Colorado’s first gentleman disappears from social media following heated wolf debate

Marlon Reis, Colorado’s first gentleman, has deleted his Instagram and Facebook accounts after getting into a debate with several ranchers on a now-missing Facebook post. 

Reis is described as “a freelance writer, an animal welfare advocate, a father and the first First Gentleman of Colorado” on the governor’s website. During his time as Colorado’s first gentleman, Reis has often used his platform to advocate for wildlife and environmental issues.

“The First Gentleman views social media as a tool for celebrating animals and sharing the many ways in which the Polis Administration is proactively working to protect them,” stated Shelby Wieman, press secretary for the governor’s office.

“In recent weeks, the volume of negative commentary on his posts increased to such a degree that he felt his pages were no longer serving the goal of fostering compassion, appreciation and respect for animals,” Wieman stated. “Rather than allow his social media channels to become forums for misinformation, he decided to deactivate them for the time being.”

Since Reis’ platforms have been deactivated, the posts and subsequent comments in question are no longer available on either Facebook or Instagram.

However, screenshots shared with the Summit Daily and posted on to the Colorado Wolf Tracker Facebook group show Reis going back and forth with several commenters on Sunday evening. Various screenshots from the conversation were posted to the group on Aug. 25 and 26. None of the screenshots show the original post or every comment on the post, just some of the comments made.

In the comments shared, Reis links and provides information from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website about how much wolf reintroduction is costing and where the funds are coming from. In addition to the wolf reintroduction efforts, the comments also delved into water issues. 

Josh Wamboldt, who is the owner of Redstone Stables and Avalanche Outfitters, was one of the individuals who was engaged in the back-and-forth between Reis. In a response to the Summit Daily, Wambolt stated that the initial post from Reis was about the grant program created by Colorado’s Department of Agriculture and Colorado Parks and Wildlife for nonlethal wolf conflict reduction measures. 

The grant program will offer one-time grants of up to $20,000 for organizations that support multiple producers to “help producers use nonlethal predator deterrents and prepare for coexistence with wolves, according to the grant program’s website. 

Wamboldt stated that he felt that the first gentleman’s post on the topic “came off as gloating.” 

“A $20,000 one-time grant coming from the Department of Agriculture and Colorado Parks and Wildlife is in a way a slap in the face to all the industries being affected by wolves, including sheep, cattle, outfitters and hunters, plus private people like possibly 4-H kids who may be (sic) effected,” Wamboldt stated. 

In response to Reis’ post, Wamboldt stated that he commented about how far a $20,000 grant could go for range riders for ranchers. 

“I don’t think they understand what it takes to be a range rider, or what it takes for all these nonlethal techniques to be maintained after setup,” Wamboldt stated. 

Range riders are one form of nonlethal deterrents that the state’s agriculture department and wildlife agency are promoting. The idea is that range riders would provide on-the-ground assistance in the wolf reintroduction efforts, protecting livestock from predators by increasing human presence. 

While “range riders are a good asset,” the grant funding underestimates the time and resources it takes to deploy this asset effectively,” Wamboldt stated. 

“How many people are going to go work for $20,000? It’s tough work, a good horse alone could cost you easily $10,000, saddles $2,000, tack $1,500, plus living expenses,” Wamboldt stated. “That’s why I took it as gloating — of look what we did, we’re doing so much — but then turns around and brags about hundreds of thousands of dollars coming in from other sources but that money goes into a fund.”

In one of the comments shared in screenshots, Reis, responding to Wamboldt (although Wamboldt’s comment is not shared in the screenshots), stating “your industry is no more important to the economy of Colorado than any other industry.”

“So, you don’t like $20,000 grants to help your operation? You don’t like the $350,000 per year that the legislature has permanently allocated to agricultural producers to ‘help’ ranchers? You don’t like sharing Colorado with the Front Range, or that an entire Department is dedicated to ensuring the health of your herds? You don’t like the $300,000 currently generated by the wolf license plate (or the $600,000 it’s projected to raise by the end of the year), all for you, nobody but you? What would it take to make you happy?” Reis stated in the screenshot. 

“Instead of pointing fingers and placing blame, realize that the State and Federal governments are constantly helping you with land, natural resources, subsidies and the list keeps growing,” Reis states. 

In addition to the challenge of resource allocation, Wamboldt stated that he believes “the whole wolf introduction was forced and unprepped.” 

“The governor should have made an executive to decision to hold back until all these problems could have been worked out, the 10(j), chronic depredation, the full NEPA process,” he added. “Now all the ranchers have to fight to adapt quickly and even some of the CPW are unprepared cause they’ve never dealt with this before.”

Colorado’s reintroduction of gray wolves was a voter-passed initiative, but Wamboldt stated that the voters, the governor and Reis are not the ones dealing with it firsthand. 

“They should have to go spend a week with these ranchers and see what they are going through,” he added. 

While Wamboldt stated it “was nice to be able to converse,” he also felt that “Marlon didn’t really care about ranchers or farmers and if they aren’t around then that’s more water for everyone else.”

Screenshots of one part of the discussion show Wamboldt stating that “if they would quit developing on the eastern slope, they wouldn’t need western slope water to survive.”

In this series of comments, Reis replies to Wamboldt stating “It’s not your water. It’s Colorado’s water, and you’re using way more than the Front Range. What will you do when the rivers run dry and there’s nothing left to water fields and provide for your farm animals? Take some ownership, man.”

The governor’s office did not indicate when or if the first gentleman intends to reactivate his accounts on either platform.

This is not the first time the first gentleman has stepped into controversy regarding Colorado’s wolf reintroduction on Facebook.

In December 2023, Reis called a story from The Fence Post on wolves an op-ed rather than a news story in a Facebook post. Reis’ post was subsequently removed from the social media platform. The original story from The Fence Post was about “Colorado bringing in wolves from depredating packs in Oregon,” and was based on information from a wolf expert, not the reporter’s opinion, the outlet later reported in responding to Reis’ commentary.