Both the Stakeholder Advisory Group and Technical Working Group addressing wolf reintroduction in Colorado held their final meetings in August, wrapping up a 15-month long process that will inform Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff as they prepare to present the draft Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in December.

Final meeting of Stakeholder Advisory Group

The advisory group held its final meeting in Glenwood Springs on Aug. 24 and 25. During the meeting members discussed core topics that will be incorporated into a report providing Parks and Wildlife staff with the group’s recommendations. The report is in the process of being finalized and will be presented at the upcoming November Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting. The advisory group’s final report will cover topics such as:

• Preventative, nonlethal wolf-livestock conflict minimization
• Comments on proposed wolf hazing regulation
• Livestock compensation
• Impact-based management
• Ungulate management
• Statement on regulated public hunting of wolves
• Education and outreach
• Funding recommendations

Over the past 15 months, the advisory group has met monthly to fulfill its charter to offer “a broad range of perspectives and experience to inform the social implications of wolf restoration and management strategies for the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan.”

---

---

Final meeting of Technical Working Group

Similarly, the Technical Working Group held its final virtual meeting on Aug. 17, wrapping up its own 15-month long process and culminating in a final report that will inform staff as they prepare to present the draft Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in December. The group’s report is available online and provides recommendations on topics such as:

• Restoration logistics
• Livestock compensation
• State recovery metrics and delisting and down-listing threshholds
• Wolf management

About the advisory groups

The technical group consisted of members with expertise largely focused on reintroducing and/or managing wolves in a state or federal capacity. The group contributed their expertise towards the development of reintroduction logistics, conservation objectives, management strategies and damage prevention and compensation planning.

---

---

The stakeholder group was made up of people from a wide range of interests and provided a range of viewpoints from diverse geographic areas of the state, and proposed considerations from their varied viewpoints for the work developed by the technical group to Parks and Wildlife staff and the Parks and Wildlife Commission.

Parks and Wildlife staff will use both the groups’ recommendations to present a plan to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in December. For meeting summaries from these advisory groups, visit WolfEngagementCO.org/advisory-groups.

Next steps in Wolf Restoration

Parks and Wildlife is on track to complete the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan and restore gray wolves in Colorado by the end of 2023. Once the draft plan has been submitted to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in December, there will be multiple meetings scheduled dedicated to hearing public comments on the final plan. The Parks and Wildlife Commission will need to approve the final plan before wolves can be restored. Parks and Wildlife is working concurrently with its partners in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a 10(j) designation that will provide management flexibility for wolves that are in the state.

Visit Parks and Wildlife’s Stay Informed page and sign up for the Wolf Reintroduction eNews to stay up to date with the wolf restoration efforts.