The United States District Court has declined to issue a temporary restraining order prohibiting release of gray wolves in Colorado, paving the way for the reintroduction of wolves in the wild.
Colorado voters approved the measure to reintroduce wolves to the state in 2020, but members of the Colorado cattle industry oppose the decision, citing concerns about livestock. The Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife several weeks ago in an attempt to block the measure. However, following a week of litigation, a federal judge rejected the motion on Friday.
“The petitioners who have lived and worked on the land for many years are understandably concerned about possible impacts of this reintroduction,” states Judge Regina Rodriguez in her ruling, noting however that these concerns are not sufficient “to grant the extraordinary relief” sought.
CPW will now begin the process of releasing wolves from Oregon into the wild in Colorado, something that could begin as early as today, according to a news release by the agency.
Gray wolves all but disappeared from the state around 1940 and were classified as an endangered species in 1974. Efforts to reintroduce them began in 1995 in Yellowstone National Park and Idaho. Since then, they’ve been reintroduced in other western and northern states and there are estimated to be as many as 78,000 gray wolves in North America, the majority of which are to be found in eastern Canada. There are thought to be about 18,000 in the US, most of them in Alaska.
Wolf safety
Since there are so few wolves in the wild and at most you'll find one wolf pack over an area of more than a thousand square miles, your chances of encountering one in the wild are tiny, and they are likely to give you a wide berth.
In the very unlikely event that you do encounter a wolf in the wild, you can protect yourself by making yourself appear bigger, standing your ground, securing your dog and making noise by shouting, using your hiking whistle or banging your trekking poles together. Learn more in our article on what to do if you encounter a wolf on the trail.
