By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Those who represent multiple industries and who are seeking solutions to the challenges they face because of the growing populations of wolves on the landscape recently met.
There were livestock growers; hunters and outfitters; big game agencies that have spent decades preserving and growing healthy and robust numbers of big game species; local, state and federal elected officials; and some that were not so obvious, such as oil and gas developers. They met seeking common solutions for all involved parties.
One of the glaring takeaways from the meeting is this — one solution does not seem to fit all. Discussions around repealing Prop. 114 had some support in the group, but others in the group were concerned that if Prop. 114 were repealed, as proposed by Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy, the compensation for livestock losses could be repealed as well.
That is of great concern to livestock growers, considering a repeal measure would only stop more wolves from being imported, but would do nothing to stop the more than 30 wolves — both imported from Canada this year and Oregon last year, in addition to the wolves that are naturally migrating from Wyoming and other northern states, and the Mexican Grey wolf, which is beginning to migrate north of Interstate 40 from the south.
The group notes that even with the small number of known wolves in the western part of the state, these wolves will pair up, have pups and the population will grow, as will the damage to their livelihoods.
Mia Anstine, representing Safari Club International (SCI), said they are in full support of delisting the wolves from the federal Endangered Species list. The Safari Club has historically supported the North American Model of Wildlife Management, a wildlife management model that has a proven record of growing the populations and health of wildlife species by wildlife professionals, not special interest groups, and a model that manages for the well-being and balance of all species, not just apex predators.
President of the Colorado Outfitters Association, and fierce defender of the hunting industry, Jenny Burbey, is concerned about the 964 hunting outfitters’ businesses that generates $3.25 billion in economic benefit to Colorado if the population of wolves grow to the point that CPW has to reduce or eliminate hunting license sales in order to preserve big game herds.
Burbey made sure that everyone at the meeting understood that there are no mechanisms in the law that allow for compensations to their businesses, should the big game herds decline to that point.
“What I am hoping for in this meeting is that we all work together, understand each other’s concerns, to elicit a positive change on this issue,” Burbey said.
Denny Behrens, of the Colorado Conservation Alliance, updated the group concerning ongoing efforts to test wolf scat for the presence of Hydatid Disease. They are asking those who happen to see wolf scat to contact them, so they can collect the scat and have it tested at an independent lab in an effort to understand the trends in infected livestock and to make the public aware that Hydatid Disease can transfer to humans.
Although the risk is low, the people that do contact it are in for a long treatment process that almost always requires surgery and lengthy medicinal treatment. According to Behrens, the Alliance believes that the issue concerning the impacts of wolves to Western Colorado livelihoods and economy is going to have to be addressed at the federal level, through delisting and through a NEPA process.
Livestock growers all over the state, being the most immediately impacted, appear to agree the solutions being offered by the state are not working, and that they do not want any more wolves imported into the state. While they agree with all the other entities who do not want the wolf program to continue, they are focused on making sure any efforts to stop the program do not interfere with their ability to be compensated for the depredation that has already occurred, and is likely to occur in the future.
They worry that, if repeal is passed, the compensation that is written into the statutes will also disappear, and that is something that they can’t support unless and until there are assurances for that depredation compensation. They also rightfully worry that any repeal would not occur until late 2026 and, by then, the population objectives CPW has set will already be met, so the repeal would actually have no benefit to their operations. They understand that once the CPW objectives are met, even if there is repeal, the reality is that none of the existing wolves will be captured and removed from the landscape.
The most surprising presentation came from Mike Clark, who owns Petrox Resources, an oil and gas company. People haven’t really been thinking about how the wolf program might impact fossil fuel and other public land interests and projects, Clark said. He is advocating for the wolves to be delisted and the state to be forced to go through the NEPA Process, a federal process that ensures that all stakeholders’ interests are protected through a public and transparent process and that includes economic impact analysis for the stakeholders.
Without the NEPA study and the federal delisting, he contends, “They can shut down every permit, road, lease, pipeline and drilling project under the guise of habitat protection.“ Clark showed a PowerPoint to the group that modeled the decline in deer elk and moose populations by 2040, if the wolves continue to be federally protected.
“By 2030, all the moose that the taxpayers have spent so much money successfully gaining enough numbers to be sustainable will have been thrown away,” Clark said.
The federal administration has prioritized energy development, Clark said, and he added that he believes Congress, as well as the Secretary of Interior and of Energy, will be in conflict with the actions Colorado has taken that potentially impacts the priorities of the Administration’s objectives and priorities.
Lew Webb, a resident of La Plata County and member of SCI, wrote a statement to the groups that said, “Let’s face it, wolves do primarily two things: They eat mostly ungulates, and they make little wolves.”
“The former, over time, will decimate the deer, elk and moose herds, not to mention the killing they will do of cattle, sheep, horses, goats, pets, etc. The latter proclivity of wolves to grow their population, and expand their territory, will simply widen the killing fields, quite frankly with no end in sight to that expansion.”
“As such, and again over time, their prey populations will decrease, which are the hunter’s game/prey species as well. That will eventually reduce and restrict hunting opportunities, thus SCI’s involvement.”
Perry Will, a former state legislator and presently a Garfield County commissioner and retired CPW employee who served nearly 40 years in the agency, said this: “I am very disappointed [with] how this is working out.” Will voiced his frustration with the lack of transparency from the state, the lack of foresight and planning for mitigation, and the secrecy that has fostered fear and rumors that inevitably rise up in the vacuum of secrecy.
Seated in the front row, with obvious intense focus on each of the speakers, pen in hand taking notes pertaining to the concerns and proposals, and presumably his thoughts, sat Colorado’s 3rd District U.S. Representative Jeff Hurd.
After the final presenter of the night finished and asked Hurd to speak, he told the group he believes that this is a serious problem: “What’s being done, and how it’s being done has created a loss of trust, and that bothers me.”
In a follow-up interview by email, Hurd answered the following questions:
RMV: Do you see delisting the wolves at the federal level to be a benefit to the 3rd District in consideration of long-term check and balance to ballot-box biology impacts on Western Colorado?
Congressman Hurd: Absolutely. Wolves should never have been listed, nor reintroduced to Colorado. I am working hard with our Colorado congressional delegation and Republicans across the country to ensure we delist the wolves, as well as require federal oversight into CPWs failed execution. It is vitally important that any livestock losses are fully and fairly compensated by the state for their abject failure in this harmful policy.
RMV: Have you given any thought to the impacts environmental NGO’s are having on policy decisions and if they have an outsized voice in policy making on everything from energy development, wildlife, historic land uses and lawsuits that are filed over almost every project that is approved at the local and regional levels?
Congressman Hurd: Liberal environmental organizations are waging war on rural Colorado in the name of pseudo science. It is because of them, Colorado has wrapped the state in red tape and failed to live up to its potential as a massive energy producing state.
RMV: Now that you have had a minute to absorb the information and think about the conflicting information and interests that were represented by the different groups, what would you say to them about helping you to help them? It appears there is not a clear consensus in the groups as to the path forward, yet, and a consensus on how and what they want you, as their federal representative, to do for them.
Congressman Hurd: I will continue to engage with constituents on the issues that matter most to our district and state. Wolves, water and energy are three places we as a state have challenges and this is because of bad liberal policies that have harmed our district and country. I will continue to seek input on how to fight back and cut through these disastrous regulations and policies.
Hurd says he is committed to working with his federal partners, colleagues and agencies to vigorously represent the needs and bring practical, pragmatic solutions that reflect the priorities of his district. He has repeatedly told people in the district that he favors policy that is driven at the local level, and that the local residents support.