Wolf Reintroduction

Liam Flynn

In 2020, Colorado voters decided whether they wanted wolves back in Colorado. I wanted to learn more about the question, “Do you think wolves should be introduced to Colorado and why?”

Personally, I think that reintroducing wolves could be a good thing for Colorado, but I think it’s pretty complicated. Because Proposition 114 which was a vote in 2020 that Colorado voters decided whether they wanted wolves back in Colorado. It was a really tight vote but it ended up winning, and got enacted into law so this year and for the past year CPW which is the Colorado Parks and Wildlife service has been coming up with a plan to do the introduction in a way that could be really successful but they’re running into some challenges because they are going to be reintroducing a Predator that hasn’t been introduced or been in Colorado for the last 200 years but had been in Colorado for 300,000 years prior to their removal.

Wolves are a predator some may say they’re apex predators they mainly hunt animals that are weak and sick so they vulnerabilities. This could be good for the environment because they are primarily hunting Animals that are sick. Also wolves have been shown to improve water sources because animals that graze like elk and deer are going to be their primary food sources, sometimes can cause water in certain areas to dry up and vegetation to die and not grow back. With the control of those populations maintain a healthy elk population and water supply and vegetation.

How will wolves being introduced affect humans?

It will affect humans a lot in Colorado because unlike some of the places that wolves have you been reintroduced in the US namely the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Yellowstone National Park Colorado has a lot more people so and these wolves will be reintroduced into areas like similar places like the Roaring Fork Valley that we live in and there’s populations of ranchers so people who own livestock for a living and sell it as well as Hunters who are hunting the elk in the deer populations to maintain them so it’s going to affect that might prey on some of the ranchers livestock and also that hunters might not be able to hunt as many elk. However, I know there’s a fear that wolves might attack humans but in a lot of the reintroduction methods and a lot of relationships with wolves around the world wolf attacks are very low and they’re not common at all they are likely to stay away from humans so I’m less concerned of you know run in be- that there’s going to be a lot of conversations with ranchers and hunters about how we can reintroduce wolves so there we’re not affecting their livelihood because even some ranchers are using their private land for hunters to hunt they’re not able to get as much business from Hunters on their land they might feel tempted to sell their land for our private development so the question is going to be about how we can ensure that people who own private land in Colorado can still feel that they can own the land for their purposes and that wolves aren’t taking over their their livelihood.