As Colorado prepares to reintroduce wolves on the Western Slope, debate has emerged over whether hunting should eventually be allowed. To us the answer is clear: a successful reintroduction of gray wolves will eventually require population management, including hunting, of these animals.

We aren’t advocating to allow hunting next year, or even in the next decade. The first wolves brought back to Colorado shouldn’t be immediately met with loaded rifles. That said, hunting is a management tool and one that needs to be left as an option.

We’re going to have wolves in western Colorado. The voters spoke and it is happening. Now the question is what does that look like?

Currently, the gray wolf is federally listed as an endangered species in states including Colorado, meaning hunting the animal is illegal in the state as long as that remains the case. It’s also listed by the state as endangered in Colorado, where only a few of the animals have been known to live in recent years. A May report released by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Technical Working Group lays out a series of phases that could, if benchmarks are met, allow for the hunting of wolves after a number of years.

We think everyone can agree there will be a certain number of wolves that Colorado can sustain. The best people to determine that number are wildlife biologists. That population number, based on science, needs to be maintained somehow.

We’re sure that those who want to see wolves return to this state want them to be successful. That means they need enough wolves to form healthy breeding pairs to sustain genetic diversity. Too few wolves would be a problem, but on the other side, too many will be a problem as well.

No one wants to see negative impacts — to ranchers, to elk herds, to anyone. While some impacts are inevitable, an overly large wolf population makes them even more likely.

Renee Deal, a Somerset rancher and hunting outfitter who also sat on the CPW Stakeholder Advisory Group, said she doesn’t have a stance one way or the other on the issue of wolf hunting, but believes it should be up to the agency to decide if hunting is a necessary tool, according to reporting by The Daily Sentinel’s Dennis Webb.

“My position has always been that I believe hunting is a management tool that can be used by CPW. I feel like it’s within their scope to decide whether or not hunting should be implemented for the management of wolves.”

Deal is right on. This is a management tool and we won’t do ourselves or the wolves any favors by taking it off the table. We also agree with her that some environmental groups are conflating so-called trophy hunting with management.

“I think most hunters, most sportsmen would be offended by the term trophy hunting because they don’t believe that’s what they do,” Deal said.

That’s exactly right. CPW isn’t going to open hunting up just to give someone a thrill. It would be a decision based on how best to manage this animal species.

This is a decision that is years away and may need a legislative fix to even be allowed. Still, if wolf reintroduction is as successful as proponents hope, CPW shouldn’t be handcuffed when making management decisions down the line.

Grand Junction Daily Sentinel Editorial Board