Judge rejects livestock groups' request to delay Colorado wolf reintroduction
A federal judge in Denver denied livestock groups' eleventh-hour request to delay Colorado's wolf reintroduction Friday evening as state wildlife officials prepared to capture wolves in Oregon and bring them back to Colorado.
Judge Regina M. Rodriguez ruled in favor of wildlife conservation groups in allowing the reintroduction effort to continue while the rest of the livestock groups' lawsuit moves through the court process. The hearing regarding the restraining order request started Thursday and a decision was expected then, but Rodriguez needed additional time to render her decision.
The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association on Monday sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife in an effort to delay reintroduction based on a claim that the agencies failed to properly conduct environmental impact reviews regarding reintroduction, resulting in "significant costs on the industry."
Rodriguez wrote she recognized the rancher groups' concerns regarding impacts but that their claims did not validate halting the reintroduction. That process has been in the making since voters in 2020 narrowly passed a ballot initiative to reintroduce wolves west of the Continental Divide by the end of this year.
That vote was decided on a sharp divide between urban and rural areas of the state.
The judge wrote environmental policies were conducted properly and that claims of livestock losses were "speculative."
"The court finds that, while the Petitioners who have lived and worked on the land for many years are understandably concerned about possible impacts of this reintroduction, neither these possible impacts nor their assertions under the Administrative Procedures Act are sufficient for this Court to grant the extraordinary relief they seek," Rodriguez wrote.
Wildlife conservation groups applauded the judge's decision.
"We are thrilled that Colorado’s state-led wolf reintroduction program will continue to move forward despite these last-minute, flimsy attempts to sabotage this historic effort," Michael Saul, Rockies and Plains Program Director at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a news release. "We will have paws on the ground this winter and that is something we can all applaud.''
Andy Spahn, president of the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association, said in a news release the organization is disappointed in the ruling but will continue to monitor reintroduction.
"We know there remain major outstanding issues regarding wolf interaction with the livestock industry across western Colorado," he said. "A serious effort to resolve those conflicts remains to be undertaken."
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is in the process of capturing as many as 10 wolves in northeast Oregon to serve as initial release animals into Grand, Summit and Eagle counties. Under the state's wolf recovery plan, the state's goal is to reintroduce up to 50 wolves over the next several years in hopes of reestablishing a sustainable population.
Ruling comes days after Colorado granted permission to kill wolves in certain situations
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 10(j) rule under the Endangered Species Act went into effect in Colorado Dec. 8.
That rule designates gray wolves in Colorado as experimental and provides state officials and livestock producers more management flexibility of the animals, including killing wolves in situations where the predator is caught in the act of killing livestock or where chronic depredation is occurring.
More: After latest attack, Colorado rancher asks state to kill wolves that killed his cattle
Wolves also can be killed if threatening human life.
Colorado paid the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service $1 million to complete the environmental impact statement required under the National Environmental Policy Act. That process usually takes two to three years but was accomplished in a little over a year-and-a-half so the rule would be in effect prior to wolves being reintroduced.
The federal 10(j) rule accompanied wolf reintroductions in Yellowstone National Park and Idaho in the mid-1990s, and litigation accompanied the rule implementation. In that case, the ruling judge allowed for the reintroduction to continue while the legal process played out.
Colorado has paid nearly $40,000 in loss of livestock compensation due to wolves
In spring 2021, two wolves that naturally migrated from Wyoming into Colorado gave birth to the first wolf pups in Colorado in 80 years in Jackson County.
The North Park pack included the two parents and six pups. Several of the pups were legally shot in Wyoming and it is believed the breeding female is dead.
At present, Colorado Parks and Wildlife only recognizes two wolves in the state, the pack's breeding male and one offspring. Both of those wolves are collared, allowing wildlife officials to track their movements. Jackson County ranchers claim they have seen more wolves than the two collared ones.
Over the past two years, pack members have been confirmed to have killed 20 livestock, including 14 cattle, three sheep and three working cattle dogs over the last two years — the latest confirmed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife on Wednesday, when a lone wolf badly injured a heifer.
Before the latest incident, Colorado had compensated livestock producers around $40,000.
Other claims have been denied due to insufficient evidence.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Judge rules Colorado wolf reintroduction can continue
