Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Colorado Republicans are expressing outrage after officials initiated an operation over the weekend to capture wild gray wolves in Canada and release them into the state.Why It MattersColorado voters passed a ballot initiative in 2020 that called for the reintroduction of gray wolves into the Centennial State. After some wolves were moved to the state from Oregon as part of the reintroduction program, a spate of attacks on livestock prompted farmers and others to strongly criticize the program and demand its end.Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) on Friday announced that it had begun capturing up to 15 additional gray wolves in British Columbia and would be releasing them in the state within two weeks.What To KnowRepublican Colorado U.S. Representatives Lauren Boebert, Jeff Crank, Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd released a joint statement on Monday condemning the CPW operation for importing “foreign wolves” into the state, while demanding that the Department of the Interior intervene and that the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump “take immediate action by stopping further importation of these foreign predators into the United States.””After years of slighting or outright ignoring Colorado farmers and ranchers with politically appointed anti-agricultural activists and ‘meat-free days,’ bureaucrats in Colorado have rushed through the importation of Canadian gray wolves and have set them loose in our state despite numerous protests and questions about the legality of this dysfunctional and chaotic approach,” Boebert, Crank, Evans and Hurd said in the statement.
A gray wolf is pictured at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center in Divide, Colorado, on March 28, 2023. Republican Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, shown in the inset image, condemned wildlife officials on Monday for…
A gray wolf is pictured at the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center in Divide, Colorado, on March 28, 2023. Republican Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, shown in the inset image, condemned wildlife officials on Monday for recently importing “foreign wolves” into the Colorado wild as part of the state’s gray wolf reintroduction program.
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JASON CONNOLLY/AFP; Kevin Dietsch
Boebert also sent a letter on Monday to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, demanding that she stop the wolf reintroduction program while arguing that Coloradans are “at risk of being deprived of access to both land and resources because of Colorado’s importation of wolves which is taking place absent appropriate federal planning, protections, and oversight.”Newsweek reached out for comment to CPW and the Department of the Interior via email on Monday night.What People Are SayingBoebert, in her letter to Haaland: “Colorado’s notion that wolves not released directly onto federal property can evade federal jurisdiction is unprecedented. Wolves obviously do not disappear when they cross the invisible boundaries between state and federal lands… I call upon your duty as Secretary of the Interior to stop Colorado’s importation of foreign gray wolves to federal lands…”CPW Director Jeff Davis, in a statement: “We remain committed to working with all parties as we continue to implement the law as passed by the voters. We have been working all year in preparation to have more wolves on the landscape with an improved Conflict Minimization Program, the addition of new staff to work alongside producers, strengthened partnerships, and guidelines for producers as it relates to chronic depredation and lethal management considerations.”What Happens NextDetails about the release of the 15 new wolves are sparse, although Cowboy State Daily reported on Monday that animals would be set free in either Eagle County or Pitkin County, both in northwest Colorado.Boebert is calling for the incoming Trump administration to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list, which could make it easier to block the state’s reintroduction program.
