CATALYST

The Institute for Science & Policy at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science has launched the latest season of its award-winning podcast Laws of Notion. The new season, titled "Gray Territory: The Return of Wolves to Colorado,” examines wolf reintroduction five years after the historic vote and explores why this remains a complex and polarizing issue.  

In the five-part series, listeners will travel from the Front Range to the Western Slope as Colorado navigates one of the most significant wildlife conservation efforts in recent history. Through the voices of ranchers, conservationists, scientists, wolf advocates, government officials and wildlife managers, the series uncovers the deeper story of how humans and predators might coexist in the modern world. 

“This is a story about the return of gray wolves to Colorado but also something bigger,” says Institute Executive Director Kristan Uhlenbrock. “Through a tapestry of rich stories and lived experiences, we tried to weave together the complexity of values, democracy, conflict, and living with uncertainty. And give the listener a chance to move past the simplistic narratives and see each perspective from a new angle.” 

Beyond the headlines and politics

The 2020 wolf vote was closer than any other ballot measure that year: 50.91% yes, 49.09% no. By a razor-thin margin, Colorado became the first state to intentionally bring back wolves by popular vote. Colorado Parks and Wildlife spent three years putting together a plan built on community and stakeholder input, compromise and adaptive management, and in December 2023, 10 wolves were released on the Western Slope. Now that paws are on the ground, the real work is just beginning. 

For some, wolves returning to the landscape feels like tightening the vice on the already challenging and slim-margin profession of ranching. Yet for others, wolves mean the restoration of an ecosystem that humans deliberately interfered with when the United States government launched a major effort to eradicate wolves in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

It may be easy to reduce this to a simple story as us-versus-them narratives monopolize headlines. Urban vs rural. Pro-wolf vs anti-wolf. The frustrations and tensions are real, but throughout the series, you’ll hear from people working through the day-to-day realities of learning to live with wolves and creating solutions to make coexistence possible. 

This story is about more than wolves 

One of the central themes of the series is examining how the diversity of society’s values and perspectives gets incorporated into wildlife management. The ongoing debate encompasses larger social values — rural livelihoods, environmental change, public land access, changing values around wildlife and conservation, and who gets to make decisions about the landscapes we share. Like all seasons of the Laws of Notion podcast, “Gray Territory” is about navigating what comes next when there is no simple answer and rebuilding trust to move beyond conflict and create a path forward.