As feds’ new stance against Canadian-sourced wolves throws wrench in Colorado’s plans, what’s next?

The contemporary roadblock thrown in front of Colorado s voter-mandated wolf reintroduction by the Trump administration may force state wildlife representatives to find a new source of wolves just months before the next planned releases this winter Colorado Parks and Wildlife had contracted again with Canada for wolves to bring to the state after finding insufficient willing sources within the United States But a letter sent to CPW by the new head of the U S Fish and Wildlife System last month warned that doing so would violate a legal agreement between the two agencies The letter was the biggest indication yet of a major change in the federal executive branch s stance on Colorado s wolf reintroduction since President Donald Trump returned to office In fact it marked an about-face from the Fish and Wildlife Provision s position just last winter leading several wildlife advocacy groups to say the new position is solely political This is just plain politics and trying to throw sand in the gears of progress explained Tom Delehanty a senior attorney with Earthjustice s Rocky Mountain Office If CPW cannot use Canadian wolves and cannot find another source for this winter s releases domestically the delay would be a win for a multitude of of Colorado s ranching groups For more than a year the groups have pushed for a pause in releases to allow the state to implement more conflict mitigation programs That is ultimately our stance it s not to end the wolf plan it s exclusively to take a breather explained Erin Spaur executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen s Association Before the current shift the federal agency had consulted with CPW on the greater part fresh wolf release last winter as well as on the contract signed this month between CPW and the British Columbia provincial cabinet that would provide more wolves this coming winter CPW spokesman Luke Perkins explained The agency has complied with all state and federal laws he noted Amid the uncertainty CPW is evaluating all possible sources for this winter s release Perkins commented In the past the agency struggled to find a state in the Western U S that was willing to help with the reintroduction operation CPW and Gov Jared Polis office are talking with the Department of the Interior about the letter governor s spokesman Eric Maruyama commented The state of Colorado and Colorado Parks and Wildlife are committed to fulfilling the will of Colorado voters and look forward to the continued reintroduction of gray wolves in line with the management plan unanimously adopted by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission he commented Colorado Parks and Wildlife staffers release wolf -OR one of five gray wolves captured in Oregon in an initial batch in late December onto constituents land in Grand County Colorado on Monday Dec Photo provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife Does letter characterize law correctly The Fish and Wildlife s Oct letter alleges that Colorado is obligated to source wolves for its reintroduction from the areas in the American West where they are not listed under the Endangered Species Act Idaho Montana Wyoming and the eastern thirds of Oregon and Washington The letter cites the original agreement between the federal agency and CPW that gives the state agency the authority to manage wolves here called a j rule But that s not what the rule states In the document s section titled Release procedures it says CPW authorities plan to capture wild gray wolves in cooperating States in the Western United States where wolves are federally delisted The rule document later states that those areas are the preferred donor population but does not implement any requirements or rule out alternate sources The j rule just doesn t say what they claim it says Delehanty stated of the Fish and Wildlife Operation s new letter Another document from the FWS also states Colorado can source wolves from other places outside the Rockies The environmental impact comment that accompanied the j rule says wolves in the Great Lakes region can be an option if wolves from the Western U S are not available though it doesn t say anything about international sources The state s wolf plan doesn t contemplate Canada as a foreseen source but it also does not require a specific source It states that the reintroduction will be undertaken by CPW in cooperation with Federal agencies potentially affected Tribes and the states of Idaho Montana and or Wyoming from which wild wolves will be transferred via agreement In the event that none of these three states can serve as source sites for wolf donor populations CPW has also begun to explore an agreement with the states of Washington and or Oregon A carcass of a heifer that was killed by a wolf lies in a field at Don and Kim Gittleson s ranch on January near Walden Colorado The affair occurred before Colorado's first reintroduced wolves were circulated and was blamed on a wolf that wandered into the state Photo by RJ Sangosti The Denver Post More indications of politics Republican politicians and specific Democrats have taken up the ranching communities opposition to the reintroduction Greg Lopez a former short-term congressman who is running for the Republican nomination in the Colorado governor s race has sent several letters to Fish and Wildlife Facility leadership challenging the reintroduction In September he and the heads of the Colorado Outfitters Association and the Colorado Wool Growers Association sent a letter to the regional FWS head asking for a pause in the reintroduction In October after CPW had already received the FWS leader s letter he and several livestock and hunting organizations sent another letter challenging the importation of Canadian wolves The author of the FWS letter to the state agency Director Brian Nesvik previously led the Wyoming Challenge and Fish Department before his confirmation as head of the federal agency in August He was the head of the Wyoming wildlife agency in when the state s leadership forcibly rejected the idea of allowing Colorado to capture wolves there for reintroduction Nesvik s tenure also included overseeing a controversial affair where a man ran down a wolf with a snowmobile before taping the injured animal s mouth shut for posed pictures at a bar The man then killed the wolf Nesvik s department issued the man a fine which wildlife advocates criticized as too lenient This video still from a remote camera video shows a wolf pup from the King Mountain Pack and was taken in Routt County during the summer of At least four pups were born to the pack in Video still via Colorado Parks and Wildlife Previous sourcing of wolves Earlier Colorado leaders struggled to find a state in the Western U S that would provide them with wolves for the reintroduction venture set in motion by voters through a ballot initiative Related Articles Official gov site for South Platte Ranger District blasts Radical Left Democrats but Trump is the king of a deal Letters Trump administration tells Colorado wolves must come from U S Rockies states not Canada Colorado s wolves wander farther west in state new map shows Wolf killed in northwest Colorado was likely hit by car CPW says Bid to halt Colorado s wolf reintroduction through ballot is the latest strategy to fail What s next The first batch of wolves issued in December came from Oregon CPW personnel had first demanded Idaho Montana and Wyoming for wolves but were rejected They also spoke with Washington state wildlife executives who at the time declared they could not provide wolves for the first release but indicated that they were open to further conversations CPW in struck a deal with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington but the tribes backed out after speaking with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe which has reservation land in Colorado The agency then turned to British Columbia where it captured wolves before releasing them on the Western Slope in January The wolf management plan calls for the release of - wolves over a three- to five-year period and wildlife bureaucrats have previously revealed this winter s release could be the last Twenty-one collared wolves right now roam Colorado and at least pups were born this summer in the state s four named packs Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter