Media advisory: CSU experts available to discuss Colorado wolf reintroduction
Contact for reporters:
Jayme DeLoss
jdeloss@colostate.edu
(970) 491-8904
Following the release of five wolves Monday in Grand County, Colorado, there are a lot of unknowns. How will this affect ranchers? How will it affect the wolves? Will the first voter-mandated reintroduction of an endangered species by a state be successful in restoring a population that was intentionally eradicated in the 1940s?
Colorado State University experts have studied the interactions between people and wildlife, as well as the food web and ecosystem benefits related to apex predators. CSU has two centers with the express purpose of preventing conflict between people and animals.
The Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence has been working with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and ranchers to be proactive about avoiding conflict between people and wolves. The center launched the Wolf Conflict Reduction Fund last year to support livestock producers with non-lethal approaches to reduce livestock losses to wolves.
The Animal-Human Policy Center was launched in May as a resource for policymakers and government agencies to help them solve and avoid problems related to interactions between animals and people. The center’s goal is to bring together diverse stakeholders – including animal welfare professionals, farmers and ranchers, hunters, scientists, veterinarians and wildlife advocates – to help officials promote positive outcomes for people and animals.
Rebecca Niemiec — director of the Animal-Human Policy Center and assistant professor in the Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources in the Warner College of Natural Resources — has studied people and their relationships with animals and the environment for a decade. She is focused on stakeholder engagement and using social science to understand and integrate diverse perspectives.
“Wolves have become kind of symbolic of these deeper identity-based debates: How should we be using public land? People have a really strong emotional and cultural connection to wolves as a species,” Niemiec told The New York Times.
In a statement to The Guardian, she added: “This event is historic not just because of its ecological and conservation significance, but also because it marks the first time voters decided to reintroduce a native species. Wolf reintroduction in Colorado is happening because many Colorado voters want wolves on the landscape – they want wolves as part of the ecosystem and have strong emotional and cultural connections to this species. Of course, some stakeholders opposed this effort, including those who may experience the impacts of wolves on their livelihoods. Ensuring these groups most impacted are given support in living with wolves will be critical for the success of the reintroduction effort moving forward.”
Kevin Crooks — director of the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence and professor in the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology in the Warner College of Natural Resources — studies wildlife ecology and conservation.
“Most ranchers won’t experience direct conflict with wolves,” Crooks said, “and wolves have a relatively small impact on the broader livestock industry as a whole. But some ranchers will experience conflict — and for those individual ranchers, the economic and emotional impacts are real.”
To educate the public and reduce conflict, CSU’s Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence has compiled science-based information sheets and crowdsourced funds for nonlethal wolf mitigation, like fencing or guard dogs.
“The research, education and engagement efforts being conducted by CSU can help reduce impacts around wolf reintroduction, benefiting both people and wolves,” Crooks said.