(The Center Square) – A federal judge ruled against the request of two Colorado agriculture organizations to stop the upcoming reintroduction of gray wolves in the state.
The Gunnison County Stockgrowers’ Association and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association filed a lawsuit earlier this week to stop the project. The organization argued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife and its commission failed to fully evaluate a voter-approved plan to restore the population of gray wolves.
The organizations requested an environmental impact assessment be conducted before 10 wolves from Oregon are transported to Colorado’s western slope by Dec. 31.
“Plaintiffs have failed to establish that any of the required factors tips in their favor and have therefore failed to show entitlement to the emergency and preliminary relief they request,” U.S. District Court Judge Regina Rodriguez wrote in a 17-page ruling on Friday.
Judge Rodriguez heard arguments on Thursday pertaining to the injunction to stop the project.
Colorado voters approved Proposition 114 with 51% of the vote in 2020, requiring the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to re-establish the wolves by the end of 2023. The state worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to gain a designation under the Endangered Species Act to classify the wolves as an experimental population in Colorado. The action allowed the reintroduction to begin by as early as Dec. 8.
Judge Rodriguez wrote the agriculture organizations failed to “demonstrate a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their claims” when the lawsuit continues. Judge Rodriguez wrote the merits of the plaintiff’s claim the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to comply with the National Environmental Protection Act when entering an agreement for the program in Colorado is unlikely to succeed.
However, Judge Rodriguez wrote if the plaintiffs were successful in showing the federal government didn’t properly follow its guidelines with Colorado, they still haven’t proven they’re “entitled to an injunction preventing” Colorado from reintroducing the wolves as required by state law.
