Feds threaten takeover of Colorado wolf management amid compliance dispute

By Miles Blumhardt | The Coloradoan

Colorado is now facing a potential federal takeover of its wolf reintroduction program.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will take over management of wolves in Colorado unless the state adequately addresses compliance issues under its memorandum of agreement with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, according to a letter sent from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik to Lauren Clellan, Colorado Parks and Wildlife acting director.

The letter, dated Dec. 18 and obtained by the Coloradoan through an open records request, states if a complete report of all gray wolf conservation and management activities that occurred from Dec. 12, 2023, to the present is not supplied within 60 days of the letter, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will terminate the memorandum of agreement and take over management of the program, including relocation and lethal removal.

The letter specifically cited noncompliance of the memorandum of agreement regarding the following actions:

• Between Jan. 12 and Jan. 18, 2025, with no notice or warning to its own citizens CPW released 15 wolves imported from Canada.
• On Dec. 17, 2025, USFWS was informed that CPW recently released a wolf from a pack with a confirmed history of depredation.

Those two issues were the focus of a strongly worded social media post by U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Dec. 18, the day the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill to delist gray wolves,

“Colorado is prioritizing WOLVES over American ranchers!” Burgum said in the post. “In January, they released 15 wolves into the wild with NO warning & recently RE-RELEASED a wolf from a pack known to kill livestock. This is a warning: if Colorado does not get control of the wolves immediately, we will!”

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