When an opposition group fell far short of the signatures needed to bring Colorado’s wolf reintroduction to another statewide vote, it was just the latest failed attempt to stop or pause the voter-mandated initiative.
Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy collected just over 25,000 signatures between the end of March and the Aug. 27 deadline to turn in petitions — about a fifth of the 124,238 the minimum required to place a question on the 2026 ballot.
More than 400 volunteers gathered signatures, but the group did not raise enough money to hire paid petition circulators and so could not collect the required number, said Patrick Davis, a political consultant in Colorado Springs who worked on the campaign. The group raised $38,897 through July 15 but needed about $1 million to pay for the circulators, he said.
The group will decide this month whether it will try again, this time with more collaboration with livestock and hunting groups that could help bolster fundraising, Davis said.
“They’re not going to stop bringing wolves and, overnight, they’re not going to fix their management program,” he said of state wildlife officials. “So I feel like we still need to fix this program.”
The failed ballot initiative was the latest in a string of attempts to end or pause the wolf reintroduction, which the state’s ranching groups have staunchly opposed. Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners in January rejected a petition to pause the reintroduction. In August, an attempt by state lawmakers to ban CPW from using state money for this winter’s next planned releases was neutered amid opposition from the governor’s office.
For wolf advocates, the continued defeat of challenges to the program reflects the fact that the majority of Coloradans still support the reintroduction.
“You could quote that old cliche, three strikes and you’re out,” said Jim Pribyl, a former chair of the Parks and Wildlife Commission and the chair of Colorado Nature Action, a coalition of conservation organizations.
A poll set for release Monday shows a slim majority of Coloradans continue to support wolf reintroduction, despite staunch opposition in rural Colorado. The poll, conducted by Magellan Strategies between July 30 and Aug. 12, showed 53% of 1,136 registered voters support the effort.
The poll found 27% of Colorado voters strongly support wolf reintroduction, while 26% somewhat support it. About 23% strongly oppose the program, and 14% somewhat oppose reintroduction, with the remaining 10% having no opinion.
Unaffiliated voters and Democrats made up the majority of the support, while 59% of Republicans opposed the reintroduction efforts. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
Those findings mirror the original split on the 2020 ballot measure that mandated the reintroduction, along with polling released in January. Colorado voters in 2020 voted 51% to 49% to bring the gray wolf back to the state, with a majority of the support coming from the urban Front Range.
“It’s the will of the people,” Pribyl said. “Obviously, there’s been controversy. But people need to be mindful of the success story of the program.”
Twenty-one collared wolves currently roam Colorado and at least 10 pups were born this summer in the state’s four packs. Soon, Pribyl said, there will be enough wolves in the state to create a stable, self-sustaining population.
Now, Davis said, those who want to halt or hinder the wolf reintroduction must focus on the federal level.
“At the state level, all options have been exhausted,” he said.
All of Colorado’s Republican representatives in Congress oppose the reintroduction.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Republican representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, has asked the head of the U.S. Department of the Interior to ban the importation of wolves from Canada.
In January, CPW captured 15 wolves in Canada and released them in Colorado. It plans to return to the country for this winter’s reintroduction effort.
“I ask for whatever means necessary to address the situation, including seeing what the Interior (Department) might do to ban importation and to initiate a removal process,” said Hurd, who represents much of western Colorado, during a June 12 hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from the Eastern Plains’ 4th Congressional District — and formerly from the 3rd District — introduced a bill that would remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list and eliminate federal protections for the animal. The rest of Colorado’s Republican House delegation has signed on as co-sponsors.
The bill, if passed, would have little impact on Colorado’s reintroduction program, however.
The species is protected as endangered under state law, too — and state wildlife officials already have the authority to manage wolves inside Colorado’s boundaries.
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