On December 9th, Colorado Parks and Wildlife released their draft management plan. While there are many holes and considerations that hunters and anglers need to advocate for, it is imperative that the commission hears our support for a few crucial tenets of the plan. 

In the coming weeks, the wolf advocacy groups and their supporters will attempt to dismantle the plan in hopes to reach a no vote or scrap the plan in order to buy time so that they may implement their version when a favorable commission has been appointed. See the Defenders of Wildlife proposed plan to see their radical vision for Colorado's landscape and future management. 

It is crucial that as hunters and anglers, we control and take back the narrative as the united majority in support of both lethal measures, support for objective population thresholds of 250 wolves and Phase 4 of the management plan. Be respectful and praise the world class biologists at CPW. While Non-Lethal measures will be the first attempts, our agencies, ranchers and livestock producers need all the tools at their disposal to manage wolves.

Furthermore, phase 4 of the plan would signify a resounding success of our introduction efforts. CPW has done an amazing job of thinking beyond proposition 114 and what the future might hold. Phase 4 is a crucial management tool that would return wolves to a game species and allow them to be hunted on the landscape. The future of our ungulates and all other wild species in CO depend on phase 4. 

Following a citizen’s initiative to restore wolves to the state, Colorado Parks and Wildlife must finalize and vote on a wolf introduction and management plan by May of 2023 with a deadline to have wolves physically present by December 2023.  Your help in elevating the voice of sportsmen in this process is needed.  

READ:  Draft Wolf Restoration and Management Plan

The Plan is a lengthy document, but even a short look will help you better understand the state's plan to manage wolves.  If you don’t understand a portion, then ask questions of the biologists that clarify the issue.  Don’t assume something is said and reference your concerns with “page number X of the Wolf Restoration and Management Plan says…”  This enhances your credibility and brings specifics to light quickly. 

ATTEND:  Public Wolf Planning Meetings (see our calendar for more info)

CONTACT:  The CPW Commission

The draft Wolf Management and Restoration Plan is still in need of refinement on several key points.  Anti-hunting advocates want ALL lethal take removed from the plan completely. This current plan must be amended and updated; scrapping it entirely would mean possibly reverting to an early plan submitted by the Wild Earth Guardians (an anti-hunting organization).  The commission can make changes and direct the department on how to implement the plan.      

With a commission favorable to hunting, there is urgency for this to be completed now. The current eleven member commission will potentially lose four of its members and possibly be replaced with non-hunters in June.  Take action below to urge the current commission to consider the continued success of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, the funding of wildlife management by sportsmen through the Pittman-Robertson Act, and the continued protection of our ungulate populations.

By taking action below you will be contacting 14 individual commissioners, DNR staff, Ag Director and more with 1 click.  1 of 111 pre-written emails and subject lines will be selected for you at random however you can edit, add or write your own from scratch.  Please be respectful.