AP file photo
Wolf fans will be howling outside Front Range grocery stores soon, hoping to seed a new predator in Colorado’s Western Slope.
The Colorado Secretary of State on Friday approved a petition seeking signatures to land a wolf reintroduction proposal on the November 2020 ballot. Wolf supporters will need 124,632 signatures by Dec. 13 to put the restoration of gray wolves before voters.
The group will aim to submit 200,000 signatures, gathered by a team of about 200 volunteers who will be hitting the streets as soon as this week, said Rick Ridder, a political consultant advising the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund, the group pushing the restoration measure.
Colorado is emerging as the last battleground for restoring wolf populations. Over the last four decades, federal and state wildlife managers have introduced wolves in the Southwest, Northern Rockies and Great Lakes states.
If wolf restoration reaches the ballot next year, Colorado could be the first state where voters — not those wildlife scientists — order a plan to welcome the predators back to Western Colorado.
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