BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) denied Colorado Parks and Wildlife's (CPW) request to use the Gem State as a resource to reintroduce gray wolves back into Colorado.
IDFG officially denied the request in consultation with Idaho Gov. Brad Little through a letter addressed to CPW Director Jeff Davis.
"Idaho respects that decisions regarding what's best for the State of Colorado should be made by the people of Colorado," Davis wrote in the letter dated June 6.
Colorado voters approved Proposition 114 in 2020 behind 50.9% support. The measure requires the state to create a plan to reintroduce gray wolves to Colorado by the end of the 2023 calendar year.
KUSA reported CPW is required to obtain about 30 to 50 wolves over three to five years -- CPW made formal requests to multiple states.
"You can't go to the supermarket to buy wolves. So, they're asking other states to basically provide them wolves for their relocation," IDFG Public Information Specialist Roger Phillips said. "We know that wolves are polarized throughout the west. We don't really want to further contribute to that polarization."
Since 2014, wolves in Idaho have killed nearly 1,300 livestock from roughly 300 different livestock producers. U.S. Fish and Wildlife reintroduced gray wolves to Idaho in 1995 without state support, according to Phillips. IDFG has learned firsthand how difficult it is to manage a wolf population.
"Wolves that came into Idaho quickly spread into neighboring states, particularly Oregon and Washington, and now they're as far as central California," Phillips said. "So, giving wolves to Colorado isn't necessarily giving wolves to Colorado. They could end up in their neighboring states as well that did not ask for them."
Fourth generation Coloradoan rancher Janie VanWinkle opposes translocating gray wolves. She runs a 600 head herd.
"Wolf advocates are as passionate about this issue as the livestock producers, the cattlemen and women in Colorado," VanWinkle said. "But that was a couple million people ago that wolves were here, and the landscape is different now."
Idaho's gray wolf population was delisted from the endangered species list in 2015, according to IDFG's letter to CPW. That allows Idaho state agencies, such as IDFG, to manage and regulate the population in place of the federal government.
Lawsuits regarding wolves are regular, according to Phillips. IDFG in concerned translocating wolves to Colorado could result in a lawsuit that ends with Idaho losing their state control.
"One of the things that litigants frequently asked for is that all wolves throughout the country go under federal protection, which obviously would affect Idaho wolves as well," Phillips said. "So, we kind of don't want to contribute to another situation where, you know, there's a court case that we that we don't have any control over."
IDFG announced in May roughly 1,300 wolves exist in the Gem State; by 2028, the agency wants to reduce the population to 500.
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