By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Writing at The Outdoor Wire Monday, Chris Dorsey says “many” Colorado hunters, anglers, ranchers and farmers no longer trust Gov. Jared Polis when it comes to wildlife management.
According to Dorsey, described as “a 30-year media veteran and conservation thought leader,” talks about the “latest fight over the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission.” He says two Polis nominees to the commission were rejected “amid concerns that they would tilt the commission further toward activist wildlife policies.”
In 905 words, Dorsey lays bare a battle between outdoorsmen, ranchers and the agriculture community versus the animal rights movement. He says the Centennial State has become “ground zero for one of the most divisive wildlife battles in American history.” This is largely due to what he calls “the wolf debacle.”
“Ranchers warned about livestock losses,” Dorsey’s narrative recalls. “Hunters warned about impacts on elk herds. Polis allies dismissed concerns. Wolves arrived. Livestock depredations followed. And suddenly all those people accused of fearmongering looked a lot less crazy. And the wolves suffered as well.”
But to call Colorado “ground zero” in what has become something of a war between consumptive users and the animal rights activists overlooks what is currently happening in Oregon and neighboring Washington.
Beaver State sportsmen, ranchers, farmers and even pet owners are facing Initiative Petition 28, also known as the PEACE Act (People for Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions). Incredibly, this measure has now gathered some 135,000 signatures, according to the New York Times (117,000 were required to be placed on the November ballot) and if it passes, the Oregon Hunters Association (OHA) says it will outlaw::
- Hunting All licensed hunting would be classified as animal abuse under Oregon law.
- Fishing Sport and commercial fishing would be criminalized statewide.
- Trapping Legal trapping — including pest and wildlife management — would become illegal.
- Farming & Ranching Raising animals for food, dairy, eggs, and fiber would constitute animal abuse.
- Farming & Ranching Raising animals for food, dairy, eggs, and fiber would constitute animal abuse.
- Scientific Research Animal use in education, research, and wildlife management programs would be banned.
- Tribal Rights Oregon Tribes are not exempted — treaty-protected hunting and fishing rights would be jeopardized.
“Oregon’s wildlife management and conservation programs are funded almost entirely through hunting and fishing license fees, tags, and federal excise taxes on sporting goods (the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Acts),” says the OHA website. “If IP28 eliminates hunting and fishing, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife would lose its primary funding source.”
Lining up against IP28 are the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Safari Club International, Ducks Unlimited-Oregon, the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, National Wild Turkey Federation, Coastal Conservation Association, Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and the Oregon Farm Bureau.
Members of both political parties oppose the initiative, but it could bring every far-left anti-hunter, anti-gunner and vegan-vegetarian voter to the Oregon polls this fall, if IP28 actually lands on the ballot.
Meanwhile, north of the Columbia River, some members of the Washington Fish & Wildlife Commission are locked in a legal battle with Fish & Wildlife Director Kelly Susewind, essentially because he asked Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office to investigate what allegedly is believed to be an all-too-cozy relationship between those commissioners and animal rights advocates. The future direction of the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) is squarely in the middle of this situation.
The controversy involves a document known as “The Knoll Memo,” which was produced by WDFW legal liaison Thomas Knoll. According to the Sportsmen’s Alliance, the memo supports “the claims of collusion and illegal behavior concerning the Open Public Meetings Act and Public Records Act by members of the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.”
The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation sued the WDFW, challenging cancellation of Spring bear hunting—a tradition in Washington—demanding records which the agency has been allegedly very slow in producing. Those records were finally all turned over by May 2025, but the organization claimed it was the lawsuit which made it happen.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ferguson had the State Human Resources office launch an investigation into the allegations against some members of the commission. In April, Commissioner Lorna Smith and Washington Wildlife First filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Susewind and deputy WDFW Director Amy Windrope.
Earlier, Ferguson scored points with sportsmen when he derailed last-minute commission appointments by outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee, instead re-appointing two commissioners who had gained respect from the hook-and-bullet community.
The Washington fight has been covered extensively by Northwest Sportsman magazine, where Editor Andy Walgamott has written about everything from the spring bear hunt cancellation to wolf management. Washington has imported wolves under a restoration plan which has made a lot of hunters and cattlemen concerned, if not downright furious.
Which essentially brings the story right back around to Colorado. As Dorsey concluded in his essay, “Or perhaps Colorado is simply serving as the pilot program. A place where activist symbolism routinely outranks practical realities, and where the people who actually live with wildlife are increasingly expected to defer to the people who mostly post about wildlife.
“Either way,” he continues, “the governor shouldn’t be surprised that sportsmen, ranchers, and rural Coloradans are skeptical. They are worried about the wolves. They’re worried about the livestock losses. “They’re worried about the future of hunting and wildlife management.
“But more than anything, they’re worried about the process that brought all of it here. Because wolves don’t appoint commissioners.
“Governors do.”
