Colorado Parks and Wildlife will continue with its plan to release 10 to 15 more wolves in Colorado this month after the CPW commission voted Wednesday night to deny a petition asking for a pause in the wolf reintroduction program.
The commission voted 10-1 to reject the petition, which was submitted by stockgrowers and their allies in September. In it, they asked that the program be paused to give the agency time to fix parts of the reintroduction program that the ranching community feels are broken.
Marie Haskett, of Meeker, who represents outfitters and sportspersons on the commission, cast the sole “no” vote.
Petitioners wanted CPW to adopt a definition of chronic depredation, initiate site vulnerability assessments, create a widespread range riding program, start a carcass management program, and hire and train a rapid response team to address reports of depredating wolves more quickly than they had to date.
CPW staff at the meeting reported progress they’ve made on several fronts and said they are still working on others.
CPW director Jeff Davis said he had “mixed emotions” after the vote.
“Whenever you have a day like today, there’s a sense of winners and losers,” he said. “The ranchers have some uncertainty — are we going to follow through? Is (reintroduction) going to work? And words are words until they’re followed up with actions, so that will be the key piece for us. Following through, keep plowing ahead, hopefully keep cooperating with folks, whether that be the wolf advocates or even general public members who will plug into this conversation. And how do we make this right with the ranchers, because they are directly impacted.”
The commission meets all day Thursday, but on Friday, Davis said he is going to start reaching out to livestock producer organizations to talk to them “about how do we make this right?
“You’ve heard us say we’ve addressed the (conditions in the petition) but there might need to be more details and more clarity that we need to talk through,” he said.
CPW is expected to release wolves captured in British Columbia later this month. Locations in Eagle, Garfield or Pitkin counties are under consideration. (Rio Blanco County was also on the list, but was dropped at the request of stockgrowers and elected officials.) The first 10 wolves, moved from Oregon, were released in Grand and Summit counties.
The vote follows weeks of intensifying battles between opposing sides of the wolf reintroduction program, which Colorado voters approved in 2020. The program was put in motion in December 2023 and had a rocky first year marked by some successes and multiple setbacks.
Setbacks included wolves targeting livestock in Grand County and soaring livestock compensation claims from ranchers. In the past week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported the alpha male of Colorado’s first established wolf pack since reintroduction, the Copper Creek pack, had been shot in the leg before CPW trapped and transported it, its mate, and four puppies to a temporary holding facility. The wolves were trapped after feeding for months on cattle and sheep primarily on a single rancher’s land in Grand County.
The male wolf died shortly after arriving at the facility and a Fish and Wildlife Service necropsy determined the wound caused the animal’s death. It was the third translocated wolf to die since reintroduction began. A necropsy determined the first wolf was likely killed by a mountain lion. The second, which was said to have died in a fight with other wolves, also had a gunshot wound.
Fish and Wildlife offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to the Copper Creek male’s killer. Immediately after the announcement, multiple pro-wolf groups added money to the reward that has now soared to $100,000.
In the meeting Wednesday, CPW and Agriculture Department staff gave presentations showing how they have addressed most of the conditions and are working to address others. The agency also released a new Wolf-Livestock Conflict Minimization Producer Guide on its website Wednesday morning.
Following the presentations, commission chair Dallas May, a rancher, praised their work, saying CPW’s “team of biologists, scientists and executive management is, without doubt, the best in their areas,” and “any member of that team would be welcome on any other wildlife team.”
Commissioners’ questions focused largely around the logistics in implementing the programs and the definition of chronic depredation.
Haskett wanted to know why only 12 range riders will be hired when nine Western Slope counties will need two each “and that equals 18 riders.”
Adam Baca, CPW’s first wolf conflict coordinator, acknowledged 12 is not enough riders to cover all of the counties in need and encouraged flexibility as the program gets up and running.
Haskett also wanted to know how the CPW came up with payment of $300 a day for range riders when, “if you look at their equipment, insurance, vehicle, diesel fuel … trailer and a horse, that could equal $300 right there, just for the day.”
Baca said range riders can work 22 days a month, which would equal $6,600 in wages, an amount substantial enough to retain riders.
Murphy Robinson, who represents sportspersons on the commission, wanted to know why range riders, needing help in their jobs, can’t have access to data from the wolves’ collars showing their exact location.
Eric Odell, CPW’s wolf conservation program manager, said, they “don’t want to get in the habit of using collar data to confirm depredation” because in the future the agency will collar fewer wolves and use multiple types of collars, “so if we have a population that’s not entirely collared, the utility of using collar data becomes a problem.”
Before the meeting, four agriculture representatives from an ad hoc group CPW formed to advise them on a definition of chronic depredation sent a letter to commissioners asking them to accept the recommendations of the petition “given the breadth and depth of support for the petition’s request — which spans the entire State of Colorado.”
They also said “voting ‘yes’ on the petition is not the same thing as adopting a rule that delays further wolf introductions,” and that “further wolf introductions would be temporarily delayed pending the outcome of that rulemaking. The commission needs to listen to all stakeholders and undertake a robust, transparent rulemaking that results in a workable, binding definition and addresses each of the seven conditions set forth in the petition. If coexistence with wolves is going to succeed in Colorado, stakeholders who are directly impacted by wolves must have their concerns addressed in a proper public process.”
Impassioned public comment lasted hours while crowd interest ebbed.
Supporters of the petition implored the commission to approve it because CPW hasn’t yet adequately defined chronic depredation and poorly managed wolf reintroduction is threatening ranchers’ way of life.
Opponents asked the commission to deny the petition to give reintroduction a greater chance at success.
And during the final virtual public comment, a cat interjecting itself with a series of low meows provided some much-needed comic relief before the commission turned to discussion ahead of the vote.
Haskett said, “Wyoming took eight years to introduce wolves and CPW has taken three. It’s rushed and there are things we are missing and we need to look at that. … Standards in the definition of chronic depredation are missing. The range rider program doesn’t take off until April, when some producers are already done calving. Our staff is working really hard at getting all these things up and running.” But, she wondered, “is this body ready for a failure and a black eye because we’re not prepared?”
Karen Bailey, an environmental scientist who is an at-large member of the commission, wanted assurances that producers stressed by reintroduction will have their needs addressed.
Robinson said, “It’s important that we hear really loudly and clearly the trepidation that our ag community has, because we don’t want our ag community to leave the state.”
And Carbondale rancher and commissioner Tai Jacober pressed Davis for more information about chronic depredation by asking if the killing by wolves in Grand County would have qualified them for lethal management.
“It’s hard to apply this definition in the absence of being able to go back and look at when did those get reported,” Davis said. “But the male in Grand County when the female was denning was likely close to meeting that criteria.”
The National Park Service introduced wolves to Wyoming, in Yellowstone National Park in 1995 and 1996.
