Efforts underway to stop wolf reintroduction in Colorado with popular vote
By Spencer Wilson
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Colorado (KCNC) — After a failed attempt to halt wolf reintroduction, Coloradans who are not happy with the wolf reintroduction plan are trying a new tactic, and one that has the potential to change the course of the wildlife landscape: a popular vote in 2026.
Patrick Davis, Campaign Manager for Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy and the man spearheading the movement, said he believes the tide has turned in Colorado. He said there are fewer people excited about wolf reintroduction than there are in support of it now. Davis believes stories of predation at ranches have been a driving force.
“I believe that Front Range voters are starting to read those stories and be more sensitive to the plight of their fellow Coloradans and not necessarily the hopes and dreams of the pro-wolf community,” Davis said.
That’s why he’s looking to produce a petition for people to sign starting around mid-March. Just like any petition, to get onto the ballot for an upcoming election, they will need a target number of signatures and people to collect them in the span of six months.
Davis is shooting for 20,000 signatures, in the event a couple hundred are thrown out for various reasons. He believes this will give Coloradans the opportunity to speak again on the issue, and feels the legislation is unlikely to do anything about wolves any time soon.
“They’re probably not likely to do that since this was passed by a vote of the people,” Davis said. “The legislators are unlikely to reverse something that the people voted on. So that’s why we thought that we had to take this back to the people and have the people make this decision about repealing this law. We have to.”
The move would not seek to eliminate the current wolves placed in Colorado from Oregon, explained Davis. Nor would it stop the new batch of ten to fifteen wolves from British Columbia which Colorado Parks and Wildlife have said could be here in the next week or two. Davis said the vote is an effort to stop bringing new wolves into the state.
“Our goal is to reverse a wrong that we believe happened in 2020 and maybe start fresh,” Davis said. “I don’t know where it goes from there, but our first step is to stop the bleeding and to get the wolf reintroduction repealed in November of 2026.”
He believes the damage to ranching communities and rural mountain towns where the wolves have been introduced, and will be reintroduced, is significant and deserves more action than is being taken. He expects he might get support from some wolf supporters as well, considering three wolves have died in the reintroduction efforts.
“In the end, this is really unfair to the wolves themselves,” Davis said. “Look, we introduced wolves that were not familiar to Colorado into our environment, and we expected them to not act like the apex predators that they are…but a wolf is going to be a wolf and they’re going to find something to eat.”
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