I went ice fishing in Steamboat soon before they were reintroduced. Our fishing guide (who is also a hunting guide) was mad as hell about it. He said the idiots in metro Denver have no idea what they were voting for. He claimed it would decimate the elk population and the wolves would kill lots of livestock. He said that many wolves don't even eat everything they kill - they basically do it for the sport of it.

So I don't have hard data or first hand experience, but it was very interesting to get this guy's perspective.

Public Opinion is a poor path to conservation.

See also: The OB thread on Oregon.

Apex Predators have their place and provide an important part of the ecosystem. Wolves were here with elk long before man made an impact and they were key in keeping elk and other cervidae herds in balance.
Then the expansion west brought livestock and ranchers wanted nothing to do with anything that might kill a cow or sheep or goat. That sentiment has never changed.
Outfitters and hunters don't want anything that might kill an elk, mule deer or whitetail, cause they want as many as they can to hunt.
This isn't a new conundrum…..it's been going on for decades and will never change and the problem will never resolve unless modern man is gone and that ain't happening soon.
The problem has never been resolved for almost two centuries and it's no closer now to an answer than back then.
Modern man is here now where he wasn't before, along with all that entails, so some things just can't be the same as they were before he came.

Native Americans were opportunists, often wasteful, drove many species to extinction, and would have killed off many more had they the technology to do so. No offense to Ted Nugent, but "only took what the needed" is a hippie myth.

We have a cabin in Colorado in an area where they have planned to release wolves next.

When the wolves are making it harder for ranchers to make a living, i have an issue with that.

We have cattle open graze around our property in the summer, i dont want to find / smell a dead one near our property and have to wait for the owner to find it.

Im concerned about the safety of kids / pets at our place. We already carry weapons / bear spray to deal with bear, etc but we dont get in trouble for killing those in self defense, but trying to prove self defense in a wolf killing wont be easy.

I dont think city stickers should have a vote in this. Just because they think it would be cool to see on their drive, doesnt justify the issues those who live amongst them have to deal with.

Al Gore is that you pushing your climate change agenda?
Kidding!
I'm not saying climate change has zero impact, but it's oftly coincidental that megafauna died off in Australia, north & South America etc a few thousand years after people arrived. Habitat was certainly available for them to survive.

One things clear: They definitely hunted those extinct animals and I'm positive at no point did they ever stop to think they should quit because they started seeing less of them.

Hell Indians during the 19th century happily slaughtered game for money, drove entire herds off cliffs, dug up dens to get at pups/cubs etc. The mythology of the "just part of nature" Native American is just as false as the Noble Savage myth.

Borderline facts vs opinions here:

Wolves were already pushing into CO from WY before the ballot.

Ballot Box Biology is bad, leave it to the experts at CPW. If it weren't for the wolf deal going so badly though, and lots of public education/rallying efforts from HOWL and CRWM, the ballot initiative in 2024 to ban mountain lion hunting may have passed.

Largely forced onto CPW (report up thru the governor so CPW is /was muzzled), CPW employees were forbidden to speak/inform on the ballot initiative or give their professional opinion on the issue.

Colorado brought in wolves from OR that had a history of livestock depredation.

The governor's husband is very pro animal rights type / anti hunting. They literally got to open the wolf cages for the first reintroduction release. Some of the past CPW commissioner appointments would hint at this, connections to groups that are big on re-wilding / anti hunting, etc.

The reintroduction program has been astronomically over budget.

Wolf reintroduction into the GYE in MT/WY/ID in mid 90s was a much different deal than CO in present day in a relatively high populated and recreated in area. Different levels of "wild"

Plopping wolves further south into CO speeds up the timeline for risk to Mexican Grey Wolf recovery efforts in NM. They already had to go get one CO wolf from in NM. Kinda makes me wonder on the legitimacy of the "wolf is a wolf is a wolf" topic, when a British Columbia ones weighs 60% more than the ones in NM. Maybe the OG CO wolves were in between? Guess that is why I am not an expert and shouldn't be able to vote on this type of stuff.

Not a wolf hater, would be kinda cool to see one or hear one. Glad we have expanding populations of wild things in wild places. That said, I am just there 2-3 weeks to hunt in the fall or take family on summer vacation. Don't have to deal with a pack killing my livestock / affecting my livelihood, wolves stressing the herd out all summer up in the national forest to make them come down underweight. Then to have the message from the state / state agencies to be "just get a guard dog / add some flagging to you fence".

I think the ultimate issue for me is how it was forced onto the rural/ranching/ag community largely by folks that won't have to deal with it, and how it has been managed since. Not to disparage CPW either, I think they are doing the best they can given all of the circumstances/constraints.

Agree with most of this, but I will keep my CPW opinion to myself. Ballot box biology is a terrible way to govern and handle these kinds of issues. Colorado is a prime example of how not to manage it, from every angle. Polis and his husband cannot be gone soon enough. This program was setup to fail from the get go and has been a failure of epic proportions since implementation.