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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.
The CPW has changed its focus from creating outdoor opportunities for the public, to creating opportunities for the wolves, and the public gets to pay for its own diminishing outdoor opportunities.
Time for a complete new Wildlife Commission!!!!!!!!!!
It was a feeeble attempt to try and stop the voter mandated law. The rancher arguments were nothing but drama. Time to get livestock on private property only. We
Kiss your herds goodbye. Your spread of cwd is coming to every area of the state and neighboring state. The wolves will ensure you’re completely infected. Voting for feelings has consequences. Why are they feeding the meat we need eat to the near worthless? If the herds need culling, then harvest and feed the homeless not some near worthless animal. Herds thrived when only bears and cats run the mts. They served their purpose in the past but now there is far too many humans for the Eco to survive with these creature’s lurking around. You will see the smaller animals relocate because of the reintroduced. How’s that fair to them? All the coyote, fox, and cats move to lower lands with more human interaction. They get killed for just trying to survive this total eco destruction by reintroduction of feelings. One reintroduction has completely destroyed the blue mt herd. 7000 HD to less than 2000 head in less than 8 years. Sad thing is there is no evidence they even lived here when they did exist.