By Rob Edward
Last weekend, on the 30th anniversary of the restoration of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) began the process of this winter’s wolf release season.
Just as the 1995 reintroductions in central Idaho and Greater Yellowstone ensured a population across the Canadian and U.S. Northern Rockies, the Colorado reintroduction ensures that the Southern Rockies will once again be home to the gray wolf.
Thirty years ago to the day, the first gray wolves returned to our first national park, and now new wolves will return to the vast wildlands of western Colorado. Western Colorado is the central link in the restoration of gray wolves throughout the Rocky Mountains, and it is fitting that it falls on the 30th anniversary of the first releases in our first national park.
Rocky Mountain Wolf Project board member Matt Barnes, a rangeland scientist who previously worked with ranchers in Montana and Wyoming, underscored the unique nature of Colorado’s wolf restoration efforts.
“Colorado is better prepared today than any of the Northern Rocky Mountain states were, when the National Park Service reintroduced wolves thirty years ago.
“Colorado is the first state to have a wolf management plan that ranchers and wildlife restorationists agreed to, and since CPW released that plan, Colorado has made a massive investment in conflict minimization. For example, the range rider program led by the CDA and CPW will put trained riders on the ground to reduce livestock vulnerability during the critical periods of spring calving and summer grazing on mountain rangeland. Only two other states have comparable state-led range rider programs.”
The thousands of Coloradans who have purchased the ‘Born to be Wild’ license plate, a bipartisan solution that raised a whopping $641,950 in its first year, will help fund the Colorado range rider program.
“CPW has continued its professional implementation of the Colorado wolf restoration plan. The additional wolves will help to both ensure the success of the effort and protect the investments already made. With the support of Colorado’s voters and the CPW Commission, the future is bright for Colorado’s wolves,” said Gary Skiba, Rocky Mountain Wolf Project Board Member and San Juan Citizens Alliance Wildlife Program Manager.
The Rocky Mountain Wolf Project is dedicated to the restoration of gray wolves to their historic range in the Rocky Mountain West. Through education, advocacy, and collaboration, the Project seeks to foster coexistence and restore vitality to ecosystems where wolves once thrived.
Rob Edward writes for the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project.