DENVER— The Center for Biological Diversity today submitted a formal rulemaking petition urging Colorado Parks and Wildlife to make commonsense updates to regulations that outline when wolves can be killed.

These proposed amendments would clarify nonlethal steps designed to reduce livestock-wolf conflict before the agency could consider authorizing killing Colorado’s protected endangered wolves.

“Colorado can protect livestock and uphold science-based wolf management at the same time,” said Alli Henderson, southern Rockies director at the Center. “This petition is about clarity, fairness and prevention, and making sure lethal control is truly a last resort. Decisions should be grounded in transparent documentation that the public and livestock operators can trust.”

Nonlethal coexistence measures involve proven tools that protect rural livelihoods and support stable, predictable wolf behavior. But the current rules aren’t clear enough about what reasonable conflict minimization measures are. They also lack clarity about the agency’s responsibility for ensuring reasonable use of conflict minimization before authorizing the extraordinary step of killing wolves.

“Our recovering wolves desperately need these reasonable protections to ensure any potential conflict is prevented or mitigated,” said Henderson. “That’s especially true now after the Trump administration’s attempted sabotage of Colorado’s wolf recovery blocked winter wolf releases this year.”

Colorado already invests in nonlethal approaches like range riding, conflict specialists, site assessments, deterrents and livestock carcass management. By requiring timely carcass removal or management where appropriate, the petition would enshrine a widely recognized and practical tool that reduces risk for livestock and wildlife alike.

The petition would also require written, evidence-based determinations before lethal control begins. It would clarify that predation evidence would be independent from compensation claims. And it would establish consistent standards for all lethal control operations, whether taken by the state or federal agency or an individual livestock operator that receives approval from the state.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife will review the petition and then recommend to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission whether it should be granted or denied. The commission is the ultimate decisionmaker on citizen rulemaking petitions.