Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) has released its draft plan to officially bring wolves into the state by the end of 2023. Get ready to submit comments because public input may be given until late February 2023.
The 293-page Draft Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan was presented to the CPW Commission during a virtual meeting on Dec. 9. The commission will now review the plan and take feedback from the public before approving a final plan.
Plan highlights
CPW will reintroduce 30-50 wolves over the next three to five years, which amounts to 10-15 animals per year. Wolves will most likely be taken from populations in the northern Rocky Mountains and released on Colorado state and cooperating private lands. Wolves will be placed in areas west of the Continental Divide, with a 60-mile buffer zone from neighboring states.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently working on a process to designate the Colorado wolf population as experimental under Section 10(j) of the Endangered Species Act. As populations increase, the gray wolf may be downlisted from a state endangered species to a state threatened species. If the population recovers to a level of 150 wolves for two successive years or 200 wolves with no time constraint, wolves will be removed from Colorado’s threatened and endangered species list.
Wolves will be tracked with GPS monitoring collars. The plan describes an “impact-based management” strategy. Wolves are expected to cause both negative and positive impacts in the state, and if they are causing a negative impact, CPW will use management tools to resolve issues. These tools include education, nonlethal tools and, on rare occasions, lethal management.
The plan does not permit regulated wolf hunting.
Livestock conflicts
“Providing fair compensation to livestock owners for economic losses when livestock are injured or killed by wolves is a legally required and critically important part of the Plan,” the plan read.
CPW may provide conflict minimization tools to livestock producers on a case-by-case basis, which could include fladry, shell crackers, propane cannons and fox lights.
CPW’s wolf-livestock compensation program provides 100% fair market value compensation, up to $8,000 per animal, for a confirmed livestock death or injury from wolves. The plan also allows for the reimbursement of veterinarian costs for the treatment of injured livestock or guard/herding animals.
Conflict minimization techniques are not required to be eligible for compensation, but CPW will work with producers to implement conflict minimization to reduce the risk of further depredations.
“Livestock owners may either apply for missing calf/sheep losses through a basic compensation ratio (i.e., number of calves or sheep compensated per confirmed depredation) or apply for itemized production losses (i.e., missing calves or sheep, decreased weaning weights, conception rates and additional losses on a case-by-case basis) by providing specific baseline documentation,” the plan read.
This allows producers to choose whether they pursue a more simplified process versus one that will require additional documentation, the plan said. In addition, it would allow producers to seek production loss compensation based on documentation when damage amounts are greater than what is covered by the compensation ratio.
Wolf predation reimbursements will not be sourced from hunting and fishing license fees or associated federal grants; instead, CPW will pursue a variety of funding sources, the plan said.
The final draft plan will be presented on April 6, 2023, and will be streamed on YouTube. Public comments will be taken again. The final plan will be released on May 3-4, 2023, in Glenwood Springs, CO, and the commission will vote on the approval of the plan.
Share your input
A form for public comment can be found at engagecpw.org. Comments will be taken until Feb. 22, 2023.
There will be five statewide meetings held to gather public input. The following are hearing dates and locations:
• Jan. 19, 2023: Colorado Springs, CO, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Jan. 25, 2023: Gunnison, CO, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Feb. 7, 2023: Rifle, CO, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• Feb. 16, 2023: Zoom meeting, 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
• Feb. 22, 2023: Denver, CO, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The in-person hearings will begin with CPW providing an overview of the plan, and all meetings will provide time for questions and discussion. For more information on how to attend a meeting, visit cpw.state.co.us and search for “submit public comments.”
Enviro backlash
Conservation groups said the draft plan falls short in its statutory mandate to make decisions based on the best available science.
“We’d like to see more incorporation of components of the Colorado Wolf Restoration Plan that WildEarth Guardians and our partners put forward this summer, including increased population goals, prohibition of killing wolves on public lands, and the explicit preclusion of any recreational wolf hunt as part of a final plan in order for Colorado to set the stage for recovery and coexistence,” said Lindsay Larris, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians.
“After voters approved wolf introduction in the state, Colorado Parks and Wildlife handed over writing the wolf plan to groups dominated by ranchers and officials accustomed to killing wolves elsewhere,” the Center for Biological Diversity said in an online petition. The group urges people to reject the “political draft plan” and “turn instead to science.” — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
