Southern Rockies Wolf Background and Recovery

Wolves once roamed across the southern Rockies of Colorado and neighboring states. But the last Colorado wolf was killed in 1945. Fortunately, this area contains some of the best wolf habitat remaining in the lower 48 states. Defenders of Wildlife is working to restore wolves to Colorado’s southern Rockies region.

The southern Rockies in Colorado, southern Wyoming and northern New Mexico offer several potential gray wolf restoration sites, including Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, Flat Tops and Grand Mesa areas. The federal government owns 55 percent of this region that includes 9.5 million acres of roadless areas. Wolf habitat and prey abound. Indeed, Colorado hosts an estimated 292,000 elk, the greatest statewide elk population in the United States and nearly one-third of the nation’s total elk population (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation 2000). An FWS study completed in 1994 by Colorado State University indicates that Colorado alone could hold more than 1,000 wolves (Bennett 1994, Carroll et al. 2003).

A fourth area in the southern Rockies that shows great promise for supporting wolves is media executive Ted Turner’s Vermejo Ranch, which straddles the Colorado/New Mexico border and nearby Carson National Forest. Turner’s lands exemplify the potential of private landowners to contribute to wolf restoration and the need to develop mechanisms at the state and federal level to encourage more private participation in recovery efforts.

Tragically, the same anti-conservation efforts that are jeopardizing wolf recovery nationwide also threaten potential recovery in places such as the southern Rockies. This is especially troubling as many recovery options remain here, and natural systems have degraded significantly in the absence of top-level predators such as the wolf. In February 2000, regional and national conservation groups joined to form the Southern Rockies Wolf Restoration Project. This group is dedicated to restoring the wolf and throughout the region.

Despite the ability of the region to contribute significantly toward wolf restoration, the Fish and Wildlife Service is pursuing delisting of gray wolves in the area and has no formal plans for restoring wolves to the southern portions of the Rockies. Because of the likelihood that federal delisting efforts will prevent or significantly frustrate wolf recovery in the southern Rockies, Defenders and a broad coalition of conservation organizations have filed a lawsuit to prevent premature delisting and, instead, require federal wildlife managers to consider the significant wolf restoration potential of areas such as the southern Rockies.

Additionally, the state of Colorado assembled a Wolf Management Working Group to address wolf management issues in the state. Defenders is working via the Southern Rockies Wolf Restoration Project and in concert with other working group members to help shape a state wolf management plan that encourages both re-colonization and direct reintroduction into suitable areas of the region.

The southern Rockies has ample habitat to support wolves, but some conflicts with livestock will occasionally occur. Defenders has extended its compensation fund and proactive programs to cover this area to both minimize the likelihood of conflicts and to mitigate when they do occur.

With a new office in Denver, Defenders is poised to support and encourage wolf restoration in the southern Rockies through education, outreach, advocacy and compensation and incentive programs.

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Source: Places for Wolves 2006