High Country Advocate Staff Report
Colorado Parks and Wildlife released a furbearer management report November 30 that the agency frames as “balanced stakeholder input.” Read the 74 pages and a different picture emerges: hunters, trappers, and ranchers get new restrictions while animal welfare organizations get a roadmap for ending fur-bearer harvest entirely.
The recommendations go to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in March 2026. The same institutional structure this publication documented in the Buffalo Commons investigation now shapes furbearer management.
Here’s what the report actually says, who wrote it, and who decides what happens next.
What Hunters and Trappers Got: New Restrictions
The facilitator recommends seven changes. Everyone burdens recreational harvesters:
Harvest limits for swift fox, marten, gray fox, and ringtails—the first caps ever imposed on these species. Mandatory check-in expanding bobcat requirements to four additional species. Education requirements include a video and test before purchasing licenses. Compliance penalties including license suspension.
The report states current harvest is sustainable. Swift fox: 263 animals from an estimated 5,000 population—under 6% take rate. Marten: 283 animals, “well below levels that might reduce population.”
If harvest is already sustainable, why impose limits? The report answers on page 26: these recommendations represent “incremental progress.”
Progress toward what?
What Conservation Groups Got: A Roadmap
Group B—the animal welfare coalition including Center for Biological Diversity, Humane Society, Animal Wellness Action, Project Coyote, and Colorado Sierra Club—entered the process seeking an end to furbearer harvest entirely. Their stated position: “harvest itself is fundamentally” problematic.
They didn’t get everything. The report excluded banning commercial fur sales and restricting coyote harvest. But the facilitator’s language reveals the strategy: these issues “may require broader public policy discussions” and “merit attention at a higher level of policymaking.” Translation: ballot initiatives come next.
Meanwhile, Group B got their framework:
Harvest data collection through mandatory check-ins provides ammunition for future restriction arguments. Harvest limits establish the precedent that CPW can cap take—once caps exist, reducing them requires only Commission votes. “Coyote Friendly Communities” creates a voluntary program that expands to mandatory. Population surveys for 10 remaining species create the framework for restrictions where CPW currently lacks justification.
The pattern matches what we documented in the Buffalo Commons series: establish data collection, claim concern, impose restrictions, expand over time.
Who Drafted These Recommendations
The report states clearly: “These are not consensus recommendations from stakeholders in Groups A and B. Rather, they are recommendations developed by the facilitator.”
Peak Facilitation Group—a private contractor in Fort Collins—developed these recommendations. Not the stakeholders. Not CPW biologists. Not elected officials. A hired consultant met separately with each group and crafted recommendations moving policy toward Group B’s goal while giving Group A compliance burdens framed as “compromise.”
Group A’s best-case outcome: no changes. Group B’s best-case: end harvest entirely. The facilitator’s recommendations: new restrictions, new data collection, new programs expanding conservation influence.
When “balance” means one side gets nothing and the other gets a roadmap, the process isn’t balanced.
What Can Change Before March
The recommendations aren’t final. CPW staff will review before presenting to the Commission, which can accept, modify, or reject any recommendation.
Any regulatory changes require the two-step rulemaking process with public comment at each stage. Implementation wouldn’t begin before late 2026.
That timeline provides opportunity for public engagement. Whether that engagement matters depends on who’s listening.
Who Makes the Final Decision
The Parks and Wildlife Commission—currently 10 voting members with one vacancy, all appointed by Governor Polis—makes all regulatory decisions. Here’s who will vote on furbearer restrictions:
Richard Reading (Chair, At-Large) – VP of Science and Conservation at Butterfly Pavilion, where First Gentleman Marlon Reis serves as Honorary Board Chair. Reading is married to Defenders of Wildlife’s Lauren McCain, whom Polis appointed to the Wildlife Habitat Stamp Committee. Fellow at University of Nebraska’s Center for Great Plains Studies. His wildlife photography has appeared in Southern Plains Land Trust materials. Term expires July 2026.
Jay Tutchton (Vice Chair, Non-consumptive Nonprofit) – Recently retired as Preserve Manager for Southern Plains Land Trust’s 60,000 acres. Spent 27 years as environmental litigator representing WildEarth Guardians, Center for Biological Diversity, and Sierra Club. Sits on GOCO board, which awards grants to SPLT. Started DU’s Environmental Law Clinic. Called legislators defending ranchers against wolf kills “whiny politicians.” His stated goal: making Colorado “the best state in the country to be a wild animal.” Term expires July 2028.
