The last few weeks have produced major developments in the debate over the future of wolves in Colorado. On Jan. 6, the Secretary of State certified that sufficient signatures had been submitted to require an initiative that calls for restoration of wolves by 2023 to be placed on the November 2020 ballot.

At about the same time, there were reports of perhaps as many as six wolves in Moffat County. In fact, a hunter even shot a video of some of the wolves moving across the landscape. In response, death threats were made against the Moffat County wolves on the Craig Daily Press’ website. One reader wrote: “This pack should be eliminated before it grows!” The next fellow chimed in: “Absolutely!” Another guy wrote: “Take this pack down.” That comment was followed by another fellow: “I agree!”

This anger is fueled by a campaign of deliberate misinformation that has ricocheted around Colorado publications and social media over the last several months. One anti-wolf website claims that wolves are “a threat to human safety.” Yet over the last quarter-century, there have been no wolf attacks on people in the Northern Rockies, despite more than 100 million people visiting, hiking and camping in Yellowstone National Park among its wolves.

We have heard repeated claims that wolves will “devastate” Colorado’s deer, elk and moose herds. On a hunting podcast, one person claimed that: “The wolf is simply a ploy, a biological weapon to end hunting.” Someone else was quoted in an article in a Colorado publication saying that in Wyoming wolves reduced elk populations to 10% of what they were before wolves were present.

In reality, Wyoming’s, Idaho’s and Montana’s elk and deer populations have grown since wolves were reintroduced in 1995, according to numbers from those state’s fish and game agencies compiled by Norm Bishop, who was Yellowstone’s resource interpreter, when wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone. Throughout the Rockies, wolves rarely prey on moose, which make up less than 1% of their diet.

Colorado voters have heard that wolves are going to kill lots of our livestock, despite scientific data from the Northern Rockies showing that wolves are responsible for less than one-tenth of 1% of livestock mortality in areas where their ranges overlap, an insignificant impact. That data was compiled using reports from USDA statistics, state livestock agencies, and state game and fish annual reports on the wolf programs.

The ongoing cascade of misinformation about wolves in Colorado reflects a larger national debate playing out over truth in social media. During the 2016 elections, the Russians used social media to reach 126 million Americans with dishonest propaganda on Facebook, published more than 131,000 messages on Twitter, and uploaded over 1,000 videos to YouTube. Twitter found more than 36,000 propaganda accounts linked to Russian entities that posted 1.4 million tweets, reaching 288 million people. Because we now live in the age where so many Americans get their news from social media sites, these websites have become the Wild West of disinformation.

Fortunately, the public is getting fed up and is pressuring these social media companies to clean up their acts. In October, Twitter agreed to ban all political ads. Its CEO, Jack Dorsey, said that “political ads, including manipulated videos and viral spread of misleading information, presented challenges to civil discourse.” He noted that social media ads led to “significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle.”

Google followed suit a few weeks later stating that it would not allow users to make “demonstrably false claims that could significantly undermine participation or trust in and electoral or democratic process,” including claims that seek to mislead people into making certain choices in elections. Facebook, unfortunately, has yet to adopt any meaningful reform. While it continues to allow demonstrably false political ads, public pressure on the social media giant is growing.

In Colorado, the dishonest propaganda about wolves amounts to barstool biology, repeated legends that have no basis in scientific fact or reality. But they have the potential to result in dead wolves and in the federal prosecution of people who harm them. Colorado voters, and the wolves that may someday live here, deserve better.

Jim Pribyl is a former Chair of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission and resides in Summit County. Eric Washburn is a big game hunter who lives in Steamboat Springs.

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