I dont understand the hostility towards wolf reintroduction in Colorado

BigNate

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Im sure my opinion will get hated on but i hope this spurs a productive conversation that conveys nuances that I may not be aware .
Well how's your understanding of the opposition?
Is the conversation what you expected?

Here in North Idaho the native Timberwolves are now gone. They were here until the "introduction" of the Canadian wolves.

The Mountain Caribou are now gone. They were here until they brought in the Canadian Wolves.

Moose population is on a rapid decline. So much so that seeing moose away from town is getting to be a notable occurrence, when we used to see a few every day.

The bighorn population in the Frank Church is all but gone. The biologists swear they're still there, but the guides/hunters I knew in the area haven't seen them for the last couple years.

Elk population is declining, as is the mule deer.

All of this is counter to the idea that this introduction is good for the ecosystem. Since when is causing the extinction of a species the right thing to do?
 
Joined
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In order to have a management plan, a population goal must be set.

There will never be a population goal for Colorado wolves, due to the politics of an endangered species.
 
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Loo.wii

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Well how's your understanding of the opposition?
Is the conversation what you expected?

Here in North Idaho the native Timberwolves are now gone. They were here until the "introduction" of the Canadian wolves.

The Mountain Caribou are now gone. They were here until they brought in the Canadian Wolves.

Moose population is on a rapid decline. So much so that seeing moose away from town is getting to be a notable occurrence, when we used to see a few every day.

The bighorn population in the Frank Church is all but gone. The biologists swear they're still there, but the guides/hunters I knew in the area haven't seen them for the last couple years.

Elk population is declining, as is the mule deer.

All of this is counter to the idea that this introduction is good for the ecosystem. Since when is causing the extinction of a species the right thing to do?
I appreciate your comment. I just read a few articles about the mountain caribou hopefully the heard in canada gets strong enough so that the can be reintroduced to this side of the fence.

Broadly I think many people would agree that one of the main issues is people. the only reason we have these issues is people
 

CorbLand

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I appreciate your comment. I just read a few articles about the mountain caribou hopefully the heard in canada gets strong enough so that the can be reintroduced to this side of the fence.

Broadly I think many people would agree that one of the main issues is people. the only reason we have these issues is people
It what sense do you think that people are the problem?
 

Hnthrdr

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im curious. on the critical mass of wolves that need to exist to cause some of the worst case scenario situations that some individuals are describing. In my hypothetical imagine if there are and could only ever be 10 wolves in Colorado. would there be a significant impact? now 100, 1000 etc. im not asking you im just working through the idea in my head. how many wolves would it take to cause serious issue?
I think the issues we are talking about won’t come to fruition until we are seeing triple digit wolves. Even then it won’t affect many of us here. Once we hit quad digits that where it will really effect most of us and then it’s a race to the bottom… I mean just looking at numbers 5-8 pups a year, so if there are 500 wolves, we can call it 200 females, 200x 5= 1000 new pups, even if only half survived to breeding age I think we can see how it could get out of hand quickly. Now wolves eat on average elk/ deer 15-19 a year so start doing the math, if we get 3000 wolves they are taking 45,000 animals off the landscape that humans could consume every year. Sorry I am kind of a pro human pro civilization kind of guy, best to disclose our biases
 

Hnthrdr

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Back in the 90's in Montana and Idaho, we didn't get to vote on reintroduction. We had informational "meetings", with overwhelming negative response from citizens of those states. (the only people on earth this would have any effect on)
Well the Fed. gov. said F.U. and shoved them up our ass anyway- spending around $6 Million tax dollars initially.

We were told after "x" of packs the states could manage them. What they meant was you could manage them after you hire packs of lawyers and many years of costly litigation. These environmentalists game plan revolves around pro bono legal representation. They use it all over the west to run roughshod over anyone that uses public land for public use.

I feel sorry for Colorado hunters, but at least you got to vote on it.
Coloradans didn’t really vote on it… transplants that moved to Co in the last 10 years voted it through, just look where it passed that’s all anyone needs to know
 
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Loo.wii

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and people are the problem in that equation?
in a sense yes. animals are a problem because there are people. less people less problem. theres more nuance to this opinion that i dont much care to elaborate on.
 
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I think the issues we are talking about won’t come to fruition until we are seeing triple digit wolves. Even then it won’t affect many of us here. Once we hit quad digits that where it will really effect most of us and then it’s a race to the bottom… I mean just looking at numbers 5-8 pups a year, so if there are 500 wolves, we can call it 200 females, 200x 5= 1000 new pups, even if only half survived to breeding age I think we can see how it could get out of hand quickly. Now wolves eat on average elk/ deer 15-19 a year so start doing the math, if we get 3000 wolves they are taking 45,000 animals off the landscape that humans could consume every year. Sorry I am kind of a pro human pro civilization kind of guy, best to disclose our biases

I think that 15-19 figure is a little low for wolves.

Then factor in that every lion kills one deer a week to survive, and lion hunting will undoubtedly be eliminated soon.

And then factor in a booming bear population and bear/fawn/calf mortality….

I don’t hate wolves, I hate the system.
 
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