When ill-informed urban voters unleashed wolves on rural Colorado — by less than a 1% vote margin — they enacted a failure. Since introduction, wolves have killed at nearly two dozen heads of livestock this year — not including undocumented kills — and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) seeks more wolves.
Thankfully, people who know and care about wolves — those who have lived with them in more appropriate environments — are catching on.
Though state officials kept quiet about it for more than a month, their latest effort to introduce more wolves has been rejected by the anticipated donor. The Gazette’s news partner, 9 News Denver, discovered last week that the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, in Washington, told CPW officials on June 11 they had rescinded an offer to capture and donate 15 wolves to Colorado.
CPW officials kept this development secret until informing the agency’s commission nearly two months later, on July 30. The public found out that day when Steamboat Radio reported what the CPW commission had just learned.
While CPW officials should have immediately informed its board and the public, one cannot reasonably blame the agency for this predictably disastrous reintroduction scheme. CPW experts likely would have opposed reintroduction if the agency were not statutorily apolitical.
Though a slim majority of voters romanticize wolves roaming the countryside — away from their children and pets — few had studied the issue to know whether Colorado was a proper environment for doing this. It is not. There are too many people settled on the Western Slope — a region increasingly attractive to developers and urban newcomers. That means too many likely conflicts between wolves, livestock, pets and — God forbid — human beings enjoying the wilderness.
Rural Coloradans have complained since the earliest predations that CPW officials aren’t properly communicating with them. CPW officials agree.
“We need to do a better job of communicating with ranchers and their communities after depredations occur,” said CPW Deputy Director Reid DeWalt, while updating the commission in July in Meeker and failing to mention the tribal council’s refusal to donate wolves. “Events this April taught us that despite best and good faith efforts, it is easy for communications to fall short and for significant mistrust to develop. I know this is a major priority for us, CPW, going forward.”
Tribal authorities cited poor communication as one reason for canceling the deal.
“Based on new information regarding the proposed reintroduction project in Colorado, and that we have now learned that the State of Colorado has failed to consult with the Southern Ute Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation cannot agree to the request made by the State of Colorado to provide wolves for this project at this time,” states a letter from the Colville Tribes, dated June 6.
Colorado’s wolf reintroduction is such a bad idea that Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have also refused to provide wolves.
The Colville Tribes — along with authorities in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming — deserve accolades for acting in the best interests of American Indians and other rural Coloradans for declining to help with a program that jeopardizes people, pets, livestock and wolves. Given the level of rural anxiety regarding this failed project, wolves face the grave danger of rural residents killing them in sheer anger and frustration.
All potential donors of wolves should follow the lead of Colville tribal leaders and three states. For the sake of wolves and rural Coloradans, say “no” when Colorado comes asking for wolves the state cannot manage and protect.
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Publish date : 2024-08-13 00:00:00
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