Take ACTION to make Colorado a welcoming place for wolves

Last month, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) released its draft wolf restoration and management plan that will guide wolf reintroduction in the state. The plan is set to be finalized by the CPW Commission this May after a series of public meetings across the state over the next two months. Work still needs to be done to ensure the finalized plan is grounded in science and ethical coexistence.

In July, Project Coyote and our partners provided CPW with an alternate wolf restoration plan that offered a science-based alternative plan to guide successful reintroduction and effective recovery. Now we need your help to ensure the best elements of our alternate plan are adopted by the Commission.
Join us in urging the Commission to make Colorado a welcoming place for wolves!

Here’s how you can help:

1. Colorado residents: Attend an upcoming public meeting in person to voice your support for wolves. At the meeting, share your personalized testimony asking the Commissioners to adopt a wolf plan based on science and ethical coexistence. Draft your testimony using the talking points below. Plan to keep your testimony under 2-3 minutes.
   • Upcoming meetings (click the linked location below for more details on a specific meeting):
     • January 19 – Colorado Springs – In-person only
     • January 25 – Gunnison – In-person only
     • February 7 – Rifle – In-person only
     • February 16 – Virtual (registration form here)
     • February 22 – Denver – In-person only

—2. Colorado AND out of state residents: Submit written comments via this online formby February 22nd. Craft your comments in your own words using the talking points below.

• You can either fill your comment into the comment box or upload a separate document.
• For question number 6 “What topics of the plan does your comment address? (select all that apply)”: Select all of the topics that apply to your comment or if you’re unsure select “I don’t know/general comment”

—3. Write a Letter to the Editor (LTE) for your local newspaper. 

• Encourage readers to support wolf recovery grounded in science and ethical coexistence in Colorado.
• Use the talking points below and check out our tips on writing LTEs.
• Spread the word by sharing this alert with others and encouraging them to take action.

Talking Points – Please personalize!

• Wolf management in Colorado should focus on reintroducing and conserving the species using an ecosystem-based approach that ensures the return of healthy and self-sustaining populations across suitable habitats while promoting ethical human-wolf coexistence.
  • Wolf populations should be allowed to flourish to ensure the restoration of the full ecological benefits the species brings to ecosystems. In contrast, CPW plans to reintroduce 10-15 wolves each year for three to four consecutive years and  downlist from endangered status once 50 wolves exist and from threatened status once 150 wolves exist anywhere in the state. These plans are not enough to ensure flourishing and self-sustaining wolf populations across the landscape.
  • Instead, CPW should introduce more wolves onto the landscape and focus on successful breeding pairs instead of individual wolves as a metric of successful reintroduction efforts and a criteria for downlisting their protected status. CPW should reintroduce at least 48 wolves over the first two years with at least one breeding pair in each of the 12 wolf reintroduction zones for at least two years. Downlisting to threatened status should only occur after there are at least 30 successful breeding pairs across four consecutive years, and occupy at least eight of the 13 wolf pack reintroduction zones. Delisting to non-game status should only occur after 75 successful breeding pairs are present for four consecutive years, and occupy at least 10 of the 13 wolf pack zones.
• The wolf restoration plan should reflect broad public values that support strengthened protections for wolves and reflect low public support for recreational hunting.
  • The wolf restoration plan should remove the proposed Phase 4 management status allowing wolves to be classified as a “game” species, potentially allowing recreational hunting. Classification as a game species is in direct conflict with public values against recreational hunting and Proposition 114, which requires the species be managed as a “nongame” species.
• Proposition 114 requires CPW to develop a wolf restoration plan that will “restore and manage gray wolves in Colorado, using the best scientific data available.” The wolf restoration and management plan must comply with the best available science by law.
  • The current draft restoration plan suggests that wolves are fully restored when 200 individuals are observed in the state with no specific timeframe. Studies show that the west slope region of Colorado could support a population of over 1,000 wolves. In addition, Frankham et al. (2014)suggested that genetically effective population sizes of at least 1,000 are required to ensure the long-term viability of the species.
  • Therefore, CPW should adhere to 1,000 wolves as a minimum requirement to reach the statutory mandate of a “self-sustaining” population guided by best available science.
• The wolf restoration plan should prioritize and concentrate solely on non-lethal management of wolves in response to livestock conflicts to ensure proper recovery of wolves in Colorado and ethical coexistence between wolves and livestock. Several studies have proven a proactive non-lethal approach to reduce livestock conflicts leads to better conflict mitigation. The proposition 114 statute also requires CPW to assist livestock producers in preventing and resolving wolf conflicts with livestock.
  • Lethal management often fails to provide a long-term solution to wolf-livestock conflict and has the least consistent success rates when compared to non-lethal practices. In addition, there is significant evidence showing that lethal wolf management may be less functionally effective at mitigating subsequent livestock losses than non-lethal deterrents.
  • CPW’s wolf livestock compensation fund should require the use of non-lethal conflict minimization techniques by livestock owners as a requirement to receive compensation for confirmed depredations.
• The wolf restoration plan should strictly curtail any lethal management of wolves except in extremely rare circumstances of immediate defense of life.
  • A substantial body of research documenting human-caused mortality in North American wolves has found that policies allowing liberalized killing of wolves result in a direct increase in the hazard and incidence of illegal killings (Louchouarn et al. 2021, Santiago-Ávila et al. 2022, Santiago-Ávila et al. 2020, Treves et al. 2021).
• As recommended by wolf biologists who advise Mexican wolf recovery, the Colorado wolf restoration plan should include the introduction of a subpopulation of Mexican gray wolves in the southern region of Colorado. Such a subpopulation could connect to the existing population, providing this critically endangered subspecies with much-needed genetic diversity and resilience.

Thank you for helping wolves in Colorado!