The Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund was created at the end of 2018 specifically to place an initiative on the November 2020 ballot regarding the reintroduction of the gray wolf into the state of Colorado, said Rob Edward, board president of the RMWAF.According to the ballot language, the reintroduction would take place by the end of 2023 and would occur on land west of the Continental Divide; however, not everyone supports the proposal, including the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners.On Feb. 25, the BOCC approved a resolution officially declaring opposition to the ballot measure. Stan VanderWerf, the commissioner representing District 3, said the primary motivation for the resolution was the harm he and the other commissioners felt the wolves could do to the local economy.ìWe have a huge tourism industry, and having those wolves in the mountain areas would do damage to that area,î VanderWerf said. ìThis ballot measure would mean introducing an apex predator. The hunters would have less to hunt because the deer, elk and moose populations would be negatively affected. Wolves, when they are hungry, will hunt horses and other livestock so there would be a negative impact on farmers and ranchers as well.îEdward, who has been involved with policies to restore wolves in Colorado for more than 25 years, said 75 percent of the residents along the stateís Front Range and 60 percent living on the Western Slope support the ballot measure, with the exception of the ranchers.ìThis is simply a new world versus old world issue, and we believe that it is time to restore wolves in order to restore the balance of nature,î Edward said.VanderWerf argued that gray wolves are not native to Colorado but rather native to Canada and Alaska. He said it does not make sense to spend taxpayer money to introduce a species that is not native to the area, especially since taxpayers already paid to have wolves removed from the area a few years ago.Additionally, VanderWerf said there is language in the initiative that would require the state to compensate livestock owners for any losses of livestock as a result of a gray wolf attack. He said the result could mean millions of dollars spent in compensation per year for such attacks, assuming ranchers could prove the loss was caused by a gray wolf.However, VanderWerf said many ranchers do not have the time to gather enough evidence to provide the proof necessary for a such a claim, resulting in skewed data about how much livestock is truly lost to gray wolves.ìSome people in the state administration said there were not that many losses but that is not necessarily true because many of the ranchers just gave up,î he said.Edward said counties in which gray wolves are currently present show that about 99.995 percent of their livestock has never been taken by a wolf.ìThat is not to say that is not something we should be concerned about,î he said. ìThat is why there is a compensation component in the ballot language. We are not going to let ranchers suffer, and we are not going to go broke reimbursing them either. It is something we can work on.îConsidering the issue of a lack of deer, elk and moose for hunters, Edward said data indicates elk populations in the northern Rocky Mountains, where gray wolves were reintroduced about 25 years ago, are higher now than when the wolves were first introduced.ìSome of the maladies that we are seeing in elk and deer populations right now are probably exacerbated by the absence of wolves,î he said. ìWolves hunt by searching for infirmities in their prey, and that action is called coursing predation. They are not ambush predators. They test their prey, challenge them, start them moving and then they pick up on the most infinitesimally small infirmity and chase that animal until they can get it down. They are only successful about one out of every 10 times.îVanderWerf said the numbers just do not add up for him and the other commissioners. Although the wolves will not initially be introduced to El Paso County, they will breed, the population will grow and it is likely only a matter of time before they reached this county, he said.ìIt does not make sense from an economical point of view, and we did not want to face having to address hunting down wolves in El Paso County,î VanderWerf said.Edward said the only way Colorado will ever have a sustainable population of wolves as it did before is to physically bring some of them to the state to diversify the population and put them in places where they can establish their own territories and their own packs.ìWe know that it (reintroduction) works, we know that it can be done efficiently and economically,î he said. ìThe biology of it is well-established; all we need is the political will.îPull quote: ìThis is simply a new world versus old world issue, and we believe that it is time to restore wolves in order to restore the balance of nature.î
