OUT OF COMMISSION

In Colorado earlier this year, the state Senate narrowly confirmed a vocal anti-hunter to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, the body that governs the state’s wildlife-management agency. The Kansas legislature passed a law this year that gives authority to appoint Wildlife and Parks commissioners to various elected officials, including party leaders of the state’s House and Senate and the Kansas attorney general. Vermont’s state Senate approved a bill in March that would have radically transformed the Fish and Wildlife Board from an independent rule-making body into an advisory board to the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, the very agency that it historically has had the authority to govern. While that bill died in the state House, it revealed surprising support for considering changes to traditional fish-and-wildlife management. In general, recent efforts to…