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Monday, Jan. 13, 2025

Did Gov. Polis blame Colorado ranchers for high wolf-restoration costs?

Por Jaijongkit, The Colorado Sun
yes

At a Colorado Counties, Inc., conference in Westminster on Dec. 3, Gov. Jared Polis blamed ranchers for driving up the cost of reintroducing wolves to Colorado.

Polis suggested ranchers, who have opposed wolf reintroduction because of the danger wolves pose to livestock, complicated the sourcing of wolves:

“This could have cost a lot less if ranchers wouldn’t have said, ‘oh, don’t get them from Wyoming, don’t get them from Idaho,’” Polis said. “We probably could have done it for a quarter of the cost.” 

Colorado received 10 wolves from Oregon in December 2023, after several states said they wouldn’t provide them, with Wyoming and Idaho citing potential human impacts. Three of Colorado’s transplanted wolves later died.

In 2020, voters approved a measure to reintroduce the endangered gray wolf to restore ecological balance. The effort has cost about $5 million since voters approved it, The Denver Post reported in November.

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