Colorado Wolf Reintroduction Proceeds Despite Protest

Photo Credit: kjekol_Envato

At the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission meeting today the Commissioners voted 10 – 1 to disapprove a citizen petition to delay gray wolf restoration efforts.

In other words, Colorado’s wolf reintroduction efforts will continue without delay.

The Commission determined the seven conditions listed in the petition had already been addressed by CPW and were discussed at length during today’s meeting in Denver.

Topics that have been addressed and were discussed today included:

• Development of a state range rider program
• Development of a depredation response operations team to address conflicts
• Non-lethal conflict techniques
• Site assessment program
• A definition of chronic depredation
• Collaboration with ranchers on carcass removal
• Development of a communication plan and consultation with local officials, communities and producers

CPW also published a Wolf-Livestock Conflict Minimization Program Guide to help clarify this part of the program. 

CPW Director Jeff Davis stated, “This decision affirms everything our agency and its partners have already been focused on regarding the conditions in the petition. We’ve been listening to and working with all stakeholders in this historic restoration effort.” 

Bottom-line: With their decision the Commissioners are saying CPW is already addressing everything in the petition and there’s no need to pause the reintroduction to reassess their methodology.

Today’s discussion lasted about seven hours, and all topics were thoroughly covered. The Commission listened to many hours of public comments before they made their decision. At the conclusion of discussions,  the commission accepted the concepts that:

• The continued releases of wolves in Colorado will supplement the first round of releases completed last season. Adding animals to the existing population will increase the likelihood of pairing, breeding and pack formation.
• This will create more consistent territories that allow CPW to monitor patterns within a territory and will improve the agency’s ability to collaborate with ranchers on active behavior and coexistence strategies to best protect livestock.

The reference materials on the definition of chronic depredation and associated lethal management considerations, as well as a copy of the citizen petition and the meeting agenda are available in the meeting materials for the January 8-9 meeting on the commission webpage.