The Colorado Wolf Reintroduction Might End the Same Way it Started — with a Ballot Initiative

A proposed ballot initiative to sunset Colorado’s wolf reintroduction by Dec. 31, 2026,clearedthe Colorado Secretary of State’s Title Board on Feb. 19, paving the way once again for voters to decide the future of gray wolves across the state — a practice that the hunting community has widely criticized as “ballot box biology.”

The proposed initiative wouldamend a current Colorado statuteformalizing the start date of the reintroduction by tacking on a formal end date. Proponents argue that this move wouldn’t impact Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s ability to continue with the reintroduction until that date is reached. Opponents argue it could squeeze the timeline the CPW held meetings and coordinated a technical working group to establish after Proposition 114 passed in 2020 — a timeline that lacks a formal end date for a reason, they say.

When asked if the proposal is essentially using ballot box biology to address ballot box biology, Patrick Davis ofColorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy— the political action group spearheading the proposal — said yes.

“The only relief that the taxpayers of Colorado have, and the voters of Colorado have, is to take it back to the ballot,” Davis told MeatEater. “If it’s characterized as ballot box biology, so be it.”

Davis recalled how, in January, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission rejected a petition from the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association to pause the reintroduction after a trio of Grand County ranchers issued a series of livestock depredation claims totaling $582,000. Most of those damages involved underweight, missing, and slow-to-conceive livestock, rather than actual confirmed wolf kills, for which they charged over $18,400. Both the state’s livestock depredation fund and funds for CPW’s gray wolf management efforts would remain intact under the proposed ballot initiative, Davis pointed out.

“[Proposition 114] was thrust upon the voters of Colorado in 2020. We were sold blue sky, rainbows, and unicorns. It turns out, wolves eat unicorns,” Davis said. “Now, we have to respond to their ballot box biology in a similar way to get any relief.”

The reintroduction began with the first release of wolves on Dec. 13, 2023, and a second release occurred during the second week of January 2025. In total, CPW has relocated 25 wolves from Oregon and British Columbia. The proposed sunset date would bookend a three-year reintroduction period, Davis pointed out, which would be consistent with the current plan.

CPW declined to comment on the pending ballot initiative. But a 2022 summary of recommendations from theCPW Technical Working Groupoutlines the preferred cadence of the reintroduction — a cadence that could ostensibly be manipulated by a voter-initiated sunset date.

“The general technical preference is for a ‘medium’ pace, followed by a ‘slow’ pace, and, least favorably, a ‘fast’ pace,” the summary reads. Thereintroduction planin its current form calls for 30 to 50 wolves to be released over a span of 3 to 5 years, a timeline and reintroduction cadence that falls somewhere between the working group’s definitions of “slow” and “medium.” And based on the working group’s other recommendations, the reintroduction plan lacks a formal end date for a reason.

“The preferred option is to … release a total of approximately thirty to forty wolves … then pause, assess, and adapt based on whether the initial restoration phase has resulted in an adequately growing population that will ultimately achieve a self-sustaining population,” the summary reads.

The ballot proposal is led by Stan VenderWerf, a former El Paso County commissioner, and Spencer Thomas, a Garfield County resident, with Davis as their campaign expert. They would require over 124,000 petition signatures to get on the ballot, according to statewide voter initiativelawsenforced by the Colorado Secretary of State.

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