Attention Colorado voters: Help protect the future of wolf recovery in Colorado!

Colorado’s first wolf pack of the 2023 reintroduction has been removed from the wild.

Pressured by a few vocal ranchers, Colorado Parks and Wildlife recently captured the entire Copper Creek Pack, the first breeding pair and litter of the December 2023 reintroduction, with the intention to relocate them.

This decision was not based in the best-available science and marks a major setback in wolf-human coexistence in Colorado.

To ensure wolf recovery has a chance to succeed, Colorado Parks and Wildlife must adopt a rule that requires all agency-recommended nonlethal conflict mitigation measures be exhausted before considering any lethal removal or relocation of wolves in response to livestock depredation or threat of livestock depredation.

Send your message before the September 27 deadline to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission calling for a rule that ensures short-term and short-sighted solutions do not happen again.

Message

CPW Commissioners

CPW

Commission

CPW Commission

Dear CPW Commissioners,

As a Coloradan who cares deeply about seeing wolves restored to our state, I was very upset to hear that Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) decided to relocate our only breeding pack of wolves. Relocating young pups puts their survival at risk, and wolf experts have suggested that relocation is not an effective solution for addressing wolf-livestock conflict.

I urge you to require that all agency-recommended nonlethal conflict mitigation measures be exhausted before considering the lethal removal or relocation of wolves. When appropriate tools and strategies are employed promptly, correctly, and collaboratively, we can effectively reduce the number of wolf-livestock conflicts and help avoid a repeat of recent events.

Voter-approved Proposition 114 struck a balance – science-based management for wolves with compensation and support for livestock producers. To jeopardize the state’s only successfully-breeding pack this early into the reintroduction effort could significantly setback progress towards the state’s goal of restoring a viable, self-sustaining wolf population. Given the risks that relocations pose to wolf pups and the reintroduction effort overall, I strongly ask that you share with the public why and how this decision was made.

I thank CPW for resisting the hasty demands of certain ranchers to kill the Copper Creek Pack, but urge it to share what lessons were learned from this experience with the Commission and the public to ensure these situations will be handled differently in the future. To start, please use your authority to issue rules requiring timely and good-faith effort to implement all CPW- and Colorado Department of Agriculture-recommended nonlethal conflict mitigation techniques before considering lethal or nonlethal removal of wolves.

I strongly support CPW’s efforts to bring wolves back to Colorado but implore you to stand firm, improve transparency, and trust in the science behind proven coexistence measures. Wolves, livestock and people can thrive together with continued patience and collaboration.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
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