Colorado’s gray wolf restoration, management plan receives final approval Wednesday
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A 2 ½-year process ended Wednesday when the state's Parks & Wildlife (CPW) Commission unanimously voted to finalize a voter-approved plan to return endangered gray wolves to the state for the first time since the 1940s.
The vote, during a two-hour discussion in Glenwood Springs, clears the way for wolves to begin returning by the end of the year; the plan involves relocating ten to 15 wolves -- annually for the next three to five years -- on the Northern Slope in northwest Colorado.
However, it remains unclear where CPW will obtain wolves, after Wyoming earlier this week announced it won't provide the animals.
"We're talking with the northern Rockies states -- states like Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington," said CPW spokesman Travis Duncan. "Those conversations have already been happening informally, and now those conversations will really begin in earnest ."
The commission also made changes to the initial version of the plan, to address possibly the most lingering concern -- how the state will compensate ranchers whose livestock are injured or killed in wolf attacks.
"The initial draft plan had the compensation amount at fair market value, or up to $8,000, and we heard from many folks who felt that wasn't enough," Duncan explained. "So that amount was raised to $15,000 per animal."
The final plan, he added, lays out specifics on what ranchers can and can't do to protect their livestock from wolves -- given that the species is endangered.
"We don't expect attacks to be common," Duncan said.
Gov. Jared Polis ended Wednesday's meeting by joining it online to congratulate the commission.
"This is a big ask of CPW.," he said. "I know it's not something that CPW asked for. It's something that the voters said 'CPW, you do.' And I'm so proud that DNR (Department of Natural Resources) and CPW rose to the occasion."
A petition drive in 2020 placed the wolf plan on the ballot, where it passed by a narrow margin of 51% to 49%.
To read the approved final plan, visit: https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/Commission/2023/May/Item.14-FINAL_Wolf_Plan_with_Appendices_PRINT-Brian_Dreher-DNR.pdf.
