On December 14, 2023, the Colorado Conservation Alliance (“CCA”) filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS”), Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission, Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife (collectively, “CPW”), Dan Gibbs in his capacity as the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and Jeff Davis in his capacity as Director of the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife (collectively, “Defendants”). The Complaint seeks to stop the Defendants from moving forward with gray wolf introductions in Colorado until a full and adequate environmental study has been completed.
Case Summary:
The CCA has challenged the Defendants’ process for wolf introduction in the state of Colorado. The CCA’s legal challenge is two-fold. First, after review by wildlife experts and veterinarians, the CCA believes that the Environmental Impact Statement issued by USFWS supporting the 10(j) rule is significantly deficient under the requirements of the federal National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Second, the CCA further contends that the Defendants’ process for wolf introduction violates NEPA and the APA because the Defendants did not complete the environmental review process required under NEPA for the wolf introduction itself. While USFWS issued an EIS under NEPA—which the CCA believes is deficient in and of itself—designating Colorado’s wolf population as a nonessential, experimental population under the Endangered Species Act, this is limited to managing the species after introduction. The Defendants did not conduct the environmental review process under NEPA for the action of taking an apex predator (the gray wolf) from a population hundreds of miles away and introducing it onto an entirely new landscape in Colorado.
The CCA filed their Complaint on December 14, 2023. Beginning on December 18, 2023, the Defendants started releasing gray wolves in the state without notifying landowners, livestock producers and other concerned individuals of the location of the releases. The CCA has also been made aware of information indicating that at least five of the released wolves came from packs with a known history of chronic livestock depredation. It appears that this is in direct conflict with information the Defendants provided to the Colorado public on wolf introduction, such as sections of the Wolf Restoration and Management Plan stating that “[n]o wolf should be translocated that has a known history of chronic depredation, and sourcing from geographic areas with chronic depredation events should not occur.” This is already causing major issues for landowners and livestock producers, such as the depredation observed in North Park.
As a result, on December 22, 2023, the CCA moved the Court for a preliminary injunction to halt the introduction of additional wolves in Colorado. The Defendants, as well as various wildlife anti-use groups proposing to intervene in the case, filed legal arguments opposing the CCA’s motion on January 5, 2024. The CCA replied to all Defendants on January 12, 2024. On January 24, 2024—shortly after CCA filed its final legal arguments to stop additional introductions—CPW filed a Notice with the Court that they will not release any additional wolves in Colorado during this season. The Notice provided that the earliest they would release additional wolves would be after December 1, 2024. The lawsuit will now proceed without the potential of additional wolf releases occurring before December 1, 2024.
“Colorado Conservation Alliance is a collaborative organization of private property landowners, ranchers, farmers, livestock producers, sportsmen and sportswomen, outfitters, natural resource affiliations, and businesses, with a mission to protect our Colorado outdoor heritage, wildlife habitats, businesses, and state and local economies through responsible, science-based wildlife and natural resource management.”
More details of the CCA’s suit can be viewed at Colorado Conservation Alliance
Glad to see that CCA is continuing the fight to halt this process. Colorado is not the same as Idaho, Montana, or Wyoming. Those states have much larger expanses and thousands of fewer regular resident public lands visitors that impact wildlife and habitats. As someone who is well-versed with the NEPA, I also question the EIS process. Did the USFWS adequately evaluate “cumulative effects” of this action? As an avid outdoorsman, lifetime Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (BHA) member, etc. I have watched elk and deer herds decline precipitously over the past 20 years from bear, coyote, and lion predation; hard winters and habitat impacts from the pine beetle epidemic and wildfires; reduced calf and fawn recruitment due to steadily increasing recreation impacts; exponentially-increased hunting pressure as a result of social media; etc. All of these are incremental (i.e., cumulative) impacts. Were they even addressed by USFWS in their EIS? Now, they are adding in wolf reintroduction on top of all of these other impacts. In summary I doubt that the EIS took a very ‘hard look’ at the potential impacts (as the NEPA requires), and this appears to have been a rushed, and ‘arbitrary’ process to. placate voters and politicians, leaving those of us who spend a great deal of time in the Colorado backcountry very frustrated.