Wolverines could be next up for reintroduction in Colorado
Let's get this part out of the way: Yes, Colorado is already working on a reintroduction plan with wolves for the end of 2023. That issue has been hotly contested and supported by different groups from all over Colorado after a thin margin of voters passed the plan in 2020.
This has almost absolutely nothing to do with that plan, aside from wolves and wolverines sharing the same sound to start their names.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife told Mountain Newsroom Reporter Spencer Wilson it's actually been planning to bring back wolverines for decades at this point, but simply hasn't yet.
"Going back to, you know, the lynx reintroduction that we executed starting in the late 1990s," Jake Ivan, Wildlife Research Scientist for CPW said. "If you go back to those early documents, that was supposed to be sort of a lynx and wolverine combined effort...we decided to just bite off one of those."
That's how lynx came back to Colorado in the 1990s and wolverines were shelved for another time.
CPW said they have records of the species in Colorado dating back to the early 1900s, and one or two will pop up every once in a while, but it's been a long time since we've had a real population of the critters.
As for what they bring to Colorado, CPW said it's more about trying to bring Colorado back to how it once operated before humans intervened while adjusting to ways we have changed the landscape so they can be successfully reintroduced. Wolverines are being considered for listing on the federal endangered species list this November, and Colorado seems to be one of the best spots in the 'lower 48' states for habitat.
"If you look at sort of model wolverine habitat, this is the one obvious place where we have a big chunk of what looks to be a really good wolverine habitat that's unoccupied," Ivan said.
Since the population in the entire United States has dwindled to 300-400 (excluding Alaska), adding the proposed 100-150 wolverines (from...maybe Canada?! We still don't know...) could add a quarter if not a third of the population back in. As for what that does to Colorado, Ivan said they'll likely go mostly unnoticed, unless you're a marmot.
"They're definitely feisty," Ivan said. "They have a reputation as having a personality, They are, you know, tenacious and gritty. They live in these remote, rugged areas and they sort of have this symbolic sense of wild areas and wilderness."
And unlike the reintroduction of wolves (which are intended to help curb our rogue deer population, but traveling wolves have already been snacking on livestock out east) these new Colorado creatures are half scavengers, half small rodent predators. CPW believes they'll be a helpful addition to the ecosystem.
"We have plenty of marmots for sure," Ivan said. "And again, realizing that this is a native species, it was part of the system all along."
"We don't expect them to have any real potential harm to marmot populations."
As for the plan itself, this is still years down the line, but would not go to a vote like with the wolves. In that case, lobbyists pushed for the reintroduction themselves and got it on the ballot for all of Colorado to consider. This is a plan pushed from CPW themselves, so it doesn't need the public's input to proceed, granted it would likely take that into account.
The high country of the western slope is the proposed location for the wolverines right now, although considering this plan is still years out, that has the potential to change.
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