Return of Wolves with Journalists Eli Francovich and Nick Bowlin

Voters approved Proposition 114 in November 2020, requiring Colorado Parks and Wildlife to make a plan to begin reintroducing wolves to the Western Slope of Colorado by the end of 2023. The wildlife agency first released 10 gray wolves captured in Oregon onto state land in Grand and Summit counties in December 2023. This discussion will check in on current movements in wolf reintroduction in Colorado with High Country News reporter Nick Bowlin and author, Eli Francovich.

The gray wolf has made an astonishing comeback in Washington. Nearly eradicated by the 1990s, conservationists and environmentalists have cheered its robust return to the state over the last two decades. But Washington ranchers are not so joyous. When wolves prey on livestock, ranchers view their livelihood as under attack.

In Return of the Wolves: An Iconic Predator’s Struggle to Survive in the American West, author Eli Francovich investigates how we might mend this divide while keeping wolf populations thriving. He finds an answer in the time-honored tradition of range riding and one passionate range rider, Daniel Curry, who has jumped directly into the fray by patrolling the rural Washington landscape on horseback. Curry engages directly with farmers, seeking to protect livestock from wolves while also protecting and proliferating wolf populations. In The Return of Wolves, we meet an eclectic cast of players—local ranchers, politicians, environmentalists, and everyday folks caught in the middle—and find hope for the future of wolves, and perhaps for our divided nation.