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Colorado balks at wolf reintroduction

FILE -This Jan. 26, 1998 file photo shows a Mexican gray wolf moving through his new home, a third of an acre pen after being released from a cage in Hannagan Meadows, Ariz. The Mexican government plans to return the rarest of North America's gray wolves to their historic range, and news of the move has prompted a flurry of questions from wildlife managers, ranchers and conservationists in the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this week it learned of the plan to release a pack of captive-bred Mexican gray wolves during a meeting in July 2009 with Mexican officials. (Jeff Robbins / Associated Press)
FILE -This Jan. 26, 1998 file photo shows a Mexican gray wolf moving through his new home, a third of an acre pen after being released from a cage in Hannagan Meadows, Ariz. The Mexican government plans to return the rarest of North America's gray wolves to their historic range, and news of the move has prompted a flurry of questions from wildlife managers, ranchers and conservationists in the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said this week it learned of the plan to release a pack of captive-bred Mexican gray wolves during a meeting in July 2009 with Mexican officials. (Jeff Robbins / Associated Press)

ENDANGERED SPECIES -- As in Washington and Oregon, wolves will have to find their own way back into Colorado.

Colorado wildlife commission nixes release of wolves into state
The Colorado Wildlife Commission voted 7-4 to reject any releases of both Mexican and gray wolves into the state, a pre-emptory effort to block any attempt by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restore populations of the Mexican gray wolf that includes southwestern Colorado as habitat for the species.

However, the Commission confirmed that the state would protect any wolves that wander into the state.

Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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