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Ready or not, you could be approached by someone wielding a clipboard who wants to educate you about the Gray Wolves Initiative.

The plan will require Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife Commission to develop and implement a plan to reintroduce gray wolves to the state’s Western Slope. In 2020, voters could have the opportunity to weigh in on whether they are willing to bring back the apex predator that has been absent from Colorado since 1940.

Excitement elicited by June’s confirmed sighting of a lone wolf near the Wyoming border rippled through the state. However, many wolf biologists believe that waiting for wolves to independently return to Colorado to establish a sustainable population could take decades.

Wolves ran afoul of settlers in the early 1600s, and a bounty was declared in the colony of Massachusetts. In 1940, the last Colorado wolf was trapped and killed. But public sentiment began to pivot, and by the early 1990s, Americans began to recognize and value the wolf’s place in nature.

via Greene: Will Colorado roll out the red carpet for the gray wolf? | CanyonCourier.com