Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials release 1 of 5 gray wolves onto public land in Grand County, Dec. 18, 2023. This wolf is known as 2302-OR. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)
This story originally appeared in the Utah News Dispatch .
Utah lawmakers are once again considering funding efforts to scale back the protections granted to wolves under the Federal Endangered Species Act, with the group Hunter Nation requesting an additional $500,000 during an appropriations committee Thursday.
Confirmed wolf sightings are rare in Utah — since 1995, the Utah Division of Wildlife says there have been between 15 to 20, most recently a gray wolf that killed a rancher’s calf in Rich County in 2020.
But with the recent reintroduction of 10 wolves to the Western Slope of Colorado, experts say it’s only a matter of time before they creep into the eastern part of the state.
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That includes Don Peay, a hunting activist and founder of the group Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, who presented Thursday to the Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Environmental Quality Appropriations Subcommittee.