Group wants wolves restored in Colorado

ASPEN, Colo. – An environmental group wants to see wolves back in Colorado.

WildEarth Guardians of Sante Fe, N.M., has filed papers with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calling for wolf reintroduction in four Colorado areas. After being exterminated throughout the West decades ago, wolves have been reintroduced to Montana, Wyoming and Idaho.

WildEarth Guardians believes Colorado should come next. The group argues that wolves would help thin overpopulated elk herds, which would then lead to more young aspen trees.

“We believe that the Southern Rockies needs wolves, and wolves definitely need the Southern Rockies,” said Rob Edward, carnivore recovery director for the group.

The group’s proposal identifies four Colorado areas for wolf reintroduction – the Flat Tops north of Glenwood Springs, the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison national forests near Pitkin County’s western border, the San Juan Mountains and Wemenuche Wilderness in southwestern Colorado, and southern Colorado’s Vermejo Park Ranch and Carson National Forest.

A Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman in Denver said she had not heard about the petition, but that the agency stands by its recovery plan, which limits restoring wolves to Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.