Here's What Changed in Colorado's Final Wolf Restoration Plan

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission has approved the state's final Wolf Restoration and Management Plan after being presented with a draft for reintroduction of the animals to Colorado's Western Slope by December 2023.

The final plan will govern how gray wolves will be brought back, as well as how to mitigate the potential impact of their return to the state. Voters passed Proposition 114 in November 2020, directing CPW to reintroduce wolves by the end of this year.

Wolf advocates have warned that SB23-256, Management of Gray Wolves Reintroduction — which is still making its way through the legislature — could drastically delay wolf reintroduction. The CPW says it is ready to meet the December 2023 due date, but regardless of when wolves actually hit the ground, the plan is ready to go.

There are a number of major differences between the December 2022 draft and the final plan, starting with Chapter Three: "Reintroduction Implementation."

This section has two important changes.

One specifies that recommendations from the technical working group of experts CPW convened to advise on the reintroduction plan will be incorporated into the appendix and used as a guide. The other relates to the fate of wolves who are injured or become so ill in transport that they would suffer after their release.

The plan — made up of nine chapters, all addressing different aspects of reintroduction — originally dictated euthanasia for wolves that were sick or hurt in transport, but now there is an option for rehabilitation.

"If a licensed facility expresses interest and can demonstrate that they have the physical infrastructure and financial capacity to care for a wolf that is injured and deemed to not require humane euthanasia, this will be considered,” the plan reads.

Chapter Four, which covers specific phases of reintroduction, was the most controversial.

Originally, this section comprised four phases, the last of which weighed turning wolves into a game species that can be hunted. Wolf advocates quickly sounded the alarm, and that phase has now been replaced with one on “Long Term Wolf Management.”

“At some point in the future, the long term management of wolves in Colorado may need to be considered further than what is outlined in this plan,” the section reads. “These discussions would only occur after wolves have successfully been recovered and removed from the State Threatened and Endangered list.”

Advocates have argued for months that there should be a geographical component involved to move the plan forward from phase to phase, pointing out that if the right number of wolves exists only in a very small physical area, it would not meet the definition of restoration.

In a compromise, CPW added a geographical distribution component to transition from Phase Two, when wolves will be considered threatened but not endangered in the state, to Phase Three, when wolves will become a non-game species.

To pass from Phase Two to Three, wolves must be “not so extremely restricted throughout all or a significant portion of their range that it may become endangered," the plan says.

“Taking a conservative estimate of a pack size of 8 animals, a population of 200 wolves would have approximately 25 packs on the landscape,” it continues. “Assuming each pack has a conservative territory size of 180mi2 , there would be nearly 2.8 million acres of occupied wolf territory when the minimum population size is 200. CPW feels confident in stating that the distribution of wolves throughout Colorado would represent a secure population.”

Changes in Chapter Five, “Wolf Management,” specify when state and federal agents can injure or kill wolves, clarify the scientific purposes that wolves can be taken for, and eliminate the phrase “to avoid conflict with human activities.”

Chapter Six, which governs interactions between wolves and livestock, got some significant edits to benefit ranchers who may experience losses from wolves. The plan originally capped the amount of compensation at $8,000 per animal. The final plan sets the limit at $15,000. Those who experience losses can also collect up to $15,000 or the fair market value of lost livestock, whichever is lower, for veterinary expenses.

That brings potential compensation up to $30,000 per animal.

The final plan also implements a higher ratio for compensation for missing yearling animals from herds with confirmed depredation if ranchers have used conflict minimization practices.

The last big changes came in Chapter Seven, which describes the monitoring, ungulate management, research and reporting components of wolf restoration and management. It now sets time frames for how often CPW will update the commission on the plan's progress.

Chapter Nine, which addresses funding, did not receive any changes from the commission, but there are two bills related to wolf restoration funding still awaiting their fate at the legislature. One would establish a wolf depredation compensation fund; the other would introduce a Born to be Wild license plate, whose proceeds would help ranchers pay for non-lethal conflict mitigation.

Read Westword’s original breakdown of the plan for more details, and the full plan from Colorado Parks and Wildlife.