Colorado’s mountains need gray wolves now

The late U.S. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said: “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.” On Oct. 24, Jim Edwards published a piece on wolves that was so riddled with mythmaking and his own “alternative facts” that it cries out for a response.

Throughout the Rockies, the last wolves were killed about 80 years ago. Now, thanks to the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National park and Idaho in 1995, and the subsequent quarter century of research that has taken place — in many cases by Colorado scientists — we know that bringing back the gray wolf will restore the natural balance of nature, causing positive changes to ripple across our mountains. With the return of the wolf, deer and elk will behave more naturally, avoiding browsing in the open along stream banks and stripping them of aspen and willows — a serious problem in places like Rocky Mountain National Park. By allowing aspens and willows to grow back, streambanks will be less vulnerable to erosion, songbirds will have better habitat, and beaver will return, building dams, storing water in high elevation streams, and improving trout habitat. And we know that when wildfires rip through the mountains, often the only green vegetation left standing is around beaver dams.

Decades of wolf research shows that wolves specifically target old, weak and diseased prey, and thus play an impor tant role in keeping elk and deer herds vibrant, healthy, disease-free, which is particularly important since so many of our herds are now infected with alwaysfatal chronic wasting disease (CWD). After a quarter century of living with wolves, the Northern Rockies states elk herds have grown by 40,000 animals, and no one has been attacked by a wolf. Healthier elk populations, largely free of CWD, are well above state management objectives in Montana and Wyoming and in most of Idaho. Not surprisingly, elk hunting success rates in those states are substantially higher than in Colorado, which increasingly will encourage out-ofstate hunters to spend their time and money to the north of us. And since wolves were reintroduced into the Nor thern Rockies in 1995, revenues from hunting license sales in each of those Northern Rockies states have roughly doubled. In contrast, Colorado’s revenues from hunting licenses in the last quar ter centur y have grown by an anemic 37 percent.

Mr. Edwards complains about the cost of wolf reintroduction, which has been estimated by the Colorado Secretary of State to range from $300,000 to $800,000 per year. All of these expenses can be paid out of GOCO funds. No hunting license fees or general state funds need be used.

And it’s clear from poll after poll that Coloradans want wolves. In 1994, a year before gray wolves were restored to Yellowstone National Park and Idaho, a Colorado State University (CSU) poll found that 71% of Coloradans supported wolf restoration. A quarter century later, in August 2019, another CSU poll found 84% support for wolf restoration, including strong majorities on the rural Eastern Plains and West Slope.

Colorado has a proud tradition of wildlife restoration, including the successful reintroduction of Shiras moose in 1978 and Canada lynx in 1999. In 2019, 215,000 Coloradans signed a petition to put Proposition 114, which would require CPW to restoration of gray wolves to Colorado and to compensate ranchers for any losses, on the 2020 statewide ballot.

Mr. Edwards claims that wildlife biologists have concluded that wolves should not be restored to Colorado. That is not true. In the past, politically appointed CPW commissioners have made those unfor tunate decisions, which were based on politics, not science. For so many reasons, Colorado needs gray wolves now. But the only way that will happen is if the public takes the reins back from the politicians and makes the decision for themselves to invest in a healthier Colorado.

Eric Washburn is a fifth generation Coloradan and big game hunter who is supporting the Proposition 114 Campaign. He is Steamboat Springs resident.