Judge Rejects Attempt to Halt Reintroduction of Gray Wolves in Colorado

Ranching Groups' Concerns Over Livestock Losses Overruled, State Compensation Program Cited

Federal Judge Regina Rodriguez has rejected a motion from ranching groups to halt the reintroduction of gray wolves in Colorado, allowing the process to move forward as early as this weekend.
The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and The Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association had filed a lawsuit alleging that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately review the potential impacts of Colorado’s plan to release up to 50 wolves over the next several years.
The ranching groups argued that the inevitable wolf attacks on livestock would come at significant cost to ranchers and the local economies where wolves would be released.
Judge Rodriguez sided with state and federal agencies, pointing to a state compensation program that pays owners up to $15,000 per animal if their livestock are killed by wolves.
Gray wolves were exterminated across most of the U.S. by the 1930s under government-sponsored poisoning and trapping campaigns, but have since rebounded in the Great Lakes region and returned to numerous western states.