But now the soft-spoken leader of a wildlife agency in transition has decided to break his silence. And he gave The Colorado Sun a 30-minute interview as fires raged across Rio Blanco County, where an uncollared wolf the agency was hunting because it killed multiple sheep<\/a> in recent weeks is now obscured by the smoke, while Davis continues to shepherd a future in which wolves as well as ranchers, and hunters, and bird watchers and recreation lovers all have their equal places across the landscape. <\/p>\n The challenges of wolf-and-human coexistence<\/p>\n Davis has frequently acknowledged the burden wolf reintroduction has placed on ranchers. CPW lists eight confirmed livestock or working-dog deaths between April 2022 and March 2023<\/a>. Another 4 occurred between April 2023 and March 2024, 33 between April 2024 and March 2025 and 14 so far this year.<\/p>\n But he said plenty of people have been affected on the advocate side as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere are folks that clearly are sad when we have to do a lethal removal, even though many of them understand that the big picture is a sustainable population of wolves in Colorado,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd while (killing wolves) is sad, some of that is necessary in order to achieve that success.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBut those same wolf advocates are also recognizing the massive contribution that rural land owners make to wildlife conservation, writ large in Colorado, that we all benefit from,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSo, many people recognize we\u2019re stuck in a conflict, and the conflict isn\u2019t serving any of us. But at least in my short time in Colorado, my experience has been that Colorado has a long history of coming together in difficult situations, of working together to create durable, lasting solutions. And I think at least in my conversations more recently, people are recognizing like, OK, throwing grenades at each other isn\u2019t fixing anything. We\u2019ve got to sit down together and figure out some give and take to move forward together.\u201d<\/p>\n Will wolf reintroduction succeed?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n To Davis, success in wolf reintroduction looks like CPW resolving conflicts within the ranching community, because \u201cwe need to keep our ranchers ranching forever. All the benefits from their land stewardship contributes to CPW\u2019s success,\u201d he said, which in turn is the public\u2019s success because they reap the benefits of the healthy ecosystems the ranchers steward.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBiologically speaking, it has been a success, because that\u2019s the easiest part of wolf restoration,\u201d he added, nodding to pups CPW believes have been born to four packs this season. \u201cThe most challenging is the social piece. And that\u2019s the conflict we\u2019re all feeling a big part of. As Doug Smith said last week<\/a>, wolf reintroduction is messy, and you can\u2019t go around it. The only way is to go through it. I think we will go through it, and the test will be how early can we achieve success collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis says when we take \u201cpieces\u201d like wolves, \u201cout of the ecosystem, we further exacerbate the imbalance of those ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n He also acknowledges \u201cwe\u2019re not going back to pre-settlement days\u201d when Colorado had thousands of wolves floating around. But he believes CPW\u2019s job as a public trust manager is to balance all of the needs, interests and expectations of the public with the end goal of creating \u201ca restored balance that\u2019s different than what it may have been prior to a lot of human intervention,\u201d but includes all of the species Coloradans care about, like wolves, pronghorn, deer and elk.<\/p>\n CPW\u2019s shifting priorities<\/p>\n There\u2019s a perception in some parts of Colorado that Gov. Jared Polis is shifting the priorities of Colorado Parks and Wildlife away from an old model that prioritized hunters and anglers over \u201cnonconsumptive\u201d users like bird watchers and mountain bikers because of the money hunters and anglers put into CPW coffers through license fees to hunt and fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n Davis said he doesn\u2019t see the shift while acknowledging the massive financial contribution of hunters and anglers<\/a>. But he emphasized CPW has other funding sources for managing everything from conservation, to state parks and recreation, to search and rescue and avalanche safety, through things like the Keep Colorado Wild Pass<\/a>, which generated $39.7 million in revenue in 2024<\/a>, about 10% of CPW\u2019s total budget that year.\u00a0<\/p>\n The current CPW is supported by \u201cmore of a mix of money,\u201d Davis added. \u201cAnd going back to our ecosystem concept, what I see is the governor and Dan Gibbs, executive director of the Department of Natural Resources, pushing for biodiversity. And I would argue, as a hunter and angler myself, that a more intact ecosystem that\u2019s healthy will support game species and nongame species more effectively.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In other words, \u201cIf you like elk hunting, then you\u2019ve got to love a pollinator, because these things function together,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n The State Wildlife Action Plan<\/p>\n Colorado is due to release its 2025 State Wildlife Action Plan<\/a> to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service by Sept. 30. To that end, CPW is working closely with Colorado State University\u2019s Colorado Natural Heritage Program<\/a>, which \u201cadvances the conservation of Colorado\u2019s native species and ecosystems through science, planning, and education for the benefit of current and future generations,\u201d the program says. The plan is available for anyone to review and offer comments on.\u00a0<\/p>\n State Wildlife Action Plans guide the conservation of a state\u2019s most vulnerable species and the habitats they depend on. An updated plan is required every 10 years for federal funding eligibility via the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants<\/a> program. These plans have eight required elements that have remained the same since the program\u2019s inception 25 years ago.<\/p>\n Davis said the new plan will have \u201coutstanding conservation\u201d created \u201cthrough a climate resiliency lens to make decisions that will keep species on the landscape, and in some cases, alter upwards their trajectory for their populations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The plan will also include funding for \u201cspecies of greatest information need,\u201d meaning species within the 900-plus CPW manages that the agency needs to gather more information on, \u201cso we can see around the corner and take actions so we don\u2019t get caught by a potential state or federal listing,\u201d and \u201cto make sure we\u2019re not in a crisis mode every every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG-1225-scaled-1-1200x900.jpg\")
Wolf reintroduction was set in motion by Colorado voters in 2020. The populated Front Range tilted the tight vote in favor of reintroduction, but rural western Colorado voters were largely opposed. This sign is located in Walden, Colorado. (Tennessee Watson, WyoFile)<\/p>\n![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755270070_586_unnamed-2.jpg\")
Colorado Parks and Wildlife released five gray wolves onto public land in Grand County on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Pictured is wolf 2302-OR, a juvenile female from the Five Points pack in Oregon, weighing 68 pounds. (Jerry Neal, Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/p>\n