Wildlife experts push for a wolf restoration plan

WildEarth Guardians, and 14 other conservation and wildlife organizations, released their "Colorado Wolf Restoration Plan." The plan will guide the reintroduction of gray wolves into the Colorado wild, following the passage of Proposition 114 in 2020. 

Proposition 114 calls for the re-establishment and maintenance of a self-sustaining population of gray wolves in part to help restore a critical balance in nature.

The plan includes the designation of reintroduction areas, sets a population goal, provides management guidelines, and outlines costs. There are 12 optimal areas for wolf reintroduction, which are dispersed throughout the Western Slope. The population goal for Colorado is about 150 packs, or approximately 750 wolves, which is based on the Western Slope's ability to sustain the population. 

The plan also addresses livestock loss prevention and compensation. Nonlethal deterrents and conflict minimization tactics are encourage, but it does account for the inevitability of some conflict and livestock loss. 

"This plan is critical to ensuring Colorado recovers wolves the right way, the first time," said Michelle Lute in a news release. 

Lute is a Ph.D. in wolf conservation and carnivore conservation director for Project Coyote. 

"All other wolf recovery efforts are mired in controversy because ineffective and counterproductive lethal methods are allowed. Nonlethal tools allow wolf populations at ecologically effective densities and coexistence with humans and domestic animals." 

WildEarth will present the plan to Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commissioners ahead of their meeting on July 21, 2022.