A ballot measure in 2020 directed the state to restore wolves. Now a group wants to use the same tool to end the project that has reintroduced 25 gray wolves in Colorado
Wolf reintroduction could return to the Colorado ballot next year.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s Title Board on Wednesday approved language for a proposed ballot measure that would ask voters in 2026 to end the reintroduction of gray wolves by the end of that year.
“The only thing we are doing with this ballot measure is asking voters to approve a day where wolves would no longer be introduced in Colorado by humans,” said Stan VanderWerf, a former El Paso County commissioner who helped write the ballot measure. “This proposal does not make any other changes to state or provisions that address the management of wolves or reimbursement for depredation. It’s a very simple proposal.”
Voters approved Proposition 114 in November 2020, requiring Colorado Parks and Wildlife to make a plan to begin reintroducing wolves to the Western Slope of Colorado by the end of 2023. The wildlife agency first released 10 gray wolves captured in Oregon onto state land in Grand and Summit counties in December 2023.
After vehement objections from ranchers who lost livestock to the predators, the agency adjusted its management strategy and released 15 wolves captured in British Columbia in Eagle and Pitkin counties in January. Another five wolves that wildlife officials captured and relocated were also released in January. The state last month estimated there are 29 gray wolves in the state. On Feb. 5, state wildlife officials said an uncollared adult wolf believed to have migrated from Wyoming had killed cow in Jackson County.
The ballot measure authorized CPW to release 10 to 15 wolves a year over a three to five years to seed a sustainable population of 30 to 50 gray wolves in western Colorado.
