Colorado’s “Born to be Wild” wolf license plate has raised over $1 million for the state’s effort to restore gray wolves. 

Sales of the wolf license plate hit the milestone 21 months after launching in January 2024. 

The specialty plate is purchased with a one-time $25 fee that goes to the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles and a recurring $50 annual fee that goes to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. 

By the end of September 2025, there were 20,647 wolf license plates registered in Colorado, according to Rob Edward, president of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, the Colorado-based wolf advocacy organization that proposed the license plate to state legislators in 2023.

With the annual fee and the number of plates on the road, Edward said the plates will continue to generate over $1 million annually for Parks and Wildlife. 

“So our fingers are crossed we’ll see double that number in the next 24 months,” Edward said. 

​​The majority of these dollars go to Parks and Wildlife’s wolf conflict mitigation programs. 

In a news release, Jeff Davis, the director of Parks and Wildlife, said that the plate “has provided vital contributions that fund ongoing non-lethal mitigation techniques that protect the wolves, as well as our agricultural producers, and the rural communities of our state.”  

The state wildlife agency also sets aside $50,000 of the annual sales for grants to programs raising awareness and promoting sales of the specialty wolf license plate. Rocky Mountain Wolf Project and The Endangered Species Coalition, a national wildlife advocacy nonprofit, were the inaugural recipients of this grant. 

Colorado reintroduced its first gray wolves in December 2023 as mandated by the passage of a November 2020 ballot measure, which required Parks and Wildlife to create a self-sustaining population of the animals. Per its wolf plan, the state agency will release 30 to 50 wolves in three to five years. 

So far, the agency has released 25 wolves in the first two years of the effort. While not all of the reintroduced animals have survived, four packs have been established with new pups. 

The money generated from sales of the “Born to be Wild” license plates is just one source of revenue for Colorado’s wolf program. 

The program’s largest source of funds is the state’s general fund, which set aside $1.1 million in the reintroduction’s first year and $2.1 million in the subsequent years. This general fund allocation for 2025-26 was cut by over $260,000 during a late summer special legislative session called to deal with a shortfall in Colorado’s budget after the passage of Republicans’ federal tax bill. 

Parks and Wildlife also receives an allocation from the state for its wolf depredation fund, which compensates ranchers for the loss of livestock and guardian animals related to wolves. As of July 2, Parks and Wildlife had received $529,454 for the fund and paid $412,546.43 in wolf compensation claims. During its July meeting, the agency’s commission approved an additional $130,000 for two claims. 

The agency has also received federal funding and other grant dollars toward the restoration effort. 
In July, Parks and Wildlife reported that it had spent $3.5 million in the past year on the wolf restoration program. This was spent on operating costs, non-lethal mitigation tools — such as fladry, scare devices and more — and staff positions created to reduce and mitigate conflict between wolves and livestock, including for the range rider program Parks and Wildlife launched with the Colorado Department of Agriculture.