Laura Clellan, who has led Colorado Parks and Wildlife as acting director since Dec. 1, is now in the role permanently, after commissioners Monday voted unanimously to confirm her.
Tai Jacober was the only voting commissioner absent. He said in a text he would have been a “yes” vote, too.
Clellan was chosen because of her strong leadership skills, her former work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Lakewood and her “steady hands during trying times” as interim director, said Gaspar Perricone, a former CPW commissioner, chair of the Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project and member of the stakeholder group that reviewed around 150 candidates for the position.
She has more than three decades of decorated military service, including multiple overseas deployments. She previously served as adjutant general and executive director of the Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. And she achieved the rank of major general in the Colorado Army National Guard after overseeing 3,700 citizen soldiers and serving in Afghanistan, according to her resume.
A release from the Department of Natural Resources says her leadership during the agency’s recent transition helped ensure continued progress on CPW’s wildlife management, conservation, outdoor recreation and stakeholder engagement priorities. Rob Edward, president of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, said his group “has nothing but high expectations of her.” And Perricone has said her leadership “courted the respect of the sportsmen community.”
But there are signs she also faces a tough crowd, at least according to comments on the Facebook page Colorado Wolf Tracker.
Several members questioned her expertise in wildlife issues and ties to Gov. Jared Polis.
Clellan assumes the role at a particularly contentious time for the agency. The wolf reintroduction program has been halted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the foreseeable future. Stakeholder groups are battling it out over changes to the management of furbearers.
As well, there is a growing sentiment among hunting groups that the Polis administration is trying to shut them out “whether that’s through appointments to different commissions or positions, or through support for anti-hunting measures or agricultural issues,” said Dan Gates, executive director for Coloradans for Responsible Wildlife Management. The grassroots hunting advocacy group focuses on hunting rights, wildlife conservation and what it calls science-based wildlife management in Colorado.
But Gates said his group is confident Clellan “will provide an equitable level” of transparency, accountability and integrity “to lead the agency in a manner that is not only professional but logical and reasonable.”
Samantha Miller, senior carnivore campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity, said her organization is hopeful Clellan’s leadership will guide an agency that “has traditionally interpreted wildlife management through an economic lens” to be “more transparent in their decision making, thoughtful in their application of science and more inclusive of the broader public.”
Clellan, who is the first woman to lead the agency since the Colorado Division of Wildlife merged with Colorado State Parks in 2011, says she “cares deeply” about the mission to perpetuate the state’s wildlife resources, provide a quality state parks system and offer enjoyable and sustainable outdoor recreation opportunities for current and future generations.
She’ll attend her first commissioners meeting as director March 4-5 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Westminster. Wolverines, wolves and furbearer management are on the agenda.