Coloradans are divided on wolf reintroduction, often geographically, but common ground could spur cooperation as Colorado Parks and Wildlife develops its wolf restoration and management plan, a new report shows.
The Keystone Policy Center, a nonprofit that brings together the public, private and civic sectors to find shared solutions, released its Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan Summer 2021 Public Engagement Report last week as CPW continues to work on the wolf restoration plan required by Proposition 114.
The roughly 90-page report summarized public input from an online comment form and 47 meetings CPW and Keystone Policy Center hosted across the state last summer.
“This report qualitatively details the various perspectives gathered during our summer public engagement effort,” Julie Shapiro, director of the Natural Resources Program for Keystone Policy Center, said in a news release. “The report does not attempt to draw conclusions regarding which specific restoration and management strategies were favored by participants in the process, but instead details the underlying rationales, interests and values expressed of those who participated.”
More than 3,400 people participated across 16 regional open houses, 17 Western Colorado geographic focus groups, 10 interest-based focus groups, two in-person tribal consultations and two statewide virtual town halls.
The report found that public engagement focused on four topics: wolf restoration, wolf management, livestock interactions, and engagement, education and outreach.
However, the input CPW and Keystone Policy Center received often reflected the polarization of what continues to be a heated debate.
“The diversity of public perspectives toward wolf restoration and management make it a socially complex undertaking,” the report said.
“Many areas of divergence reflect what is often described as a ‘rural-urban’ divide but is more specifically a difference of value sets concerning management of public lands and wildlife, predators, and the relationship between people and nature,” it said.
Participants disagreed on a variety of topics, including population thresholds, hunting of wolves, lethal management of conflict wolves and representation in the wolf restoration and management decision-making process.
Though the perspectives of participants were broad and diverse, the Keystone Policy Center found geographic tendencies in the feedback.
“Comments from Western Colorado were more likely to oppose wolf restoration, anticipate negative impacts, support lethal management, support a slow pace of restoration and emphasize the need for engagement in Western Colorado,” the report said. “Comments from Eastern Colorado (inclusive of and largely representative of Front Range communities) and from out of state were more likely to support wolf restoration, anticipate positive benefits, oppose lethal management and emphasize engagement of all Coloradans as well as out of state publics.”
Proposition 114, which voters passed on Nov. 3, 2020, directs CPW to restore and manage gray wolves on designated lands west of the Continental Divide. CPW must develop and carry out the plan by Dec. 31, 2023.
Some have argued that the geographic distribution of restoration efforts will have a disproportionate effect on livestock producers and those who live in Western Colorado.
The report identified areas of common ground that could bridge disagreement and stimulate the creation of a successful management plan, including reflecting diverse interests and values, providing an adaptive model for wolf management, proactively minimizing livestock conflict and fairly compensating loss, and offering factual educational resources tailored to audiences.
The report will now be presented to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, which sets regulations and policies for the state’s parks and wildlife programs, at its next meeting in Lamar on Nov. 18.
CPW and the Parks and Wildlife Commission will create a restoration and management draft plan for further public comment before a proposed final plan is presented to the Parks and Wildlife Commission for review and approval.
ahannon@durangoherald.com
