Jessica Beaulieu moved to approve the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition banning commercial fur sales in Colorado. Jay Tutchton seconded. The vote was 6-4. CPW’s own staff had recommended denial, citing inadequate population data on furbearer species and legal constraints under C.R.S. 33-6-107(9) that any rule would have to navigate. Director Laura Clellan backed the denial.
The Center for Biological Diversity is an Arizona-based litigation group that uses lawsuits, petitions, and regulatory pressure to restrict hunting, trapping, and land use across the West. Colorado hunting and conservation organizations — including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and the National Wild Turkey Federation — have fought CBD’s influence over state wildlife policy since Polis began appointing commissioners in 2019. Five days after the fur vote, CBD filed a second petition seeking to restrict the state’s ability to remove wolves that kill livestock.
Regulations manager Hilary Hernandez told commissioners the agency lacked the data to justify the petition’s scope. Existing statute already permits landowners to sell furs taken under a small game license, creating a legal barrier the commission chose to ignore rather than resolve. CPW’s carnivore and furbearer program manager Mark Vieira had spent months developing management recommendations through a stakeholder process. The commission rejected those too.
Beaulieu made the motion. Tutchton seconded after roughly thirty minutes of procedural confusion during which other commissioners asked repeatedly what they were voting on. Chair Rich Reading later called the result a procedural failure.
Day 2 was consumed by commissioners debating what they had actually decided. Reading listened to audio over the lunch recess to confirm the official motion language. Tutchton called the process “inelegant.” Commissioner Dallas May said she voted no partly because she did not understand the motion before the commission.
Voting yes: Beaulieu, Emerick, Murphy, Tutchton, Vardy, and Reading. Voting no: Silva Blayney, Jacober, May, and Otero. Three agriculture seats and one sportsperson against. Six Polis appointees in favor.
Beaulieu is a former fellow of the Center for Biological Diversity — the organization that filed the petition she moved to approve. She manages the University of Denver’s Animal Law Program, where CBD is listed on DU’s own website as a “current and former client of the clinic.” She did not disclose either connection. She did not recuse.
Polis appointed Beaulieu to represent parks and outdoor recreation. During her Senate confirmation hearing, she admitted she had never purchased a state parks pass.
In October 2024, she and Commissioner Murphy signed a public op-ed supporting Proposition 127, which would have banned mountain lion and bobcat hunting. Voters rejected it by more than ten points. Beaulieu then moved to approve a CBD petition advancing similar restrictions through commission rulemaking.
Tutchton recently retired from the Southern Plains Land Trust, an organization founded by Nicole Rosmarino — the Governor’s Policy Advisor for Wildlife, Agriculture, and Rural Economic Development. He helped start DU’s Environmental Law Clinic, which represented CBD in Colorado Clean Water Act litigation. He sits on the Great Outdoors Colorado board, which approved $3.1 million in grants to the same Southern Plains Land Trust where he worked. He did not disclose and did not recuse.
Reading chairs the commission. He is a DU adjunct professor — the same university where Beaulieu and Tutchton run programs that provide legal support to CBD. His wife, Lauren McCain, works for Defenders of Wildlife. Polis appointed McCain to the Wildlife Habitat Stamp Committee, which makes funding recommendations back to the commission her husband chairs.
John Emerick voted yes. His partner, Delia Malone, is the Colorado Sierra Club’s wildlife chair and advocates against hunting at CPW meetings. Jack Murphy voted yes. He founded Urban Wildlife Rescue. Eden Vardy voted yes. He founded the Farm Collaborative.
The four no votes — Gabe Otero, Dallas May, Tai Jacober, and Frances Silva Blayney — hold the three agriculture seats and one sportsperson seat. They are the commissioners without documented ties to the advocacy network that petitioned.
At the same March 4-5 meeting, the commission approved more than $700,000 in wolf depredation compensation to six ranchers who reported losses in 2025. CBD’s second petition, filed March 9, seeks to make it harder to remove the wolves causing those losses. The same six commissioners will vote on that one too.
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