By admin 
Nearly three years after wolf reintroduction began in Colorado, a new agreement between Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe recognizes the tribe’s power to manage wolves on its own lands.
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On Tuesday, Selwyn Whiteskunk, chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, CPW Director Laura Clellan and Gov. Jared Polis all signed a memorandum of understanding that establishes a formal framework for coordination and communication between the tribe and the state as CPW continues to implement its voter-approved wolf reintroduction that began in December 2023.
It also recognizes the sovereign authority of the Ute Mountain Utes on their reservation lands south of Cortez, and the tribe’s protected off-reservation hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the 3.7 million-acre Brunot Agreement Area in the San Juan Mountains.
Luke Perkins, CPW spokesperson, said conversations and consultations on the memorandum of understanding began in January of 2025, a month after the Southern Ute Tribe signed its own agreement with CPW to co-manage wolves on its lands and in the Brunot area.
That agreement followed the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Nation in the state of Washington refusing to give Colorado wolves for a second round of reintroduction, stating “necessary and meaningful consultation was not completed with the potentially impacted tribes.”
The new agreement also follows a contentious Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting in July, in which Whiteskunk and Southern Ute Tribal Council member Andrew Gallegos urged the state to allocate two seats on the 11-member commission to tribal representation, given each tribe has had cooperative wildlife management agreements with CPW in the Brunot area for decades.
No promises were made, but officials from the Department of Natural Resources said after the meeting they were glad the tribal members had raised their concerns.
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe’s previous agreement, signed in 2013, “acknowledged the vested interests and shared responsibility of the Tribe and the state for the wellbeing and perpetuation of wildlife resources in the Brunot Area,” CPW said in a release announcing the new memorandum.
The new pact “further recognizes the current, historical, and cultural importance of Western Colorado — where the State’s wolf restoration efforts are focused — to the Ute people, who are Colorado’s oldest continuous residents,” the statement continued.
The agreement says CPW and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe will work together to minimize wolf-livestock conflicts and share information on gray wolf reintroductions throughout the state.
And it confirms the tribe’s intent to participate in the state’s program to provide fair compensation to the tribe or tribal members for any losses of livestock proven to be caused by gray wolves in their herds. Those include cattle and other livestock managed through the Ute Mountain Ute Farm and Ranch Enterprise and herds grazed on designated range lands across the reservation. CPW manages wildlife on the Ute Mountain Utes’ Pine Crest Ranch in Gunnison County.
Ernest House Jr., an enrolled member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe and director for the Center for Tribal and Indigenous Engagement at the Keystone Policy Center, said the effort that led to the agreement is an important foundation for strengthening government-to-government relationships over time.
Whiteskunk did not respond to a request for comment.
The memorandum comes during a forced pause by the federal government on Colorado’s wolf reintroduction that has created uncertainty about the future of the program.
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