Of course it was killed by the Governor

SB23-256 was a win for everyone involved in reintroducing wolves to Colorado

Jan 30, 2024

Wolf running in a forest with "vetoed" in the background

Generated with AI ∙ January 23, 2024 at 4:37 PM

In the 2023 legislative session, I was co-prime sponsor of Senate Bill 23-256 (SB23-256) which would have required the Colorado Department of Parks & Wildlife to obtain a 10-J designation, for gray wolves in our state, from the Federal Government before reintroducing wolves. My co-prime sponsors on the bill were Sens. Will & Roberts, and Rep. Lukens. The bill primarily addresses that portion of Prop. 114 that requires “the Colorado parks and wildlife commission, after holding statewide hearings and using scientific data, to implement a plan to restore and manage gray wolves…”.

A 10-J designation, confirmed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), treats an introduced endangered animal population as experimental and able to be managed by lethal means. SB23-256 would have required the 10-J Rule in place prior to reintroduction. The purpose of the designation is to give FWS the flexibility of reintroducing species in areas they do not currently habituate and also eases the fears of other stakeholders that they may accidentally violate federal law by causing harm to an endangered species. It is important to understand that a 10-J designates a species as experimental and as either essential or nonessential. The designation essential or nonessential is determined by how crucial this experimental population is to the continuation of the species. The 10-J was designed specifically for situations like wolves in Colorado: introducing a species outside of their range in a population amount that does not critically impact the continuation of the species.

We specifically sought the 10-J rule to protect our farmers, ranchers, and hunters. A new predator threatens livestock, game, and the people who tend to them and giving them the flexibility to deal with wolves was very important to mitigate what will be a very destructive reintroduction in the long run. If the 10-J rule would not have been implemented for defending livestock or themselves from wolves, Coloradans could face up to $50,000 in fines and 1 year in federal prison criminally and $25,000 in fines a 6 months civilly.

SB23-256 made it out of both the Senate and House chambers with bipartisan support. However, upon arrival at the Governor’s desk, it was vetoed.

The Governor vetoed our bill because it was "unnecessary and undermines the voters' intent and the hard work of the Parks and Wildlife Commission." He believed that requiring a 10-J rule would have delayed the process of reintroduction which would have violated his interpretation of Proposition 114. However, the Governor did direct Executive Director of Colorado’s Department of Resources Dan Gibbs, in a public letter, to get a 10-J designation before reintroduction. Requiring the 10-J by Executive decree rather than Legislative directive.

SB23-256 was an insurance policy. If the 10-J Rule had not been published in the Federal Register prior to December 31, 2023, wolves could not be reintroduced until the rule was in place. It was an easy win for the Governor that he chose to veto. In the end, the rule was published prior to the end of the year.

Colorado Parks & Wildlife received the 10-J designation for gray wolves from the FWS on November 7th, 2023. It became effective December 8th, 2023, just 10 days before wolves were reintroduced into Colorado.

We are glad to see that with reintroduction CPW and Colorado’s farming, ranching, and hunting communities will have the flexibility to deal with the incoming wolves. However it is concerning and disappointing to see our Governor once again neglect rural Colorado for the radical environmentalists in Denver and Boulder. This whole process from passing a bipartisan bill, having the bill vetoed, but then requiring the same thing in a open letter, is another slap in the face to the heart of Colorado.

However the next big fight is will CPW use the 10-J to manage chronic depredation? During the SMART Act hearings and bilateral meetings between CPW officials and the West Slope delegation of legislators, CPW said they had not seen a depredation case of wolves attacking livestock rise to the level of chronic to warrant lethal management means. Don Gittleson, a rancher near Walden, has asked CPW to use lethal management under 10-J on his ranch, were 20 cows have been depredated due to wolf attacks.

Currently, I am working with the same team of legislators to get CPW to use 10-J, when our farmers and ranchers are calling for help and to allow for night shooting and better defined rules for when producers can engage with lethal force to protect livestock from attack.

Our work to curb the devastating impact of wolves is only just beginning.

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