Precedent-setting Colorado ballot measure would require state biologists to reintroduce gray wolves on public lands

A gray wolf in Wallowa County, Oregon (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife photo)

Gray wolves once roamed the southern Rocky Mountains but were hunted out of existence. Colorado voters are deciding whether to bring them back.

"If approved, a precedent-setting ballot measure would require state biologists to reintroduce the native carnivores to more than 17 million acres of rugged public lands in Colorado’s rural west by the end of 2023," Jennifer Oldham reports for The Washington Post. "The proposal is the capstone of a 40-year campaign by conservationists to return the animals to their former range along the Rocky Mountain chain from Canada to Mexico. And it could herald a paradigm shift in wildlife management, backers say, by giving Coloradans the nation’s first vote on reintroducing an endangered species to a place it once thrived — a decision typically reserved for government scientists." Read more here.