The Akron Zoo wasn't the only wildlife win on this past Tuesday. The state of Colorado passed its Proposition 114. What is that, you may ask? You can read the full text here, but that SparkNotes version is:
Requires that the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission creates a plan to reintroduce and manage gray wolves on designated lands west of the continental divide by the end of 2023.
Put simply, wolves are coming back to the southern Rockies.
The proposition passed by 1% (or about 30,000 votes) - significantly tighter than Colorado's Presidential or Senate elections. There are still a lot of questions that need to answered before this is put into practice. What subspecies of wolf should be introduced? The critically endangered Mexican grey wolf, or the larger, more robust wolves of the northern Rockies? What is the target population size and how will it be managed? What impact will this have on hunters and ranchers (the plan currently is to reimburse ranchers for verified losses)? Also, there is already a tiny remnant population of wolves in the northern part of the state, spillover from Wyoming. How do they fit into this?
Wolf reintroductions have happened throughout the country before, but this is the first time that it's been driven by the ballot box. I'm overall pleased that it's happening, though a little nervous about the precedent it can set. What if in another few years voters here, or in another wolf state, decide that they don't want wolves and vote them out? Especially now that (non-Mexican) gray wolves are losing their protection under the Endangered Species Act...
Congratulations to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for their role in helping to spread awareness of this item and drum up support. Within a few years, the southern Rockies will again be wolf country.
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