John Emerick (At-Large) – Retired environmental biology professor. Treasurer of Colorado Wild, a wolf advocacy group tied to Rocky Mountain Wolf Project. Board member of Wilderness Workshop. His partner Delia Malone is President of Colorado Wild and Wildlife Chair of Colorado Sierra Club—a frequent Commission meeting attendee who “advocates for wolves and against hunting.”
Frances Silva Blayney (Sportsperson/Outfitter) – Holds the statutory outfitter seat. Obtained her outfitter license April 1, 2025—three months before her July 2025 appointment. Her company Canopy Fly Fishing was registered May 2023. The Colorado Outfitters Association president called her a “full unknown.” Replaced Marie Haskett, a third-generation outfitter lauded for Western Slope advocacy. Holds leadership positions with Colorado Sierra Club and Trout Unlimited.
Jessica Beaulieu (Recreation) – Manager of University of Denver’s Animal Law Program. Interned with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Board member of Colorado Environmental Film Festival. Executive Council member of Colorado Bar Association Environmental Law Section. No background in recreation or wildlife management. Term expires July 2027.
Jack Murphy (Recreation) – Co-founder and president of Urban Wildlife Rescue. Uses “only non-lethal and humane methods.” Served on board of Colorado Animal Protectors. Author of “Humane Solutions to Wildlife Problems.” No background in recreation. Term expires July 2027.
Gabriel Otero (Sportsperson, West Slope) – Director for Equitable Funding Policy at The Wilderness Society. Works on “national monument designations, land management plans, resource management plans.” Term expires July 2026.
Eden Vardy (Agriculture) – Founder of The Farm Collaborative, a regenerative agriculture nonprofit in Aspen. Holds an agriculture seat but runs a nonprofit focused on “youth education” and connecting “children and the community to nature.” “Dedicated to solving” climate change. Term expires July 2026.
Dallas May (Agriculture) – Actual rancher from Lamar. Born into Colorado ranching family. Sells purebred Limousin breeding stock. Operates irrigated farm raising alfalfa and corn. Conservation easement on his ranch. The lone traditional agriculture voice with voting power. Term expires July 2028.
Tai Jacober (Agriculture, West Slope) – Owner of Phoenix Ranching, once Colorado’s largest grass-fed beef producer. Operates agritourism lodge. Legitimate production agriculture. Term expires July 2028.
VACANT – One sportsperson seat unfilled. Murphy Robinson, appointed August 2024, no longer appears on the Commission roster.
Non-voting: Dan Gibbs (DNR Executive Director, also sits on GOCO board with Tutchton) and Kate Greenberg (Commissioner of Agriculture).
Acting CPW Director: Laura Clellan, a Polis Cabinet member since 2020. Before leading the Colorado National Guard, her civilian career included serving as Chief for Leadership and Employee Development at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—the federal agency that administers the Endangered Species Act. She assumed the CPW role December 1, 2025, immediately after retiring from her Cabinet position in October.
Count the votes: Reading, Tutchton, Emerick, Silva Blayney, Beaulieu, Murphy, and Otero share conservation organization backgrounds or direct ties to wolf advocacy, rewilding groups, or the governor’s household. That’s seven of ten seated commissioners. You need six to pass anything.
The two legitimate agriculture seats—May and Jacober—are outnumbered before discussion begins. Vardy holds an agriculture seat but runs a nonprofit. The statutory structure requiring “stakeholder diversity” has been hollowed out through creative interpretation of who qualifies for each seat.
This is worse than playing with loaded dice. The dice are loaded, the table is tilted, and the house owns the casino.
The Bottom Line
C.R.S. 33-1-106 requires biological need to change wildlife regulations. The facilitator’s report acknowledges current harvest is sustainable. Swift fox, marten, gray fox, and ringtails all show stable populations with harvest rates well below sustainable thresholds.
There is no biological need for these restrictions. The need is political.
Colorado voters rejected trapping bans in 1996. These recommendations achieve incrementally what voters refused directly. The March 2026 Commission meeting will reveal whether “stakeholder input” means anything when the stakeholders with power share Group B’s vision.
The full CPW Furbearer Stakeholder Process report is available at cpw.widencollective.com. The March 2026 Commission meeting agenda will be posted at cpw.state.co.us.
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