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Community editorial: Colorado’s growing wolf quagmire

This week’s drama surrounding the 15 wolves slated for imminent release (if they haven’t been already) leaves us further convinced that forgoing a pause in those efforts was a missed opportunity for everyone.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission voted 10-1 to reject a citizen petition requesting a pause in wolf reintroduction efforts until certain criteria were met. The vote was in line with the recommendation of CPW’s staff, which stated that the petition’s criteria had already been met.

So, of course that would mean ongoing reintroduction efforts would be smooth sailing — except that they weren’t.



CPW has taken a clandestine approach to reintroducing the latest batch of wolves, shrouding efforts in secrecy from the public, elected officials and the media. This is understandable to a degree, given that threats have been made to kill the wolves upon release. At the same time, it helped foster an environment of paranoia and misinformation throughout the Roaring Fork Valley this week.

Rumors swirled through the valley about seeing a CPW truck here, there and everywhere before they finally culminated in a finger pointed at a Pitkin County ranch. A digital news outlet threw more gasoline on the fire by running with the rumor in a story published Wednesday. Although the new outlet later corrected the story and added an Editor’s note at the very top, the damage was already done. Men dressed in camouflage carrying firearms drove through an open gate, past a no-trespassing sign and into the ranch looking for wolves — the owner of the ranch aptly described them as “yahoos.”



“This is putting the safety of my family, the livestock, the wolves, all in jeopardy, and all of the allegations were false,” the ranch owner told the Aspen Times on Thursday.

It’s a sad example of the level of heat some people are bringing to wolf reintroduction in Colorado. We can be disappointed but not surprised when CPW is so secretive given actions like these. At the same time, secrecy can help fuel a vicious cycle of misinformation. More openness could have prevented this Pitkin County rancher from wrongly becoming the focus of so much anger.

This isn’t to say we don’t trust CPW or think they deserve all of the criticism being leveled at them right now  — they’re in the unfortunate position of carrying out the will of the voters who narrowly approved wolf reintroduction in 2020. But we believe that wolf reintroduction can happen at a much slower rate and still meet the letter of the law. It might be too late to hit pause of the 15 sets of paws soon to be on the ground in Colorado (again, if they aren’t already), but it’s not too late to slow it from here on out and give everyone from the public to CPW to ag producers to wolf advocates a moment to catch our breath and figure out a better way forward. The way things are going right now, it just doesn’t seem like we’re setting anyone up to be successful.

The Post Independent editorial board members are Publisher Peter Baumann and community representatives John Stroud, Mark Fishbein and Amy Connerton.


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