Colorado might be making headlines for removing President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot, but that’s not the only historic move the Centennial State made this week.
Colorado also became the first state to reintroduce gray wolves into the state’s wilderness this week, a win for environmentalists that Representative Lauren Boebert is speaking out against.
“Today, Colorado becomes the first state in the country to reintroduce gray wolves, despite rural America heavily opposing this measure,” Ms Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, wrote on X. “This ill-advised decision puts ranchers and farmers’ livestock at risk.”
However, this reintroduction effort will help “stave off the biodiversity extinction crisis we are living in,” Joanna Lambert, professor of wildlife ecology and conservation biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, told the Associated Press.
Officials with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Agency did not disclose the exact reintroduction location in order to protect the wolves. Gray wolves historically lived in regions spanning from northern Canada to the southwestern United States, the AP reports.
The measure to reintroduce Gray Wolves to Colorado was first approved by voters in 2020. The measure passed narrowly, with just 50.9 per cent of voters — mostly young people and urban residents — casting their ballots in favor of reintroduction, according to Colorado State University.
The 18 December reintroduction of five gray wolves came after a Colorado judge denied a request from the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association and the Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association to delay the move, though the lawsuit will still continue. The groups have claimed the US Fish and Wildlife Service failed to adequately review the potential impacts of the plan, which includes the release of up to 50 total wolves.
Opponents of the bill have cited concerns about the wolves preying upon livestock owned by rural residents. Residents of areas with more elk hunters also tended to oppose the measure, per Colorado State University. However, to assuage rural residents’ concerns, the state will pay ranchers up to $15,000 per animal preyed upon by the wolves.
“Instead of caving to radical environmental groups, we should be listening to our ranchers and farmers when they say this is bad for Colorado,” Ms Boebert wrote on X.
Ms Boebert’s office did not respond to a request for comment seeking clarification on the “radical environmental groups” the representative referred to in her post on X.
The Colorado Parks and Wildlife agency and Ms Boebert did not respond to The Independent’s request for comment.
