Wolf reintroduction possible in Colorado

By Theo Stein

Denver Post Staff Writer

Thursday, June 17, 2004 -

The discovery of a dead Yellowstone wolf along Interstate 70 this month has caused many Coloradans to assume wolves are most likely to recolonize the state from the north.

But under a federal effort to recover the species in the Southwest, southern Colorado will probably have to accept wolves, too, a state biologist told the state wolf panel last week.

"And in that case, the most likely way to do that is to reintroduce them," said Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist Gary Skiba, who sits on the federal Southwest recovery team.

The news of a possible federal wolf reintroduction program came as a "bombshell" to Delta veterinarian Dick Steele, a state wolf panelist.

"This would open the door to reintroducing wolves in Colorado and having them shoved down our throats by the feds," he said.

A federal wolf reintroduction could proceed over the objection of Colorado officials, but Steele thinks state residents need to be involved from the start.

Steele said the potential cost of Yellowstone wolves to ranchers, hunters and the tourism industry in northern Colorado was troubling enough. A future reintroduction in southern Colorado could cause even greater disruption for Western Slope residents, he said.

Wolf reintroduction in the northern Rockies has been so successful that the government wants to remove the West's top predator from the endangered species list.

But illegal shootings and local hostility have left the Mexican wolf reintroduction program far short of success.

However, the Endangered Species Act requires that the government recover wolves in the Southwestern "distinct population segment" - which runs from I-70 in Colorado to the Mexican border.

While scientists are still more than a year away from writing the recovery plan, one recent study showed that southern Colorado and northern New Mexico have some of the best unoccupied wolf habitat in the U.S.

"The team is ultimately looking at how many wolves we need to recover the species and where those wolves should go," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Tracy Scheffler.

"Every inch of the Southwest is in play," said team member Michael Phillips, a biologist with the Turner Endangered Species Foundation.

Staff writer Theo Stein can be reached at 303-820-1657 or tstein@denverpost.com .

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