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Colorado Mule Deer Association
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Folks,
Its official. There are now plans from the Federal Government that would place wolves in Southern Colorado. This is different from the Mexican wolf plans we have been discussing. From the articles I have read, it appears that this plan was created to deal with elk numbers on the Baca National Wildlife Refuge in Southern Colorado. The refuge was created in the year 2000. A big chunk of it bought with US taxpayer funds (see more about this below).
USFWS seems to be downplaying the reference to wolves in “Option C” of the plan by stating that using wolves to control elk is “not the preferred alternative.” The attempt to downplay the inclusion of wolves should be concerning considering what wolves have done in the Northern Rockies. The fact that it is included as an alternative is very dangerous. That is like telling your spouse that divorce is an “option.” Try that one tonight and see how it goes over. You’ll probably be sleeping on the couch.
Here is the raw fact, we know that wolves are now listed as an option in Colorado in plans that have been published by the Federal Government. Based on the incomplete information I could garner from these articles, wolves are now one very small step away from becoming a reality for the state of Colorado. This could happen very fast.
Here are a bunch of news articles on the topic:
http://www.chieftain.com/news/region/wolves-to-be-considered-for-culling-elk-herds/article_f3bb655c-4719-11e1-9fa5-001871e3ce6c.html
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/30306535/detail.html
http://www.nbc11news.com/home/headlines/Wildlife_officials_consider_wolves_to_control_elk_138133208.html
http://trib.com/news/state-and-local/wildlife-officials-consider-wolves-to-control-elk/article_f9253486-55f4-58d2-b1ab-a3401facb586.html
http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Wildlife-officials-consider-wolves-to-control-elk-2721637.php
http://publiclandlawreview.com/2012/01/26/billings-gazette-article-addresses-the-use-of-wolves-to-control-elk-populations-in-colorado/
The Baca National Wildlife Refuge in Southern Colorado is either 78,000, 90,000 or 500,000 acres depending on how you look at the land. It appears that the core refuge is small, but that recent purchases of land in the area make the total land area quite a bit larger (though it is unclear whether the land areas are contiguous). The park service claims Baca National Wildlife Refuge is a “complex” of 500,000 acres. Doing a little research, I discovered that Nature Conservancy (or the federal government depending on the article you read) purchased 174,000 acres from the Baca Ranch, using $33 Million of federal taxpayer dollars (one article claims there were some private dollars raised as well).
Even if we did accept a land area of 500,000 acres, it would still be less than 1/4 the size of Yellowstone (2,219,789 acres). An area this small is not enough to maintain resident wolves. We can safely call this a plan that would officially introduce wolves into, and likely spreading across, the state of Colorado.
Ryan Benson
http://biggameforever.org/
Email: ryanbenson@msn.com
(801) 870-5307
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