Wolf reintroduction might return to the Colorado poll subsequent yr.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Title Board on Wednesday authorized language for a proposed poll measure that may ask voters in 2026 to finish the reintroduction of grey wolves by the tip of that yr.
“The one factor we’re doing with this poll measure is asking voters to approve a day the place wolves would not be launched in Colorado by people,” mentioned Stan VanderWerf, a former El Paso County commissioner who helped write the poll measure. “This proposal doesn’t make another adjustments to state or provisions that handle the administration of wolves or reimbursement for depredation. It’s a quite simple proposal.”
Voters authorized Proposition 114 in November 2020, requiring Colorado Parks and Wildlife to make a plan to start reintroducing wolves to the Western Slope of Colorado by the tip of 2023. The wildlife company first launched 10 grey wolves captured in Oregon onto state land in Grand and Summit counties in December 2023.
After vehement objections from ranchers who misplaced livestock to the predators, the company adjusted its administration technique and launched 15 wolves captured in British Columbia in Eagle and Pitkin counties in January. One other 5 wolves that wildlife officers captured and relocated had been additionally launched in January. The state final month estimated there are 29 grey wolves within the state. On Feb. 5, state wildlife officers mentioned an uncollared grownup wolf believed to have migrated from Wyoming had killed cow in Jackson County.
The poll measure licensed CPW to launch 10 to fifteen wolves a yr over a 3 to 5 years to seed a sustainable inhabitants of 30 to 50 grey wolves in western Colorado.
If the Colorado Advocates for Good Wolf Coverage group gathers the 124,238 signatures required for statewide poll measures, the state’s voters might finish wolf reintroduction by the tip of 2026. By that point, it’s possible there might be 50 grey wolves in Colorado.
VanderWerf mentioned some voters who authorized wolf reintroduction “have purchaser’s regret” and assist is constructing to half reintroduction. As soon as the signature gathering course of begins, VanderWerf mentioned he expects “main funders” will get onboard.
The group’s first fundraising report is just not due till April, however VanderWerf mentioned the group has already raised “5 figures” and enlisted 700 volunteers to assist collect signatures.
The opposition marketing campaign that helped defeat a proposal to ban mountain lion searching in November raised $1.9 million from searching and ranching teams and VanderWerf mentioned “we’re already tapped into that infrastructure.”
VanderWerf mentioned the November 2020 vote was “poll field biology” and voters are recognizing that wildlife points “are finest left to wildlife biologists who’ve good scientific data.”
“What’s occurred is unfair to ranchers, unfair to hunters and unfair to CPW. And it’s unfair to wolves,” he mentioned. “We took wolves from the pure setting in Canada and we put them in a spot the place there’s no manner they will exist with out battle.”
Wolf advocates might be preventing the poll proposal.
“That is so petty,” mentioned Rob Edward with the Rocky Mountain Wolf Challenge, which is elevating cash this month to assist buy fladry, lights and path cameras to assist ranchers higher shield livestock. “This extremist group might spend one million or extra serving to ranchers adapt to wolves on the bottom. As an alternative they will throw cash down that gap and stir individuals’s confusion about what’s happening with wolves. The actual fact is the Colorado wolf program is, bar none, a fantastic instance of fine state wildlife administration.”
