Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission approves final Wolf Restoration and Management Plan

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Colorado Parks and Wildlife

After more than two years of extensive statewide stakeholder meetings and outreach via a series of public hearings, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Commission on May 3 gave final approval to the final Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan.

The plan was unanimously adopted through a two-step approval process that began at a CPW Commission meeting last month in Steamboat Springs.

The final approval clears the way for CPW biologists to introduce wolves in the Western Slope area and meet the voter-approved deadline of reintroduction by Dec. 31.

After the Draft Wolf Restoration and Management Plan was released Dec. 9, 2022, CPW’s extensive public outreach efforts through in-person and virtual meetings, as well as on its website, engagecpw.org, produced about 4,000 comments online and via in-person testimony from 232 people at its five public meetings across Colorado in January and February.

At the April commission meeting, many of the final edits for the plan were discussed, including the following.

Wolf-livestock
depredation
compensation

• The commission supported revising the draft plan to raise the cap on livestock compensation, as well as guard and herding animal compensation, to $15,000 per animal.

• The commission supported revising the draft plan to exclude veterinary expenses from the compensation cap for livestock, as well as guard and herding animals, up to $15,000 or the fair market value of the livestock at issue, whichever is lower. This means claimants can get paid for injury and death to livestock and related veterinary expenses, up to a potential maximum of $30,000 per animal.

• The commission supported revising the draft plan to require claimants pursuing an itemized claim to provide documents or self-certify the use of vaccines and pregnancy checks in lieu of producing “Records for the current year that demonstrate vaccination status.”

• The commission supported revising the draft plan to include a two-tiered compensation ratio (1.25:1 or 1:1) for missing yearlings depending on whether the claimant uses conflict minimization practices. 

• The commission supported the draft plan, as written, insofar as it conditions 7:1 ratio claims on the claimant’s use of conflict minimization practices. 

Chapter 6 of the final Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan provides more detail and examples specific to compensation and conflict minimization. 

Wolf reintroduction
and management

• The commission supported Chapter 3 (Reintroduction Implementation) of the draft plan, as written, provided the Technical Working Group recommendations are incorporated by reference into the plan and that wolves injured in transport, if any, will be sent to a rehabilitation facility where feasible and appropriate in lieu of euthanasia.

• The plan will not contain a geographical distribution component as a prerequisite to gray wolves moving from Phase 1 (endangered) to Phase 2 (threatened). 

• To transition from Phase 2 to Phase 3, the plan was amended to require a count of 150 wolves for two successive years or 200 wolves at any time and will add a geographical distribution component through a finding that the species “is present in a significant portion of its range.”

• The plan was amended to require division staff to conduct a population viability analysis as a prerequisite to gray wolves moving from Phase 2 (threatened) to Phase 3 (nongame).

• Following the conclusion of the initial release, CPW staff will provide updates on the plan at least annually to the commission on the plan’s progress, but staff can be asked to provide an update, and the commission may revise the plan and its regulations, at any time interval if there are significant new developments. A more formal review of progress on the plan will be scheduled for five years after the initial release.