From the Sopris Sun:
On Monday, Dec. 18, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) released five gray wolves from Oregon onto public land in Grand County.
It was a historic moment, putting into motion a ballot measure that voters in the Centennial State decided on back in 2020, with a narrow margin. Much support came from voters on the Front Range, but the wolves were reintroduced here on the Western Slope. Colorado now joins the ranks of several other states inhabited by wild wolves, including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, California, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Click here for the full story.
State sees pushback against changes to remove references to wolf plan
From Bozeman Daily Chronicle:
Among the moves made by the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission during its last meeting of the year was removing reference to the 2003 Grey Wolf Conservation and Management Plan from the guidelines for managing the species.
This change to the administrative rules for wolf management by the commission is tied the larger context of the state’s currently-in-progress new Wolf Plan and its usage of the controversial iPOM method to measure the state’s wolf population, which some say overestimates wolf numbers.
Click here for the full story.
Idaho board drops wolf-killing proposals submitted by trapper without ranchers’ knowledge
From Yahoo News:
Nearly two months ago, John Faulkner and members of the Peavey family, which owns Flat Top Ranch in the Wood River Valley, learned that an application with their names attached for state dollars to kill wolves would move ahead. But they never knew about the application and had no interest in the program.
The proposal was brought to Idaho’s Wolf Depredation Control Board by a predator control company without the ranchers’ knowledge. Last week, the board announced it will not move forward with the application or two others it received from Predator Control Corp. owner Trevor Walch.
Click here for the full story.
$10M spent on B.C. wolf cull, FOI documents reveal alongside details of shootings
From CBC:
The British Columbia government has spent more than $10 million on a controversial wolf cull launched in 2015, according to documents obtained through a freedom of information request filed by CBC News.
The province’s “aerial wolf reduction program” involves shooting wild animals from a helicopter, which the province describes as the most effective and humane way of reducing the wolf population in areas with endangered or at-risk caribou.
Click here for the full story.
Oregon wolves expected to spread west and south
From Oregon Capital Chronicle:
State biologists say Oregon’s gray wolf population may have reached its ecological limit in the eastern third of the state and that packs will probably spread out to the west and south in greater numbers.
Those comments, made at a meeting of the state Fish and Wildlife Commission, came as Colorado released five wolves trapped from Oregon as part of a historic reintroduction program.
Click here for the full story.
Commission proposes to change international status of wolves from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’ based on new data on increased populations and impacts
From The Delegation of European Union to Montenegro:
The Commission is tabling a proposal for a Council Decision to adapt the protection status of the wolf under the international Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, to which the EU and its Member States are parties. The wolf’s protection status under the Convention was established based on the available scientific data at the time of negotiation of the Convention in 1979. On the basis of an in-depth analysis on the status of the wolf in the EU also published, the Commission proposes to make the wolf ‘protected’ as opposed to ‘strictly protected’. It follows the Commission’s announcement in September 2023 that on the basis of the data collected, it would decide on a proposal to modify, where appropriate, the status of protection of the wolf and to update the legal framework, to introduce, where necessary, further flexibility.
Click here for the full story.
10 wolves make history as they’re released into the Western wild
From The Washington Post:
BOULDER — Colorado’s most highly anticipated new residents, two groups of lushly furred gray wolves, arrived this week on private planes from Oregon and within hours had disappeared into Rocky Mountain woods abundant with elk and other prey.
How the 10 wolves’ lives unfold is likely to be the subject of political sparring and scientific research for years to come.
Click here for the full story.
Five wolves successfully released in CO
From the Sopris Sun:
On Monday, Dec. 18, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) released five gray wolves from Oregon onto public land in Grand County.
It was a historic moment, putting into motion a ballot measure that voters in the Centennial State decided on back in 2020, with a narrow margin. Much support came from voters on the Front Range, but the wolves were reintroduced here on the Western Slope. Colorado now joins the ranks of several other states inhabited by wild wolves, including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, California, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Click here for the full story.
Minnesota Deer Hunters Association wants public to report wolf sightings
From Duluth News Tribune:
GRAND RAPIDS — The Minnesota Deer Hunters Association has announced a partnership with Wolf.Report , a new online platform for reporting wolf sightings, and they want the public to log on with their personal wolf experiences.
Association officials said the joint effort “aims to provide deer hunters and outdoor enthusiasts with a unique opportunity to contribute valuable citizen data on wolf encounters.”
Click here for the full story.
Commission proposes to change international status of wolves from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’ based on new data on increased populations and impacts
From European Commission:
Today, the Commission is tabling a proposal for a Council Decision to adapt the protection status of the wolf under the international Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, to which the EU and its Member States are parties. The wolf’s protection status under the Convention was established based on the available scientific data at the time of negotiation of the Convention in 1979. On the basis of an in-depth analysis on the status of the wolf in the EU also published today, the Commission proposes to make the wolf ‘protected’ as opposed to ‘strictly protected’. It follows the Commission’s announcement in September 2023 that on the basis of the data collected, it would decide on a proposal to modify, where appropriate, the status of protection of the wolf and to update the legal framework, to introduce, where necessary, further flexibility.
Click here for the full story.
Paws on the ground: How Colorado got its wolves back
From High Country News:
This week has surely been a strange one for the wolf known as 2302-OR. A lean 68-pound yearling with shaggy black fur and amber eyes, she had been a member of the Five Points Pack, which makes its home in the mountains of northeastern Oregon. But on Sunday, Dec. 17, her world changed: First, she was knocked out by a tranquilizer dart fired by a biologist in a helicopter, then inspected by veterinarians and fitted with a GPS collar. Her brother, 2303-OR, received the same treatment, as did three other wolves from different Oregon packs — some 421 pounds of Canis lupus altogether.
Click here for the full story.