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Posted via Jan Wondra | December 19, 2023
Wildlife officials released five gray wolves into a remote forested area in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains on Monday to kick off a voter-approved reintroduction program. While the move was embraced in the state’s mostly Democratic urban corridor, it was staunchly opposed by many conservative rural voters where ranchers worry about the predators attacking livestock.
The release site is December-frigid, with patches of snow on the ground. Roughly 45 people mingle around large trucks. Five of the trucks each hold one crate with one wolf inside. The wolves’ fur, a variety of gray, and brown-black pokes through the circular holes in the crates. The wolves are silent, except for the sound of their breathing; their bodies rising and falling with each breath. While the assembled crowd knows what will happen next, the wolves don’t.
“It’s a time of rebuilding,” said Joanna Lambert, a professor of ecology and conservation biology at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Doing anything to avert the biodiversity extinction crisis we live in. . . to make a difference in this age of extinction. . . It is also a source of hope not only for all of us here, but also for our younger generations. “
The level is fixed. The assembled people walk a few hundred feet to a clearing of yellow grass surrounded by pine nuts, firs, and poplars. There are slight tire tracks from a dirt road that crosses the clearing and turns left between the trees.
“It’s blood, sweat and tears. . . It’s been complex. We’ve noticed wolves being listed, taken down, and we’ve worked intensively with [U. S. Fish]
The first two crates are placed on one side of an old, barbed wire fence. Each was flanked by Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officers and other onlookers, there to witness. Two of those CPW staff were armed with pieces of plywood; just in case the wolves don’t head directly toward the forest and turn on the gathered officials.
They don’t.
The first two wolves to be released are two siblings, both a year old. The brother, a mottled gray with bits of black and brown, is about the size of a large dog. His sister is similarly marked and about the same size. When a wildlife officer pulls the release cord on the first crate the brother bolts out onto the golden grass, running almost sideways to keep an eye on the crowd behind him. Then he turns into the trees and is gone.
Whispers can be heard among the near-silent crowd and a few hugs. The moment the latch of the box is tilted and the box opens, but the wolf does not move. The governor peeks into the cage. After 30 moments, the other people gathered take a step back. to give you space. Then the sister jumped up and climbed up the snowy middle of the dirt road behind her brother.
But when he reaches the tree line, he stops and turns his head to look at the silent crowd. In a few seconds, she disappears into the barren aspen forest.
Undisclosed departure location
The wolves were released in an undisclosed location in Grand County, deep in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The location was high on a forested mountainside, above deep valleys and canyons, backdropped by Rocky Mountain peaks. Where exactly that is, is being kept confidential.
Reid DeWalt, assistant director for the aquatics, terrestrial and natural resources branch of CPW, started looking at potential release sites this summer, using state lands as a filter. But he says CPW also had to take into consideration the populations of ungulates so the wolf can eat, as well as proximity to airports for delivering wolves and the ability to reach the sites in the middle of winter.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife was left with a list of about five undisclosed locations in the Northern Liberation Zone’s inner Eagle, Grand and Summit counties. Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which is overseeing the reintroduction, says it may simply repurpose the release site used this week and is concerned about protesters or the public seeking to prevent or police the releases in the long term.
This week it’s cold in the area, enough to freeze small waterfalls in its path, and scattered snow covers most of the ground. It is an ideal habitat for wolves.
At the time two wolves were released, they were also two one-year-old brothers. The female was a gray color mottled with bits of black and brown and the length of a very giant dog. His brother is the same height but with a black coat. The brother opened first, but did not move.
So CPW moved on to the next crate containing his sister, and she immediately bolted out and up the same dirt road, with backward glances at the assembled crowd to ensure she wasn’t being followed. Then her brother ran out of his crate and headed off in the same direction into the trees.
The final wolf to be released was a two-year-old male with a dark black coat. He was much larger than the other four. When his crate was opened he bolted out of it, making a sharp right past onlookers peering through binoculars and into the trees. He didn’t look back.
There was a moment of silence, deep breaths, and then applause erupted.
“There is a wonderful respect for those animals. They occupy a higher position in the human imagination; in the stories that we all grew up with and tell ourselves,” said Governor Jared Polis. “Wolves are an iconic and mythical symbol. ” animal, and knowing that they are a component of the Colorado landscape that has played a vital role in their history and ours, is a vital first. “
“I’ve seen wolves before, but they’ve been in zoos and rescue sites, but seeing them in their natural habitat and turning to look at us with interest before hurtling into the woods is indeed a special moment that I will cherish for the rest of my life,” Polis added. “Everyone here is amazed to see those animals in their natural habitat and to know that they have not been part of our ecosystem for nearly a century and that they are now resuming their historic life. role. “
Years of making plans, just hours to achieve them.
After years of planning, the catch and release happened quickly. The wolves were all caught in Oregon on Sunday. Once they were located, a helicopter with a gunner flew in close to around 10-feet — and shot the wolves with tranquilizer darts. They were put in crates overnight and then flown to Colorado Monday morning.
Eric Odell, director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s species conservation program, has been leading the wolf advent plan since 2020. Odell now returns to Oregon to help gather five more wolves. He’s one of thirteen CPW workers in Oregon on Sunday, helping locate, throw, pack and ship the first five wolves.
“Today was a personal relief. We met the deadline and we met our statutory agreements,” Odell said. “So far there’s been a lot of tension and everything feels good. “
The reintroduction of an apex predator to the Colorado ecosystem has not been without controversy over the past three years, and even last week the Cattlemen’s Association and Gunnison livestock producers sought to block the reintroduction – at least temporarily, on the basis that not enough study had been done.
“The consensus procedure really sets us apart,” Gibbs said, noting that the state’s anti-wolf plan gives ranchers who lose farm animals or dogs running to wolves up to $15,000 per animal. “Listen to the farmers and the agricultural network to really recognize (their needs). “He added that the process of developing the reintroduction plan was to find the “middle ground” between people who wolves and those who don’t.
Lambert said that when he saw the wolves galloping through the woods, he gasped. For years, Lambert and wolf advocates have worked to get wolves to “put their paws on the ground” and she felt a gasp when “all of a sudden, it happened. It was exquisite in every single way,” Lambert said.
Gibbs’ team at the Natural Resources Breakdown (MNR) will now begin work on the recovery of wolverines in Colorado. “MNR focuses on biodiversity and we are running to become the national leader in biodiversity,” he said. “We will continue to work to recover species that were once local to Colorado. It’s fun to be a component of the story right now.
“My hope and my philosophy is really that we will learn to live with wolves and not against wolves,” concluded Gibbs.
Photo credits:
Colorado Posts Videos and Stills: Jerry Neal, Senior Video Maker for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Agency.
Editor’s note: The capture and release events were documented by pool reporters representing the Colorado Press Association, of which Ark Valley Voice is a member. Only a limited number of news media were allowed to witness the release and the location remains confidential. This story was written from pool documentation.