Native-carnivore bill would tie depredation compensation to coexistence strategies
From The Aspen Times:
Colorado state Rep. Tammy Story stepped into the world of gray wolves during last year’s legislative session when Western Slope lawmakers pushed forward Senate Bill 256, a bill potentially delaying wolf reintroduction if a federal plan was not finalized that would allow lethal control of wolves that preyed on livestock.
The bill was introduced less than a month before the end of the public comment period on the draft environmental impact statement for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 10(j) Rule. That rule, implemented late last year, designated gray wolves a nonessential experimental species in the state, meaning they could be legally killed if they killed livestock. Wolf-reintroduction proponents thought SB 256 was redundant and an end run around the will of the voters.
