While Gov. Jared Polis backs the state Division of Parks and Wildlife obtaining a rule to allow Colorado to move forward on its plan to reintroduce wolves, a spokesman said today he does not support the process outlined in a bill introduced yesterday.

Senate Bill 256 – sponsored by Sens. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon and Perry Will, R-New Castle, and in the House by Reps. Megan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs, and Matt Soper, R-Delta – would put into place a requirement that the state obtain a 10(j) rule from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

That would grant the state collaborative authority over its efforts to reintroduce gray wolves.

Otherwise, management of the population would reside with USFWS, which sources say is limited in its resources to accomplish that goal.

In 2020, voters, primarily along the Front Range, approved, by a narrow margin, Proposition 114, which would reintroduce gray wolves in Colorado. The ballot measure required a plan be in place by the end of 2023. Polis, however, has pledged to have wolves on the ground by this December. 

The process at issue in SB 256 has to do with litigation. 

SB 256 says wolves cannot be reintroduced into the areas targeted in the plan developed by the state’s Division of Parks and Wildlife (CPW) until all litigation – tied to a rule currently under development by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services – has been resolved. 

Groups, such as WildEarth Guardians, have sued in the past over the rule, known as 10(j).

Colorado’s version would allow the state to manage the wolf populations with limited involvement by USFWS. Without a 10(j) rule, the federal government would have sole authority over wolf management, and three years of work by CPW on a wolf reintroduction plan managed by Proposition 114 would effectively be rendered worthless.

There’s more at stake than that, however.

A 10(j) rule for Colorado would designate wolves as a “nonessential experimental” population instead of an endangered species. The difference is that CPW could investigate livestock kills from wolves, and “lethal takes,” which is when a wolf is killed. 

As an endangered species – and this is what groups, such as WildEarth, have supported in the past – wolves could not be killed under any circumstances, even when they are a threat to livestock or other species. 

Polis spokesman Conor Cahill told Colorado Politics the governor supports the effort to obtain a 10(j) rule. In a statement Monday, Cahill said Colorado voters “spoke when they passed Proposition 114 requiring the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to begin the reintroduction of gray wolves in Colorado no later than December 31, 2023.”

Cahill added: “CPW and U.S. Fish and Wildlife have worked diligently to ensure that Colorado receives a 10J in mid-December 2023, which would give Colorado the maximum amount of flexibility in managing healthy wolf populations.”

While the reintroduction could take place without SB 256, its requirement for all litigation to be concluded before reintroduction is considered critical by its supporters.