The last place you might expect to find a wolf is inside a public library, a place that doesn鈥檛 even allow pets in the door.
But on an early summer day, Shaya, a so-called 鈥渨olf ambassador鈥� was pacing the 4th floor of the downtown library in Pueblo, Colorado, surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd.
Shaya, a grayish-white pale-eyed creature, traveled here from the about an hour away in Divide. His handler, Michelle Smith, explained he鈥檚 mostly wolf, with a touch of domesticated dog. Smith held Shaya on a leash, handed him the occasional piece of beef jerky, and answered questions from a swarm of excited kids.
Shaya may have been the event鈥檚 main attraction, but there was a bigger goal there beyond just giving kids a chance to see a wild animal up close. The event was educating potential voters. A table in the corner of the room staffed with volunteers hosted a display of pamphlets about the plight of wolves.
Over the past several decades, gray wolves have been reintroduced to places throughout the Mountain West in Montana, Idaho, and Yellowstone National Park. But those programs have been decided on and carried out primarily by government wildlife agencies.
Wildlife advocates in Colorado want to do it differently. They want to bring the question to . A group called the is working to get an .
Delia Malone is a ecologist working on the campaign. She said the ballot question is very simple: 鈥淒o Coloradans want wolves restored to Colorado?鈥�
More specifically says it would require the parks and wildlife commission, 鈥渁fter holding statewide hearings and using scientific data, to implement a plan to restore and manage gray wolves.鈥�
Their goal would be to reintroduce them to federal public lands in the mountains west of the Continental Divide by the year 2023.
once roamed across nearly all of the Mountain West. Malone said they disappeared from the greater region in the 1940s after they were targeted for extermination.
Decades later, in 1974, they were under the Federal Endangered Species Act. But in the most recent decade, after several successful reintroduction programs throughout the Rocky Mountains, Congress removed protection for gray wolf populations in Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and parts of Utah, Oregon and Washington.
The Trump administration recently removing gray wolves from the Federal Endangered Species List altogether. Whether or not that鈥檚 a good thing, depends on who you ask.
Malone thinks wolves have been demonized unfairly. 鈥淭here are so many myths that wolves are gonna kill all your livestock, that wolves are kill all the elk and all the deer,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat hasn鈥檛 been proven out scientifically.鈥�
But Blake Henning with the , a hunting advocacy group, sees it differently.
鈥淭here are places where elk numbers have drastically declined after wolves were put on the landscape,鈥� he said.
If that kind of decline were to happen in Colorado, he said, we wouldn鈥檛 just lose elk, we鈥檇 lose money.
Colorado has the in the country -- around And that draws a lot of hunters to Colorado. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a significant driver for small towns and has a significant economic impact,鈥� Henning said.
estimate gray wolves would kill around 3% of Colorado鈥檚 elk population per year. That鈥檚 far fewer than hunters kill annually.
But Henning said it鈥檚 not just hunting interests at stake. Ranchers too will suffer the cost.
鈥淎nd,鈥� he said that would mean, 鈥渃osts not only just in livestock loss but in man hours managing a herd, dealing with stress on animals.鈥�
The ballot initiative does say that livestock owners would be compensated for any animals killed by wolves. But Henning said that might not repair all the damage done.
And he is skeptical of putting this decision in the hands of regular voters.
鈥淲e think the rightful decision maker should be the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Game Commission,鈥� said Henning.
That agency鈥檚 stance has so far been clear. It鈥檚 in large part by hunting and fishing licenses. it said it does not support a reintroduction of gray wolves because of potential conflict with the state鈥檚 livestock industry and big game like deer and elk.
But veteran wolf biologist, Mike Phillips, balks at that notion. 鈥淢y gosh,鈥� he said, 鈥渢here's plenty of deer and elk.鈥�
Phillips is currently a and Director of the , which is involved in the efforts to reintroduce gray wolves to Colorado.
In 1995, he led the reintroduction of gray wolves to and consulted on a simultaneous reintroduction in . According to Phillips, wolves actually keep elk and deer populations, as well as , healthier.
鈥淭hey will hunt frequently enough to cause the deer and elk to behave slightly differently,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat brings a relief to vegetation and when the vegetation isn鈥檛 being pressed so by grazing and browsing deer and elk it begins to change, inevitably making any ecological setting richer and more diverse than it would be otherwise.鈥�
He also said .
鈥淚f you鈥檙e the rancher who just lost a cow the night before you鈥檝e got a problem,鈥� Phillips said. 鈥淚 understand that. Fortunately, we have very good tools at the ready for resolving or for preventing conflicts from ever arising in the first place.鈥�
He mentioned several nonlethal ways of keeping wolves at a distance, like tying flags to fence posts and regularly monitoring livestock herds.
He said from all our past endeavors with wolf reintroduction in the West, we know how to coexist.
鈥淲e know a lot about gray wolves,鈥� Phillips said. 鈥淪o when we speak about what restoration would look like in Colorado we鈥檙e speaking from decades of experience.鈥�
showed roughly two thirds of Colorado voters support reintroducing gray wolves in the state. The Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund will start collecting signatures this summer to get their initiative onto next year鈥檚 ballot.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City, KUNR in Nevada and KRCC and 萝莉少女 in Colorado.
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