Joe Biden's Fish and Wildlife Service really doesn't like people very much. On the heels of releasing up to 50 grizzly bears into the Northern Cascade Mountain National Park over the next few years despite humans living just a few miles away, the FWS now wants to start repopulating Colorado with gray wolves.
Despite opposition from the cattle industry, the FWS put the issue of repopulating Colorado with wolves to the voters. Proposition 114 squeaked by 50.91 to 49.09.
While wolves are beautiful animals, they are also extremely intelligent, crafty predators who, like other apex predators, will expend as little energy as possible to get their next meal. That means the wolves will most likely attack and kill big, fat, slow, stupid cattle rather than chase down a deer.
It may come as a surprise to some of the greens who actually voted to repopulate their state with wolves, but the reason the gray wolves disappeared from the state is that ranchers didn't like seeing their livelihoods stolen from them. The cattlemen hunted down the grey wolves until those that were left were smart enough to leave.
The carnivores' planned release in Colorado, voted for in a 2020 ballot measure, has already stirred controversy and sharpened divides between rural and urban residents. City dwellers largely voted to reintroduce the apex predators into the rural areas where prey can include livestock that help drive local economies.
Erin Karney, executive vice-president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, said they will also be requesting a temporary restraining order to halt the impending release, which will happen in the coming weeks once the wolves are caught in Oregon.
“A lot of our concerns that we brought up through the wolf management plan hearings were not adequately addressed,” Karney said. “Our members are putting our foot down and saying we can’t rush these processes. We need to take time.”
The FWS carried out a sloppy and incomplete review of the reintroduction of wolves, and the ranchers want certain guarantees.
“Impacts of wolf reintroduction…need to be properly reviewed to avoid unintended negative consequences to the natural environment, wildlife, and people of the impacted communities," said Andy Spann, a fifth-generation rancher and president of the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association, in a statement.
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Elsewhere out west, the gray wolves have been busy doing what wolves do best: hunting and killing livestock.
An analysis of state and federal data by The Associated Press found that, in 2022, gray wolves attacked domesticated animals hundreds of times across 10 states in the contiguous U.S., including Colorado.
Data showed that attacks killed or injured at least 425 cattle and calves, 313 sheep and lambs, 40 dogs, 10 chickens, five horses and four goats.
While those losses can be devastating to individual ranchers or pet owners, the industry-wide impact is minimal. The number of cattle killed or injured in the documented cases equals 0.002% of herds in the affected states, according to a comparison of depredation data with state livestock inventories.
The impact is magnified because wolf packs will stay in an area as long as hunting is easy and food is plentiful. It may not be a large number of dead cattle. But the ranchers don't look at it that way.
And neither should the government.
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