IGNACIO–Colorado’s wildlife regulators spent two days last week proving that “no biological need” is no longer a barrier to hunting restrictions, so long as enough commissioners decide optics matter more than the science.
At a Thursday meeting in Ignacio, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted 6-5 to cap recreational trappers and hunters at taking two furbearers per day, a sweeping change from the unlimited take that’s governed the state’s 17 furbearer species for decades. The list includes everything from beavers and foxes to bobcats and skunks.
When science isn’t convenient
Parks and Wildlife’s own staff had recommended a daily limit of 15, with a fallback option of four to eight depending on species. Both were rejected. Instead, the commission adopted a limit floated by Rebecca Niemiec, one of three commissioners Gov. Jared Polis appointed to the board just last month, who argued the lower number would boost “social acceptance” of trapping among non-hunters.
That reasoning ran counter to CPW’s own data. Deputy Assistant Director Matt Eckert told commissioners the average furbearer hunter kills fewer than two animals a year, that 85% of the roughly 19,600 people who buy the state’s $10 furbearer permit come up empty-handed entirely, and that current harvest rates amount to well under 6% of conservative population estimates for every species involved.
Agency director Laura Clellan had written in a memo that there’s no scientific evidence current hunting levels are hurting populations at all.
None of that stopped the new limit from passing. Commissioners who voted against the limit didn’t dispute the math, they simply said they trusted staff’s judgment over political preference. “I’m perplexed,” said Commissioner Tai Jacober, noting that even supporters of the limit conceded it wouldn’t change harvest outcomes or population trends. Commissioner Frances Silva Blayney said she was “disheartened” the board spent so much time on an issue staff had already said wasn’t a biological problem.
Rural and industry voices pushed back hard in public comment. A Rio Blanco County natural resources official called the staff’s original 15-animal proposal “far past sufficient” and urged commissioners to stop overriding “science that has worked for decades.” One trapper testifying against the cap pointed out he still has to cover gas and equipment costs on days he catches nothing — and now has to release any animals beyond two even after a good haul.
Fur sales ban rejected
The following day, the same 11-member commission came within a single vote of banning commercial fur sales outright, ultimately killing the proposal 6-5.
As previously reported by Complete Colorado, the Tucson, Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity filed a citizens’ petition for rulemaking in March urging the commission to amend agency regulations to “prohibit the commercial sale, barter, or trade of wildlife fur in Colorado.”
It was the out-of-state environmental group’s second swing at banning fur in Colorado, with another attempt failing to make it past the commission last year as well.
The agency rulemaking attempts come after a 2024 fur ban ballot measure, which sought to prohibit all manufacturing, distributing, displaying, selling, or trading of wildlife fur in Denver, failed by 58%.
Commissioner Jack Murphy noted that only about ten people in Colorado sell fur commercially, undercutting the case that a ban would meaningfully change anything.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife says it’s still determining how it will enforce the new two-animal daily cap.
