After months of collecting signatures, backers of a controversial ballot initiative that would reintroduce wolves in Colorado on Tuesday presented state officials with 211,093 signatures, more than enough, they hope, to put their measure before voters next year.

This initiative — reflecting rising urban demands for ecological integrity — would ask Coloradans whether to require state wildlife commissioners to reintroduce gray wolves by the end of 2023 on public land west of the Continental Divide and set up a fund to compensate livestock owners for any losses.

The proponents contend introducing what likely would be a few hundred wolves across 17 million acres would help restore ecological balance by bringing a much-needed predator for out-of-kilter deer and elk herds. Wildlife advocates see Colorado as a missing link in efforts to connect wolf habitat from the Arctic to Mexico.

But Colorado livestock groups already have rallied local leaders in a dozen counties to oppose the measure. They’re raising funds and have enlisted former Colorado natural resources director and Club 20 business group president Greg Walcher, who argues that wolves — unlike lynx, moose, prairie chickens and other previously seeded species — “simply cannot peacefully coexist in a state with almost 6 million people.”

A voter-driven introduction of wolves in Colorado would break new ground for direct democracy ballot initiatives as an alternative to legislative and government agency processes. Colorado voters in 1992 set a precedent by banning the spring hunting of bears just emerging from hibernation. And voters in 1996 prohibited hunters in Colorado from using leg traps.

This wolf initiative, if it qualifies for the November 2020 ballot, would mark the first time voters in any state have considered ordering the reintroduction of a species.

Wildlife survival and ecosystem health have emerged as priorities for both urban and rural voters in Colorado amid population growth and a development boom that has led to increasingly dense, paved-over cities and fragmentation of habitat.

Colorado government officials for years have rebuffed popular efforts to bring back wolves. In 2016, state wildlife commissioners passed a resolution committing the state to oppose any reintroduction.

Collecting signatures

Wolf advocates for months have been gathering signatures at Colorado Front Range recreation centers, zoos, farmers markets and festivals, relying on paid campaigners and 310 volunteers. They have raised more than $1 million and are preparing to accelerate their efforts, said Rob Edward, president of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund.

“We need wolves to restore the balance of nature in western Colorado,” Edward said.

Wolf reintroduction in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and New Mexico “has not happened in Colorado because there are other interests at work that have a lot of political capital,” he said. “This was the only way, our last play. To do it this way wasn’t our first choice.”

“It’s not going to happen otherwise because special interests have more power that the conservation nonprofits and others at the forefront of this effort. Colorado’s legislative system has been set up since the 1800s in such a way that there’s tremendous power given to rural areas, which translates into certain agricultural interests having more political weight than the urban areas.”

Colorado wolf advocates just turned in 211,093 signatures to Secretary of State in effort to put voter initiative on 2020 November ballot to require wolf reintroduction by end of 2023 — Bruce Finley (@finleybruce) December 10, 2019

Whether voters get a chance to weigh in on wolves depends on validation by Colorado elections officials of at least 124,632 signatures, the amount required under state ballot initiative process. Over the next month, staffers in the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office say they will collect a random sample of 5% of the signatures submitted Tuesday and compare the names and addresses against those on voter registration rolls. If fewer than 90% of the signatures are deemed valid, the measure wouldn’t make the November 2020 election ballot.

Federal protections at risk

A century ago, wolves roamed western Colorado. But by 1900, ranchers and others had hunted them mostly out of existence in an effort to promote grazing domestic livestock, including cattle and sheep. Colorado’s last wild wolf howled in the early 1940s.

But wolves since 1983 have received protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. This has compelled reintroductions by the federal and state governments in the northern Rocky Mountain states, the southwest and Great Lakes region. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data shows the gray wolf population in the lower 48 states has reached more than 5,680.

Federal officials in March proposed to “de-list” gray wolves to remove that protection. A previous effort to de-list wolves under President Barack Obama died in the face of a fierce public backlash.

The proponents of bringing wolves back to western Colorado said suitable habitat likely could be designated in the Flat Tops areas in northwestern Colorado, the Grand Mesa south of Interstate 70, the San Juan Mountains and parts of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near New Mexico.

They say wolves will help deer and elk herds by targeting sick and weak animals and revive ailing ecosystems where natural predators are rare. And proponents say benefits may include reduction of the chronic wasting disease that infects elk and deer, though the science on this isn’t conclusive.

Reintroducing species via ballot box

Agricultural groups are fighting the wolf advocates.

“They have some momentum,” said Colorado Farm Bureau vice president Shawn Martini, referring to ballot measure backers. “But we’ve got a plan to grab donors, grab additional support, and take the message to Colorado voters that it is not appropriate to circumvent the scientific process and reintroduce species through the ballot box.”

Local leaders in 12 Colorado counties have voted to oppose any effort to reintroduce wolves.

“They’d be introducing the Canadian gray wolf, which is larger and much more aggressive than the wolf that we had here,” said Denny Behrens, co-chair of the Colorado Stop the Wolf Coalition. “We don’t believe it’s fair to bring that Canadian wolf down here into Colorado. We’ve got almost 6 million people here. It’s going to be conflict from Day One.”

Funds for the ballot initiative have come from “out-of-state radical environmental groups,” he said. “The majority of Colorado does not want the wolves. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has put forth resolutions saying no wolf reintroduction. So why are we going to circumvent the professional wildlife mangers? It is absurd.”