Colorado Just Jumped its Last Major Hurdle to Reintroducing Wolves

This article originally appeared on Backpacker

Nearly three years after voters passed a ballot measure requiring Colorado to reintroduce gray wolves, state wildlife officials said on Friday that they had finally secured a source of the animals, paving the way for the first releases to take place by the end of the year.

In a press release, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) said it had come to an agreement with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to capture and relocate up to 10 wolves from the state.

"The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously in support of the wolf reintroduction plan," Colorado Governor Jared Polis wrote in the release. "We are deeply grateful for Oregon's partnership in this endeavor, and we are now one step closer to fulfilling the will of the voters in time."

In 2020, Colorado voters narrowly approved Proposition 114, a ballot measure that required the state to begin releasing gray wolves by the end of 2023, with 'yes' votes trumping the opposition by about 56,000 votes, or 1.8%. While the vote was a major victory for advocates, who had unsuccessfully pressured the state to study reintroducing wolves for years, actually finding wolves to reintroduce turned out to be a bigger obstacle than proponents had expected. Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho--all of whose state governments have pushed to reduce their wolf populations in recent years and have clashed with federal efforts to protect the animals--all declined to cooperate. While Washington's government didn't rule out sending wolves to Colorado, state wildlife spokesperson Julia Smith told the Fort Collins Coloradoan that it was "very unlikely" they would be able to meet Proposition 114’s strict deadline.

According to the plan outlined by the two states, CPW personnel will begin capturing wolves in Oregon in December; the wolves will come from the state's northeast, where they're most abundant. Staff will only select 1- to 5-year-old individuals in good health, and will attempt to avoid any with a known history of preying on livestock. After examining the wolves for disease, CPW will transport them by air or road to Colorado, where they'll immediately release them in pre-identified sites.

Colorado's current plan calls for the state to release 30 to 50 wolves in total over the course of three to five years. It's not yet clear whether the additional wolves specified there would also come from Oregon, or whether the state would source them from somewhere else. On Thursday, Shannon F. Wheeler, executive committee chairman of the Nez Perce, confirmed to Denver's 9NEWS that the tribe had been in talks with Colorado about providing wolves to CPW. Speaking to the station, Wheeler said that the Nez Perce "definitely would love to support the reintroduction" but that the tribe's government had not reached an agreement with the state yet.

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