Discovery of gray wolf pups won’t change Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s reintroduction work
Wildlife officials say the confirmation of the first wolf family in Colorado since the 1940s will help biologists establish more gray wolves in the state
That Colorado wildlife officials have sighted gray wolf pups in Colorado – the first in the state in 80 years — will not delay or slow the state’s voter-mandated reintroduction of the predators.
“The ballot measure requires the establishment of a self-sustaining population, and this pack is not a population,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Rebecca Ferrell said.
In November, voters narrowly approved a measure directing Colorado Parks and Wildlife to reintroduce wolves in Colorado by the end of 2023. The agency has launched a public campaign to gather input and form a reintroduction plan that includes species management strategies and a program to reimburse ranchers for livestock killed by wolves.
Phase one of that campaign — managed by the Keystone Policy Center and detailed at the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting Thursday in Trinidad — will include more than 40 meetings in the coming months. The center is planning 13 in-person open houses on wolf reintroduction on the Western Slope and 17 “geographic focus group” meetings in western Colorado. There are plans for 10 smaller, invitation-only meetings for groups of 15 to 20 participants around the state. And a statewide, online town hall meeting on wolves is planned as well. The agency will announce dates and specific locations for all those meetings soon.
Read more via The Colorado Sun.