Ballot-box Biology - Rocky Mountain Voice

Message still matters: How Caliber Contact’s Pollie-winning campaign helped defeat Colorado’s Prop 127

Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories / May 30, 2025 / 2025 Pollie Award Winners, Ballot Measures, Ballot-box Biology, Caliber Contact, Political Messaging, Prop 127, Public safety, Republican Strategy, Wildlife Management

When Colorado voters rejected Proposition 127 in 2024, they didn’t just weigh in on mountain lions and bobcats – they delivered a decisive verdict on who should shape wildlife policy. In the state’s first failed wildlife ballot measure since 1992, 54.7% voted no.

Behind that result was an award-winning campaign by Caliber Contact, a Republican firm that reframed the issue through a values-driven lens by tapping into safety concerns, protective instincts and the voice of everyday Coloradans – over celebrity advocates.

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Activism over science? Proposed ballot measure #82 would gut CPW authority, opponents say

Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories / May 27, 2025 / Ballot Initiative, Ballot-box Biology, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Conservation Policy, Hunting Rights, Private Property Rights, Science-Based Management, Tax policy, Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation Commission

Critics across Colorado’s hunting, ranching, and wildlife management communities are sounding the alarm over a 2026 ballot measure they say could upend science-based conservation and rural land rights.

Initiative #82, called the Colorado Wildlife and Biodiversity Protection Act, would create a new regulatory body, the Wildlife and Ecosystem Conservation Commission (WECC). The commission would hold far-reaching powers over endangered species protections, wildlife corridors, land use, and even Colorado Parks and Wildlife itself.

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Wolf reintroduction strains rural Colorado as payouts outpace budget

Westword, State / May 13, 2025 / Ballot-box Biology, Colorado Ranchers, CPW, Western Slope, Wolf Depredation, Wolf reintroduction

Colorado is eighteen months into the state’s wolf restoration project, and the teeth are still coming out.

So far, the state has paid over $370,000 in claims to ranchers who have been impacted by the presence of wolves near their operations. Although wolf advocates and detractors both agree that Colorado should compensate people for wolf-related losses, ranchers believe the funds are not enough to cover the full breadth of the impact of the carnivores in this state. Conversely, wildlife advocates question if some of the reimbursements that ranchers have claimed are a good use of taxpayer money.

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Costello: The unintended consequences of Proposition 127

Commentary, State / September 16, 2024 / Ballot-box Biology, Cougars, Elections, Mountain Lions

Coloradans, I’m writing to you from California, where mountain lion hunting is illegal because of ballot-box biology. The idea of saving mountain lions and bobcats feels noble. They are magnificent critters, and supremely effective at making a living on the landscape (killing prey). We all love wild landscapes filled with diverse wildlife, including elusive and sometimes scary apex predators. While revered and respected for millennia, it is also true that humans have hunted, harvested and managed these animals as part of our own participation in the natural world.

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