By John Graves, RMBA President
For some, politics is a taboo subject, not to be talked about, and for others, politics is a daily conversation.
For RMBA, politics are only addressed when the conversation revolves around our mission statement of “Promoting and Preserving Bison Through Education, Research, and Marketing.”
I, for one, want to do whatever we need to for our members, and in the last few years, our members in Colorado need the voice of RMBA put to use to be present when these political conversations come up.
Wolves in Colorado
In 2020, the citizens of Colorado narrowly passed Proposition 114, passed by just 56,989 votes, that would stipulate the Colorado Parks and Wildlife create a plan for wolves to be reintroduced in Colorado and managed by them. RMBA, along with countless other organizations, associations, and advocacy groups, strongly fought against this ballot measure from passing. CPW even admitted that wolves were already in Colorado and that this ballot measure was not needed. The reasons for not wanting wolves reintroduced were numerous, but for us on the agricultural side of things, we all knew what would happen: wolves would kill livestock.
In 2023, wolves were reintroduced to Colorado, and since then, livestock have been killed, some of the wolves have been killed, some were relocated, and CPW has already spent over $4 million in three years of planning and one year since the wolves were released. They have a $5 million dollar budget for the first 6 years. They will, of course, go over budget.
While we were not successful in preventing the citizens of Colorado from voting for wolves to be re-introduced in Colorado, we were successful in changing and oversite in the CPW Wolf Management Plan.
Thanks to Bob and Jim Beauprez, who live right in the middle of where the wolves were released, they found that compensation of bison lost from depredation was not included in the plan. RMBA quickly jumped on this and with written testimony submitted, we petitioned to have CPW amend the plan to include bison in the depredation fund. We are so grateful that the Commission listened to our testimony, and that of others to correct an oversite. Though we wish wolves were not released, at least now bison ranchers will be compensated if wolves kill their bison.
We continue to work on navigating the wolves-and-livestock conversation and the daily encounters ranchers see. We have just recently signed our name along with 25 other agriculture entities, on a letter sent to CPW asking them not to release more wolves in Colorado and to work on more mitigation strategies to reduce wolf depredation and livestock conflicts.
We also signed on to a letter sent the government of British Columbia, outlining the problems that have occurred in Colorado since wolves were released, and insisting that they do not send Colorado move wolves. CPW is currently in the process of getting more wolves from British Columbia and release them in Colorado this winter.
Although the wolves are here, steps can be taken to help lessen their destructive nature, and we will continue to work to do all we can to fight the battles needed to be fought.
Slaughterhouses & Fur Bans
In July of 2023, I first saw mention of a City and County of Denver proposed ballot initiative that would ban all slaughterhouses from operating within their jurisdiction. RMBA once again jumped into action and issued a release strongly against this proposed ban. Our release was picked up by several agricultural news outlets and got people talking.
A year later the ballot initiative got enough signatures to be included on the ballot and was designated Ordinance 309. We were approached by the campaign working to defeat this ban and we donated money to help them in the fight. While this ban would not directly affect bison, or bison ranchers, it would negatively affect the agricultural community not just in Denver, but in all of Colorado.
The supporters of the ban admitted to wanting to move society to a meatless society and said that this ban was just a start for them. We could not let something start in Denver and spread from there.
At the same time another group proposed a ban on the sale of fur in Denver, which also included anything made from animal skin or hair, with similar backing and ideology as the slaughterhouse ban. This ban was designated Ordinance 308. We of course signed our name to this in opposition. We worked with both campaigns that were in opposition of 308 and 309 to get the word out to Denver voters to reject them both. Thankfully the citizens of Denver voted against both ordinances, with 64% against 309 and 57.7% against 308. I do not think this is the last time we will be these topics brought up for discussion in Colorado.
Wildlife Classification
We have been monitoring and working with organizations surrounding the classification of some bison in Colorado as wildlife for a few years now. There is a group that has petitioned CPW to classify the bison leaving the Book Cliffs of Utah and crossing into Colorado as wildlife to prevent them from being killed. A claim which has no evidentiary backing, only anecdotal evidence. We of course do not want to see bison killed illegally but feel that further investigation and understanding is needed in this topic.
A group has now petitioned the Colorado Legislature on this topic as well, and a bill has been drafted for the next legislative session that would classify bison that are not privately owned in Colorado as wildlife, falling under the protect of the CPW. The draft bill would put in place a law much similar to that of the law in Wyoming. I have reached out to those Senators who will sponsor the bill, seeking to have a conversation to ensure bison rancher’s concerns with this classification are addressed and there will be no potential downside for our industry.
These efforts have helped us ensure we are doing things related to our mission and supporting our members. We are also seeing an additional benefit in getting name recognition with political leaders and the various agencies and organizations in Colorado, showing that RMBA has a strong membership base that will fight to ensure agriculture and bison are protected in Colorado.
While I know all of these efforts have been in Colorado, we continue to monitor other legislative actions happening in Wyoming and other surrounding states. If you hear of something coming down the pipeline, please let me know so we can begin to monitor and investigate.