The Fish and Wildlife Service has directed Colorado officials to stop recruiting Canadian wolves for use in the state’s high-profile wolf reintroduction program.
In a shot across the bow that could slow a program opposed by Colorado ranchers, Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik advised the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife that “we have reason to believe” the state was considering using wolves from outside the multistate Northern Rocky Mountain area.
“If CPW is currently engaged in such activities, CPW must immediately cease and desist any and all efforts related to the capture, transport and/or release of gray wolves not obtained from … the NRM Areas,” Nesvik wrote.
Nesvik’s Oct. 10 letter, first reported by the Associated Press, does not name Canada as the prohibited source of gray wolves, although that is the source upon which the state planned to rely.
