Another Western state has decided it will not provide wolves for reintroduction efforts in Colorado, citing federal regulation and disagreements over how wolves should be managed.
Idaho Department of Fish and Game Director Jim Fredericks denied Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s request for the wolves in a June 6 letter, first reported by KUSA-TV in Denver. Fredericks cited failures of federal restrictions on wolf management in Idaho, wolves’ “unacceptable effects” on elk and deer populations and distrust between conservation groups, ranchers and others due to disagreements about how to manage the species.
“Unfortunately, the experience in Idaho leads us to conclude that the negative effects of wolves sent to Colorado do not stay in Colorado,” Fredericks wrote.
Colorado voters in 2020 decided to reintroduce gray wolves and ordered state wildlife officials to do so by December 31, 2023, but Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials have yet to get an agreement with another state willing to donate the first animals.
Colorado has sent requests for wolves to Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Joey Livingston said in an email. It does not request wolves from Wyoming, where the governor opposes introduction efforts in Colorado.
“CPW does not anticipate having to request wolves from states outside of the Northern Rockies,” Livingston said in an email. “CPW will work to exhaust all options for potential sources. We expect to find a solution in time to release the wolves before the deadline of December 31, 2023.
The Wildlife Subcommittee of the Fish and Wildlife Commission in Washington discussed Colorado’s request for wolves during a June 22 meeting but did not make a decision or recommendation.
“It is our understanding that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission are continuing to consider whether they can provide wolves to Colorado at some point,” Livingston said.
Colorado Wildlife officials plan to release 10 to 15 wolves on the Western Slope each year for the next three to five years.
The state of Idaho is paying “a huge price” to have wolves in the state, Frederick wrote in his letter to Colorado officials.
The state pays to monitor its wolves and to compensate owners of animals killed by wolves as well as legal costs related to litigation around the species, he wrote. Decisions about how to manage wolves also lead to conflict between “rural communities, hunters, trappers, outdoor recreation users, agricultural interests, wolf advocates, conservation organizations and government entities,” he wrote.
“The result is a scar on many of the relationships that are important to future conservation efforts,” Fredericks said.
Federal wildlife officials are considering the protection status of gray wolves in the Western US While the species is listed as endangered in most of the country, it is under the management of the states of the Northern Rockies: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and parts of Washington, Oregon and Utah. That means states can decide whether to allow hunting and trapping of wolves.
Fredericks said he’s more open to giving wolves in Colorado a species that is under state management.
“Idaho is concerned with expanding the scope of our potential biological and social conflict over wolves rather than reducing it,” Fredericks wrote.
But wolves in Colorado are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act. Colorado wildlife officials will ask federal authorities for a designation that would allow them to more easily manage wolves in the state.
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Citation: Another Western state says it won’t send wolves to Colorado, citing ‘huge cost’ to manage species (2023, July 24) retrieved July 25, 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-07-western-state-wont-wolves-colorado.html
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