Colorado prepared extensively for the migration of wolves into the state from Yellowstone, and a few strays have actually made it here, but not in enough numbers to establish viable populations – a good thing, at least from the perspective of Breen rancher Tom Compton.
At the Durango Wolf Symposium on Thursday, Compton, who operates a 1,000-acre cattle ranch, discussed his opposition to the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado before about 250 attendees.
Also, Mark Pearson, executive director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance, discussed his experience in 2004 working with a group charged with drafting a plan to handle the migration of wolves into Colorado after the 1995 reintroduction of the predators in Yellowstone National Park.
Pearson said, “The gist of the plan essentially was to adopt a live-and-let-live approach to wolves.”
Last week, the U.S. House passed a bill to drop legal protections for gray wolves across the Lower 48, reopening a lengthy battle over the predator species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is reviewing the wolf’s status and is expected to declare they’ve recovered sufficiently to be removed from protection under the Endangered Species Act.
About 5,000 wolves live in the Lower 48, occupying less than 10 percent of their historic range.
The Colorado group that included Pearson recommended that wolves be allowed to find their own habitat, and then management should be adaptive to their behaviors. The group also recommended monitoring of wolves to allow game managers to know where the wolves were – giving them an opportunity to head off any problems with wolf predation of livestock.
The plan also recommended funding for management of wolf populations and to establish a fund to compensate ranchers for livestock lost to wolves.
“A few stray wolves made it to Colorado, but not enough to establish a population,” Pearson said.
Now, it is clear if wolves are to once again call Colorado home, populations will have to be reintroduced, and the San Juan Mountains, Pearson noted, offer the largest prime habitat in Western Colorado for them.
Compton cautioned that the successful reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone is unlikely to be replicated elsewhere.
He said Yellowstone has unique factors, such as an excessive population of elk that was harming wetlands and provided wolves with plenty of prey. But perhaps the biggest factor in the successful reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone was the park’s sheer size, 3,471 square miles.
“I think we have to exercise caution when applying the successful reintroduction in Yellowstone to other locations,” Compton said.
For example reintroducing wolves to Rocky Mountain National Park, Compton said, would be limited by the park’s size, 358 square miles. He said wolves would quickly be expanding beyond the park’s borders.
But Compton said he was primarily concerned with the economic impact wolves would have on ranching families.
Ranches in Western Colorado are largely small, family operations working on low profit margins, he said.
“We deal with predation on almost a daily basis, and if we add an apex predator to that mix, it could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Compton said.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
Poll: Would you support the reintroduction of wolves into Colorado?
Yes - 1174 - 59.84%
No - 788 - 40.16%
