. The carcass of any wolf taken and the area surrounding it should not be disturbed in order to preserve physical evidence. Based on the information that has been publicly available, this wolf kill falls under these conditions and the employee of Nottingham Ranch in Routt and Eagle Counties should not face a $100,000 fine or a year in jail. He also shouldn’t be tried on social media but that’s not the world we live in. 

This was bound to happen eventually, and this is an opportunity for CPW to follow the plan and do the right thing. According to Miles Blumhardt’s reporting, Nottingham Ranch has completed a site assessment through CPW and has multiple unconfirmed depredations they believe are due to wolves. It appears the rules have been followed. There is no way to wrap a calving pasture large enough for 1,100 cows with fladry or assign a security guard to each cow. The decisions made with regard to this wolf kill will reveal who is keeping the wolves at bay and who is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the regionís preeminent agriculture publication.