Wolves introduced from British Columbia Violate Agreement
On October 10, 2025, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Brian Nesvik sent a cease and desist letter to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) telling the agency to immediately end “all efforts related to the capture, transport and/or release of gray wolves not obtained from…the [Northern Rocky Mountains] area.” CPW has released 25 gray wolves in northwestern Colorado following a 2020 ballot initiative – Proposition 114 – passed by Colorado voters, which required the state to reintroduce gray wolves.
Gray wolves are listed as an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) throughout most of the contiguous United States, except for a delisted population in the Northern Rocky Mountains (NRM), which includes Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, eastern Oregon and Washington, and north-central Utah. To facilitate reintroduction, FWS promulgated a rule designating the soon-to-be Colorado wolves as an experimental population under Section 10(j) of the ESA. FWS and CPW entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in December 2023 regarding the requirements of the Colorado gray wolf 10(j) rule. Among the stipulations of the 10(j) rule is the requirement that any wolves reintroduced to Colorado must come from within the NRM population of gray wolves.
CPW transplanted 10 wolves from eastern Oregon in 2023. Attempts to secure more wolves from Oregon, Washington, and other NRM states failed, and CPW introduced 15 wolves from British Columbia in early 2025. CPW has apparent plans to transplant another 15 British Columbian wolves in the winter of 2025-26. Of course, British Columbia is not included in the FWS-designated NRM population of gray wolves, so the importation of wolves from British Columbia in 2025 and any subsequent importations are in violation of the legally-binding and agreed-upon requirements of the 10(j) rule.
“Colorado voters have put the state in tough spot,” said Michael Jean, Litigation Counsel for Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “They voted to reintroduce wolves into the state on a tight timeline, but the only way to do that is through Section 10(j) of the ESA. The final Section 10(j) rule contemplates that the wolves will come from the NRM population. But now those states don’t want to give up their wolves because the drop in numbers is being used against them by animal-rights groups, who are actively trying to get those wolves relisted.”
It’s unclear what next steps will be taken by both CPW and FWS, but the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation stands ready to engage in the legal process to uphold the legal requirements of the Colorado 10(j) rule. We’re already litigating the ESA status of gray wolves in the NRM and in the Western Great Lakes, and we’ll continue to engage wherever the fight for sportsmen takes us.
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