By Marilu C. Flores
The Endangered Species Coalition welcomes Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s shift to a more conservative, case-by-case approach to lethal wolf removals following livestock conflicts.
The announcement follows growing concerns about wolf deaths, disease detection, and the Trump administration’s decision to block additional wolf translocations in 2025.
“The decision to treat the success of the Colorado Wolf Restoration program with the appropriate sense of urgency is welcome,” said Ryan Sedgeley, Southern Rockies Representative for the Endangered Species Coalition. “Along with the threats the program has faced in Colorado, including poaching, wolves killed by CPW, and now disease, the Trump Administration has launched an all-out attack on wolves which threatens the recovery of the species.”
While CPW’s shift is encouraging, the Coalition maintains that a conservative approach should have been in place from the beginning. The agency must go further and implement a moratorium on all lethal wolf control.
Recent killings of yearling wolves by CPW, without establishing that those individual animals were responsible for livestock losses, underscore the need for change. Retaliatory killing is not a scientifically sound strategy for preventing future conflicts and undermines Colorado’s restoration efforts.
The Coalition applauds CPW’s commitment to expanding nonlethal conflict prevention, including range riding, technical assistance, and support for livestock producers. The state’s conflict mitigation program, funded in part by sales of the Born to Be Wild license plate, is critical to helping wolves and livestock coexist.
The Coalition also urges CPW leadership to move quickly to consider two citizen petitions addressing wolf damage compensation and chronic depredation. Both should be presented to the Parks and Wildlife Commission at its November meeting.
Finally, CPW must actively pursue additional wolf translocations for the 2026–2027 winter season to support a healthy, genetically diverse population.
“Thankfully, CPW has a talented and dedicated field staff working on preventing conflicts between wolves and livestock,” Sedgeley added. “Work that we support and think is critical to the success of the Colorado wolf restoration program.”
Colorado voters chose to restore wolves. CPW must now ensure that its management decisions protect that investment and give wolves a real chance to recover.
Marilu C. Flores writes on behalf of the Endangered Species Coalition.
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