Colville Tribes Rescind Colorado Wolf Offer

Colorado may have to look elsewhere for gray wolves after the Colville Business Council rescinded its offer of up to 15 of the animals when it learned the state hadn’t consulted with a local tribe on a voter-mandated reintroduction effort.

Jarred-Michael Erickson, chairman of the Colville Confederated Tribes of northern Eastern Washington, informed Jeff Davis, director of the Colorado Parks & Wildlife, about the decision in a June 6 letter that just came to light in reports out of the Centennial State late this month.

“It has come to our attention that necessary and meaningful consultation was not completed with the potentially impacted tribes. Out of respect for the sovereignty, cultures, and memberships of Indian Tribes in Colorado and neighboring states, who may be impacted by this project, the Colville Tribes cannot assist with this project at this time,” states Erickson’s letter, as posted by Steamboat Radio.

The message followed the 10-0 passage of a resolution by the Colville Business Council to that effect.

“Based on new information regarding the proposed reintroduction project in Colorado, and that we have now learned that the State of Colorado has failed to consult with the Southern Ute Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation cannot agree to the request made by the State of Colorado to provide wolves for this project at this time,” the council’s resolution states. “It is further recommended that all Directives regarding the request from the State of Colorado that the Tribes provide wolves, that were passed up to the date of this recommendation be rescinded, including, but not limited to those passed on September 19, 2023 and October 3, 2023.”

Plans had called for the wolves to be captured on the Colville Tribes’ sprawling reservation between this December and next March. The tribes have sole management authority over wildlife on their reservation and manage wolves jointly with WDFW on the so-called North Half, a mix of private, state and federal land.

CPW officials took Erickson’s letter to mean the door for working with the tribes on wolves wasn’t necessarily permanently closed in terms of future translocations. Davis, who previously worked for WDFW as its conservation director, told Steamboat Radio that wolf restoration efforts would continue.

Idaho, Wyoming and Montana have all declined to donate wolves. Last winter, Oregon allowed CPW crews to capture 10 in the state’s northeastern corner as part of a one-year deal.

Officially, there hasn’t been a final decision on whether Washington will participate in the reintroduction, narrowly passed by Colorado voters in fall 2020 and which was required to get off the ground by the end of last year. Colorado’s request to WDFW last spring for some wolves came at a tricky time as the agency finalized a five-year periodic status review on the species and ultimately recommended downlisting wolves to sensitive status. However, earlier this month, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission essentially left them as state endangered. It’s hard to imagine how an “endangered” population could sustain the loss of a dozen or more wolves.

Consulting with tribes may be new for Colorado, but it has been a hot button around fish and wildlife management in Washington. The commission’s draft Conservation Policy drew widespread pushback from tribes and was paused to try and figure out how to hold government to government meetings on it. And ahead of the panel’s recent vote on statewide cougar hunting regulations, two tribes asked for consultation on that, with the Stillaguamish Tribe formally asking that the decision be postponed. It wasn’t.

The Colville Tribes and wolves have also been in the news as a widely circulated article questioned their 2023 wolf count, which WDFW has stood by.

The Southern Ute Tribe, which earlier this year filed legal action against the state of Colorado for blocking it from taking part in sports gambling, opposed the wolf reintroduction since before that 2020 ballot initiative was passed.