Last week, a ballot measure that could ask voters to end the mandated reintroduction of gray wolves in Colorado cleared its first legislative hurdle. The state's Title Board approved language for the measure on Wednesday, Feb. 19. If successful, the proposed referendum would end wolf reintroduction in Colorado no later than Dec. 31, 2026.
Colorado Parks & Wildlife (CPW) completed its latest round of "capture and release" wolf work in late January 2025. "Fifteen wolves were translocated from the central interior of British Columbia to Colorado," CPW stated in an article published in the agency's Colorado Outdoors magazine on Jan. 21, adding that: "All wolves were released in Eagle and Pitkin counties, continuing the agency’s efforts to create a permanent, self-sustaining gray wolf population in Colorado."
According to CPW, there are no more wolf releases planned for the 2024-25 capture season. January's release was the second of what could be as many as five—or as little as three—wolf release seasons. Those stipulations are spelled out in the agency's lengthy Wolf Restoration and Management Plan.
What Would the Referendum Do?
"All this does is put an end to bringing in wolves from out of state or out of country," Charles Whitwam, founder of the pro-hunting action network HOWL, tells Field & Stream. "It does nothing in regards to the wolves that are already there. The idea here is to stop this rabid, forced introduction of wolves from other environments."
Prop. 114, the ballot measure that mandated Colorado's current wolf release program, passed in 2020. In December 2023, CPW brought in 10 wolves from Oregon supplied by the Oregon Department Fish & Wildlife. Before securing wolves from British Columbia for its most recent capture-and-release operation, the agency tried but failed to obtain wolves from several state agencies and tribes across the West.
The transplanted wolves have caused consternation in impacted hunting and ranching communities since releases began in 2023. In September 2024, CPW had to capture all 6 wolves in the Copper Creek pack in Grand County because the animals were depredating heavily on area livestock. "This is getting really expensive for the taxpayers," says Whitwam, "especially when they bring in wolves that are already tuned in to killing livestock. Each wolf is costing a lot of money."
According to the Coloradan, CPW paid out more than $15,000 in wolf depredation fees in 2023. But the state's depredation price tag reportedly ballooned in 2024. In a letter sent to the CPW Commissioners back in Dec. 2024, the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association said three ranchers in Grand County alone—the county where CPW captured and removed the Copper Creek pack—had livestock depredation claims from 2024 totaling more than half-a-million dollars.
In an interview with the Colorado Sun, wolf reintroduction proponent Rob Edward of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project called the proposed ballot initiative "petty" and said it will stir up confusion with the general public. "The fact is the Colorado wolf program is, bar none, a great example of good state wildlife management," Edward added.
Whitwam says hunting and ranching communities need to be measured in their approach to reversing the state's voter-mandated wolf transplant operations. "We're trying to keep the messaging as pro-wolf as possible. We're not going to fall into the trap of villanizing all wolves," he says. "If you want to place blame here, don't blame the wolves. Blame the people who ushered in these bad policies. Our goal is to educate the general public about the dangers of these forced introductions."
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Whitwam says signature gathering for the proposed ballot initiative will begin in early April 2025. The referendum won't appear on ballots until 2026, and that's if it clears all necessary hurdles. In the meantime, he hopes the campaign behind the initiative can harness the same momentum seen in the fall of 2024, when Colorado voters soundly rejected a ballot initiative (Prop 127) that would have banned all big cat hunting and trapping in the state.
"The general public showed up to vote for science-based wildlife management last fall when they rejected Prop 127," he says. "It’s not like we got 300,000 mountain lion hunters to vote. They don't exist in those kind of numbers. We changed the minds of the public—starting with non-hunters. That was the real story there, and that's what we need to do here."
