State lawmakers are weighing in on the controversial wolf reintroduction mandate that was thrust upon us by the hopelessly naive voters of this once great state, to figure out how to manage the critters before they’re howling at our back doors.
The situation is so messed up that lawmakers are actually working together across the aisle in a (GASP) bipartisan effort to bring some relief to ranchers, whose livestock will most certainly, yet inadvertently, be feeding the wolves.
The Center Square reports wolf depredation is already an issue in Jackson County, where two dogs were killed earlier this month, a calf killed on a ranch in Walden several months ago, and those are just the unofficial wolves already here that apparently don’t count.
The legislation would create a fund to compensate ranchers for livestock and guard dogs killed by the new wolves, which will be reintroduced sometime after the plan is complete in December unless environmentalists file a lawsuit — and they most certainly will.
The wolf huggers are reportedly most disturbed about a waiver contained in one bill, that would allow the state to kill manage the population as transitioning from endangered wolf to “experimental” wolf.
You see, wolves used to be endangered, and then they weren’t.
But then they were endangered again, and now they are in counseling and would prefer to be left where they are and not forcibly relocated at the whim of impressionable voters who have them confused with German Shepherds.
But here we are then, aren’t we?
SB23-256, sponsored by Sens. Perry Will, R-New Castle, and Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, and Reps. Meghan Lukens, D-Steamboat Springs, and Matt Soper, R-Delta, would secure a waiver from some restrictions imposed by the U.S. Department of Interior. The waiver, known as a “10(j)” rule in the Endangered Species Act, would allow the state to manage wolves in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an “experimental population.” Gray wolves became an endangered species last year, triggering restriction of various management methods.
The legislation would allow ranchers to use lethal actions as a last resort if livestock are in immediate danger from wolves.
If passed, the legislation could put Gov. Polis in a tough spot with his Significant Other, who is a noted animal lover and activist that tends to side against ranchers and Colorado’s thriving livestock industry.