Colorado voters four years ago narrowly passed Proposition 114, the ballot initiative to reintroduce gray wolves. It was an ill-advised idea then that put public fascination with these wild animals ahead of sound science. Now the consequences have come home to roost.

In the state legislature we wrestled with these issues: conservation, environmental stewardship and economic development. We are both ranchers and serve on organizations that advocate for agricultural communities, including the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Western Stock Show. We personally understand wolves’ threat to ranchers, rural communities and even suburbanites who could encounter them.

We encourage Gov. Jared Polis, who is a pragmatic leader and an equitable voice for Colorado’s diverse stakeholders, to pause the program before irreparable harm is done — environmentally, economically and politically.

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Though well-intentioned, Proposition 114 put our state in a precarious spot. It gave everyday individuals, most of whom know little about the complexities of wildlife management, jurisdiction over our state’s environmental resources. Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s hands are tied. The agency now has the unenviable job of managing reintroduction, even as growing evidence confirms transplanting wolves isn’t what voters were sold.

A 20-year Colorado State University study in Yellowstone found apex predator reintroduction “failed to restore” ecological balance. Even the New York Times concedes, “Wolf packs… are not magic bullets for restoring ecosystems.” And unlike Yellowstone, Colorado’s Western Slope is home to more than a half-million people — families who now must think twice about whether their pets are locked up or if their children are inside. Colorado is not the same habitat wolves roamed 80 years ago.

Sadly, our state’s ranchers and farmers, who contribute more than $45 billion to our state’s economy each year, have borne the brunt of this hasty plan. Since the first wolves were released last December, dozens of cattle and sheep have been killed. Colorado had just eight fewer livestock losses in the first nine months of this year than Montana had in all of 2023, despite Montana having 70-times the number of wolves.

Those statistics can’t depict the psychological impact. Colorado ranchers are worried their livelihood is at risk. The CPW preaches non-lethal deterrents, including around-the-clock patrols and flags on fence lines. It’s had to “shift” funds to conflict management, even as the program’s price tag keeps going up. But as any rancher knows, it’s impossible to be everywhere at once. Even when a wolf doesn’t take down a steer or sheep, their presence stresses livestock, which contributes to less weight gain. Less gain means less income.

When an animal is killed, it’s not only money lost. It’s time away from day-to-day work to file paperwork and jump through regulatory hoops. In a business that already requires 24 hours a day, most ranchers do not have the time or resources to navigate the government bureaucracy of it all.

The national romanticism of wolves undoubtedly affected voters when they went to the polls four years ago. The reality hasn’t been so pastoral, though: livestock ravaged, livelihoods upended and even greater political divides being driven between rural and urban Colorado. It’s not hard to see why Proposition 114 was overwhelmingly opposed in rural and agricultural communities, where hardworking families are now grappling with the consequences.

Wolf reintroduction should not be driven by politics. It should be about our state, our people and our environment. But, as one Grand County commissioner put it, “It’s really not about wolves anymore. It’s about politics.” It’s hard to ignore the fact this issue could hurt Democrats running for state and local office when Coloradans go to the polls again next week.

Colorado’s wolf reintroduction has shown what happens when “ballot-box biology” trumps real science. Gov. Jared Polis has a chance to correct course for our state and deliver a needed win for our ranchers and farmers by tapping the breaks on this ill-advised plan. We hope he will.

Terrance Carroll was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives in 2003 and served as the 54th Speaker of the House from 2009 to 2011. He is currently an attorney with Sherman & Howard/Taft, and a member of the board of directors of the Western Stock Show Association. Donald Valdez represented House District 62, covering several counties in southern Colorado as a Democratic member of the Colorado State House of Representatives from January 2017 to January 2019. He currently operates a farm and ranch in La Jara.