Episode 68: The Lowdown On Colorado Wolf Reintroduction With Gary Skiba
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Gary Skiba, Wildlife Manager, San Juan Citizens Alliance
About Gary
Gary joined SJCA in April 2020 and was a board member for several years prior to that. Gary worked for the Colorado Division of Wildlife for 23 years. Throughout his professional career, Gary focused on threatened and endangered species management and spearheaded the agency’s efforts on biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management.
He has also worked for Great Old Broads for Wilderness and as an environmental consultant and monitoring conservation easements for La Plata Open Space Conservancy. Gary has a B.S. in wildlife management from the University of New Hampshire and a M.S. in wildlife biology from Colorado State University. He enjoys a wide range of outdoor activities and lives near Aztec, NM with his wife, Kate Pickford, and three dogs.
Topics
- The importance of collaboration with landowners for a successful Colorado wolf reintroduction
- How soon can Colorado wolf reintroduction proceed?
- How much habitat is needed for a healthy wolf population in Colorado?
- How will private landowners coexist with wolves?
Extra Credit
- Visit and Support San Juan Citizens Alliance
- Gary Skiba’s wolf posts on the San Juan Citizens Alliance site
- YouTube video describing the impacts of wolves on the environment in Yellowstone: How wolves change rivers
- Visit: Yellowstone Wolves website
Two Great Books
- Wolves by Mech/Boitani
- Yellowstone Wolves , book trailer
Director of Digital Outreach (D.O.D.O.) for The Rewilding Institute
Host and Producer of the Rewilding Earth Podcast
Jack started Rewilding work as Executive Director of Sky Island Alliance in the mid-1990’s, organizing the Sky Island Wildlands Network design, ripping up illegal roads on forest service lands, installing wolf acclimatization pens on Ted Turner’s Ladder Ranch & conducting howling surveys to help make way for the final stage of the Lobo reintroduction program in the Southwest.
Through the years, Jack has worked with Dave Foreman and the Rewilding Gang to further Rewilding initiatives and education.
See the critical issue, as the Federal withdrawal of ESA protections has so far always resulted in Euroamerican efforts to re-extinguish the native North American Gray Wolf:
https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.13657
Advocacy to prevent this problem should not be lifelong trauma.
China , never a shining light in extinction prevention, finally took the necessary, essential step, removing all individual right to gun possession.