{"id":22858,"date":"2025-04-02T15:31:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T21:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lauren-boebert-reintroduces-bill-seeking-to-remove-wolves-from-endangered-species-list\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T21:31:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T21:31:16","slug":"lauren-boebert-reintroduces-bill-seeking-to-remove-wolves-from-endangered-species-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lauren-boebert-reintroduces-bill-seeking-to-remove-wolves-from-endangered-species-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Lauren Boebert reintroduces bill seeking to remove wolves from endangered species list"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A gray wolf runs across a snow-covered field in British Columbia as a helicopter flies overhead during capture operations in January 2025. (Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Colorado wildlife officials are saying successful wolf reintroduction may be tracking. But that could change if people trying to hobble the program with a state ballot measure and a bill in Congress by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert are successful.<\/p>\n

During a public discussion with The Colorado Sun in March, Eric Odell, wolf conservation manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said year two of reintroduction has been \u201cvery exciting\u201d and that wildlife officials \u201chope to continue for at least another year to work to establish a self-sustaining population.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Brenna Cassidy, CPW\u2019s wolf monitoring and data coordinator, said officials suspect some pairs from the 10 wolves released from Oregon in December 2023 and another 15 brought here from British Columbia in January \u201cmay have bred because they were together in February,\u201d when most wolf breeding happens.<\/p>\n

Biologists won\u2019t know for sure until mid-April to early May, because a wolf\u2019s gestation period is around 65 days, Cassidy added. And CPW says restoration won\u2019t be considered successful until reintroduced wolves stay in the state and survive at high rates, multiple packs form and breed, pups born to those packs go on to breed and there are minimal conflicts with livestock and humans.<\/p>\n

But both Odell and Cassidy seemed optimistic about the overall health of the 29 wolves currently on the landscape, including 27 wearing tracking collars and two without. That\u2019s despite the death of a collared wolf that traveled from Colorado into Wyoming in March and preyed on five adult sheep before being legally shot and killed by U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services agents.<\/p>\n

\"U.S.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert waves to the cheering crowd during the GOP assembly at the Broadmoor World Arena on April 9, 2022, in Colorado Springs. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun file)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Successful reintroduction may be harder to reach if a bill proposed by Boebert, who says wolves are an existential threat to rural life in Colorado, gains traction.<\/p>\n

House Resolution 845, or the Pet and Livestock Protection Act, has the support of the National Rifle Association, the American Farm Bureau and the National Cattlemen\u2019s Beef Association, along with the backing of 30 Republican members of Congress, including Gabe Evans of Fort Lupton, Jeff Hurd of Grand Junction and Jeff Crank of Colorado Springs, but no Democrats have signed on.<\/p>\n

Boebert presented the bill to a House Natural Resources subcommittee last week. The measure would restore a 2020 Department of the Interior final rule to delist the gray wolf from the Endangered Species Act, so management activities may be determined by affected states \u201cusing the best available science.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill is a do-over of Boebert\u2019s attempt to remove protections for the gray wolf through her Trust the Science Act, introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2024. It passed in the House but was never taken up by the Senate.<\/p>\n

Boebert said Colorado\u2019s \u201cballot box biology\u201d caused the state to rush reintroduction \u201cdespite numerous protests and questions about the legality and dysfunctional and chaotic approach to prioritizing predators over people.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told the subcommittee CPW released wolves without notifying landowners, livestock producers or other reasonably concerned constituents during the first release and that five of those wolves had come from packs with a known history of attacking and killing cattle and other livestock.<\/p>\n

And she blamed \u201cfrivolous litigation\u201d that impeded wolves losing Endangered Species Act protection for the \u201c$580,000 Colorado\u2019s agricultural producers lost in just one year from when wolves were introduced.\u201d (CPW settled with two Grand County ranchers for $350,000 in compensation.)<\/p>\n

But Defenders of Wildlife took issue with Boebert\u2019s plea to the committee, made up of mostly Republicans including Crank, saying gray wolves in the Northern Rockies are already removed from ESA listing, \u201cand there are only 30 gray wolves in Colorado, so to use Colorado as this example of why wolves need to be delisted was really conflating what she thinks is a national problem,\u201d Maggie Dewane, the group\u2019s communications director, told The Sun after the hearing.<\/p>\n

In the hearing, Boebert argued three presidents have supported the delisting of wolves, starting with Barack Obama, who removed protections in Idaho and Montana in 2009. Donald Trump later removed them for all but Mexican wolves in 2020. And the Biden administration asked an appeals court to revive the Trump-era rule in September.<\/p>\n

The repeat relistings occurred after a federal judge in 2014 threw out the Obama decision and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Trump\u2019s ruling in 2022. No decision was made on the Biden appeal before he left office.<\/p>\n

Boebert also has called for an end to Colorado\u2019s wolf reintroduction program, and a proposed ballot measure would ask voters to do that in 2026. It passed its first hurdle in February, when the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Title Board approved language for the proposed measure. If the Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy group gathers the 124,238 signatures required for statewide ballot measures, the state\u2019s voters could end wolf reintroduction by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

The proposed initiative would amend Proposition 114, which directed CPW to start introducing wolves in 2023, by tacking on a formal end date to the law of Dec. 31, 2026. Proponents argue this move wouldn\u2019t impact CPW\u2019s ability to continue with reintroduction until that date and Dewane says it\u2019s not a big concern for Defenders of Wildlife because they expect wolves in Colorado to be \u201cfully reintroduced\u201d likely by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

But opponents say it could squeeze the three- to five-year timeline CPW says complete restoration could need.<\/p>\n

Travis Duncan, CPW spokesperson, said gray wolves in Colorado currently are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act as well as state law, and that if they were to be federally delisted, \u201cthey would still remain listed as state endangered, which includes substantial penalties for illegal take.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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