An anti-wolf group’s map indicates Colorado is unfit for the animals. It’s full of inaccuracies.
Is the Colorado Conservation Alliance’s Western Wolf Habitat story map proof or propaganda?
Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Courtesy Photo
Acoalition working since at least 2023 to stop wolf reintroduction in Colorado has a new map they say proves the state is a terrible place for wolves. But Colorado Parks and Wildlife says the map is full of inaccuracies and a biologist who’s been involved in wolf reintroduction since its inception calls it “useless and grossly misleading.”
The Colorado Conservation Alliance released a storymap of Western Slope Wolf Habitat in February, and a spokesperson for the group said it shows “facts” that should have been revealed prior to voters choosing whether or not to pass Proposition 114 in 2020.
Those facts are centered around Colorado’s landmass and how it “sounds like a lot of land that an introduced wolf population could thrive in,” the map’s creator, Eric Pennal, wrote on the map, but “there is more land that cannot be considered suitable than can.”
Wolf reintroduction began after Coloradans voted for it 51% to 49% in 2020. Ten wolves captured in Oregon were released in Grand and Summit counties in December 2023 and another 15 captured in British Columbia were released in Eagle and Pitkin counties in January. In its most recent report, CPW said 29 collared wolves are ranging widely throughout the state.
Read more from Tracy Ross at ColoradoSun.com.
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