Under the FWS plan, wildlife managers may carry out harassment, nonlethal control measures, relocation, placement in captivity, or lethal control of repeatedly depredating wolves.Īlthough a few wolves currently reside in Colorado (the result of migration from Wyoming), FWS determined that there is no existing “population” of wolves in the state since the agency defines that as “at least two breeding pairs of wild wolves successfully raising at least two young each year (until December 31 of the year of their birth), for two consecutive years.”įWS reports that only one breeding pair had been identified in Colorado as of 2021, and no reproduction was documented in the spring of 2022 or spring of 2023 “therefore, these two criteria have not been met. Under FWS’s plan, the federal agency will grant authority to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to establish an experimental population of gray wolves in Colorado.įWS will designate the entire state of Colorado as a “nonessential experimental” area for wolves, granting Colorado flexibility in management of wolves within its boundaries (whether their origin is through natural dispersal or through reintroduction, or resulting from both). Wolves in Colorado are currently federally protected as an endangered species, limiting the ability of wolf managers to use the killing or “take” of wolves to address conflicts (such as when wolves repeatedly attack livestock or working animals). Just as the FWS did when reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s, the federal agency proposes to treat the Colorado wolf population as a “nonessential experimental” population, in essence treating wolves as threatened rather than fully endangered. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) will make dealing with problem wolves a lot easier. Although it appears there is no stopping Colorado’s voter-mandated gray wolf reintroduction program, a draft federal record of decision issued last Friday by the U.S.
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