ON DEC. 18, DIGNITARIES watched as five wolves bounded from crates, loped across snow and brittle grass, and vanished into scraggly forest. Tranquilized with darts fired from helicopters in Oregon a day earlier, the quintet had been fitted with tracking collars, flown to Colorado and driven to a remote corner of Grand County, where they became the first wolves released under the state’s voter-led reintroduction program. In the following days, Colorado Parks and Wildlife freed another five wolves; over the next several years, it plans to release up to 40 more.
In theory, the canids are well-positioned to flourish: Colorado boasts 8.3 million acres of public land and the West’s largest elk herd. But the Centennial State is also home to more than 3 million head of
