A nearly three-year process ended May 3rd when the state’s Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously voted to finalize a voter approved plan to return endangered gray wolves to the state for the first time since the 1940’s.
The vote clears the way for wolves to begin returning by the end of the year; the plan involves relocating 10 to 15 wolves annually for the next three to five years on the Northern Slope in northwest Colorado.
The commission also made changes to the initial version of the plan, to address possibly the most lingering concern—how the state will compensate ranchers whose livestock are injured or killed in wolf attacks.
A petition drive in 2020 placed the wolf plan on the ballot, where it passed by the narrow margin of 51% to 49%.
