Colorado's Wolf Reintroduction Plan Faces Legal Challenge from Cattle Industry

Federal judge to consider lawsuit claiming inadequate review of plan to release up to 50 wolves onto state and private land.

A federal judge is set to consider a request by Colorado’s cattle industry to block the impending reintroduction of gray wolves to the state under a voter-approved initiative.
State wildlife officials plan to capture up to 10 wolves from Oregon and begin releasing them in Colorado by Dec. 31 to meet a deadline imposed under a 2020 ballot proposal that passed by a narrow margin.
The Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association and Colorado Cattlemen’s Association filed a lawsuit to halt the releases, claiming the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately review Colorado’s plan to release up to 50 wolves onto state and private land over the next several years.
Gray wolves were exterminated across most of the U.S. by the 1930s under government-sponsored poisoning and trapping campaigns. They received endangered species protections in 1975, and have since rebounded in the Great Lakes region and numerous western states.
The plan to establish a permanent wolf population through releases of animals captured elsewhere has sharpened divides between rural and urban residents. City and suburban dwellers largely voted to reintroduce the apex predators into rural areas where ranchers worry about attacks on livestock that help drive local economies.