Colorado Parks and Wildlife Denies Petition to Pause Wolf Reintroduction

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) commission voted to deny a petition asking for a pause in the wolf reintroduction program. The CPW will move forward with its plan to release 10 to 15 more wolves, which were captured in British Columbia, into Colorado this month.

In a September 10-1 vote, the commission rejected the petition submitted by members of the ranching community.

According to The Colorado Sun, the petition asked that the program be paused to give the agency time to fix parts of the reintroduction program that the ranching community feels are broken.

Marie Haskett, a commission member who represents outfitters and sportspersons, cast the only “no” vote.

Petitioners requested that CPW adopt a definition of chronic depredation, initiate site vulnerability assessments, create a widespread range riding program, start a carcass management program, and hire and train a rapid response team to address reports of depredating wolves more quickly than they had to date.

During the meeting, CPW staff reported progress they’ve made on several fronts and explained they are still working on others.

CPW director Jeff Davis said he had “mixed emotions” after the vote.

“Whenever you have a day like today, there’s a sense of winners and losers,” he said. “The ranchers have some uncertainty — are we going to follow through? Is (reintroduction) going to work? And words are words until they’re followed up with actions, so that will be the key piece for us. Following through, keep plowing ahead, hopefully keep cooperating with folks, whether that be the wolf advocates or even general public members who will plug into this conversation. And how do we make this right with the ranchers, because they are directly impacted.”