Division of Wildlife Begins Forums on Management Plan
By VIVIENNE JANNATPOUR
Colorado Daily Staff
March 1, 2004
For the first time in over 70 years, wolves are about to become a hotly debated topic in Colorado.
Experts say it's likely wolves will be migrating back into Colorado in the near future, though exactly when that will happen is not known.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) has determined that the western population of wolves now in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, is doing well enough that the service is working to delist western gray wolves from the federal threatened list by the end of the year, leaving individual state wildlife agencies responsible for regulating wolf management.
On Tuesday, the Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) will host the first of six meetings across the state to gather public opinion to initiate a state wolf management plan.
"What we want to hear from people is what their concerns are and what they believe should be addressed in a management plan," said Gary Skiba, Multi-Species Coordinator for the DOW Species Conservation Section.
Many interested parties are expected to attend and voice their concerns, said Skiba, including Sinapu, the Colorado-based wolf restoration group, the Colorado Farm Bureau, the Colorado Cattlemen's Association and the Colorado Wool Growers Association.
"Our policy is fairly simple" said Miles Davies of the Colorado
Cattlemen's Association, "We don't want wolves."
He added that he believes that wolves were never intended to mix with people and should not
be allowed in Colorado. "You could ship them back from where they came
from, you wouldn't necessarily have to shoot them," he said.
Other organizations accept that wolves are inevitably going to migrate to Colorado and that a state management plan is necessary, though painful.
"This is going to be a long year trying to get a plan in place that everybody thinks they can live with. We'd rather not have them here but they're going to show up and we need to try to deal with that," said Bonnie Kline, Executive Director of the Colorado Wool Growers Association.
The wool association is clear on their goals for the plan. "We need the ability to protect our livestock, end of discussion. It's not about eradicating predator populations, it's about targeting depredating animals that are coming in and killing your stock,"
Garin Bray, State Affairs Director for the Colorado Farm Bureau agrees, "Landowners must be able to protect their livestock from wolves and other predators," she said.
But Sinapu Director of Carnivore Restoration Rob Edward said improved livestock management practices could alleviate the need to kill wolves to save livestock.
"We have ranchers that are fine examples of that kind of mentality that are actively managing their livestock in such a way that they don't kill any predators," he said.
Additionally, Sinapu advocates for a wolf reintroduction plan to help establish viable populations of wolves. Edward said that wolves have a profound influence on the health of western ecosystems and providing for an "ecologically effective population" of wolves is key.
"We believe the state of Colorado should do for wolves what they've done for lynx, and that is to actively take the helm and restore the species to the state," said Edward. "What we don't want to see is some program that maintains some minimum token population of wolves," he added.
Davies and Kline said groups like Sinapu are trying to turn back the clock to erase human effects and are not considering the burden on those that actually have to live with the wolves.
"If they're going to turn back the clock and make the livestock industry deal with all of this then why don't they sell their apartments in town and go live in a tent and let wildlife roam all over their property again," said Kline.
"Man has distorted nature, of course, but it can never go back like it was," added Davies.
Todd Malmsbury, DOW media spokesperson, stressed the importance and difficulty of representing a wide variety of opinions of Colorado residents.
"Our job is not to be an advocate of one position or another, though overall we are advocates for the wildlife and the management and protection of wildlife," he said. "We have to represent everyone."
These efforts are not lost on Bray, "We applaud the efforts by the Colorado Division of Wildlife to bring livestock and other agricultural groups to the table to discuss what the wolf management plan would look like for the state of Colorado," she said.
But Kline remains skeptical of the workgroup member selection. "There's a difference between an interested party and a stakeholder and what I see the Division doing is playing politics and saying 'Oh, let's all hold hands and make everybody happy.' But on these issues - especially when you get to endangered species issues where the regulatory component is so overwhelming - we bring our livelihoods to the table, what does Sinapu bring to the table?"
After the public forums, a multi-disciplinary working group will be appointed to draft an initial Gray Wolf Management Plan by August, which will then be open to public comment for 60 days before the plan is finalized by the DOW.
The Denver meeting will take place on March 25 from 7-9 p.m. at the Best Western Central, 200 West 48th Avenue. For other cities and dates, go to http://wildlife.state.co.us.
Gray wolves became nearly extinct in the lower 48 states in the early 20th century because settlers believed wolves to be the cause of widespread livestock losses.
Remaining wolves were protected by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, with only a few hundred individuals left in extreme northeastern Minnesota and a small number on Isle Royale, Michigan.
As northern populations grew through reintroduction programs, the USFWS reclassified gray wolves in 2003 from "endangered" to "threatened" in the Western Distinct Population District (north of I-70) and are now considering delisting this population completely.
Wolves south of I-70 in the Southwestern Distinct Population Segment are fully endangered and must be treated as such.