Defenders' Experts
Southern Rockies Wolves Chronology
| 1808 | |
| Zebulon Pike reports wolves in what is today Colorado | |
| 1893 | |
| Colorado legislature establishes bounties on wolves | |
| 1914 | |
| Predatory Animal and Rodent Control (PARC) established by Congress – predecessor to Animal Damage Control (ADC) which is now called Wildlife Services. Government-endorsed wolf extermination program begins. | |
| 1945 | |
| Last confirmed wolf killed in Colorado. | |
| 1976 | |
| Gray wolf listed as endangered and protected under the Endangered Species Act. | |
| 1991 | |
| Defenders commits to compensating ranchers market value for livestock lost to wolves. | |
| 2000 | |
Defenders hosts “Carnivores 2000” in Denver to highlight wolf reintroduction to the southern Rockies, releases petition to the USFWS for a DPS in the southern Rockies. USFWS proposes to reclassify gray wolves throughout lower 48, reducing protections to threatened across vast swaths that not yet have wolves. More than 20,000 public comments received, 95% opposed to the reclassification. |
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| 2005 | |
| Federal District Ct agrees with Defenders and other groups and overturns the Reclassification Rule – wolves now back to protected as endangered throughout most of US. | |
| 2006 | |
Defenders releases “Places for Wolves” LINK, a scientific report presenting a vision for recovery of ecologically-effective populations of wolves throughout the U.S. and Mexico. Colorado legislature repeals state wolf bounty |
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