The Loveland Reporter-Herald editorial: As the habitat goes, go goes the river otter
Four decades ago, Colorado wildlife officials embarked on an effort to bring back an imperiled wildlife species.
Once facing extinction due harm to their wetlands habitat, the river otter, over the past 41 years, has rebounded here.
From 1975 through 1992, Colorado Parks and Wildlife biologists released 120 young otters in the state. In the intervening years, the species has bounced back and now numbers in the hundreds.
The reintroduction effort “has made a significant contribution to the conservation of river otters throughout the state of Colorado,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Leslie Ellwood told the Denver Post. “We’re now seeing river otters in streams and lakes where they had not been seen for the past 100 years.”

