With the organized introduction of gray wolves into Colorado’s Western Slope coming the end of next year, the killing of a cow and a family pet in Jackson County are providing new focus on just what their relationships with ranch and domestic animals might be.
Jackson County borders Wyoming along the east side of the Continental Divide, and these gray wolves didn’t wait to be invited into the state. The loss of the cow and the border collie were in separate incidents in recent weeks, and experts agreed there was no doubt that wolves were the cause.
The immediate result was that Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife Commission quickly agreed to allow the owners of animals threatened by wolves to use rubber buckshot and rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, ATVs and guard dogs. Harassment that is called, with no killing permitted.
It will be late this year or early in 2023 before the wildlife commission receives the gray wolf reintroduction plan from its experts, and Western Slope residents see the locations and timetable for the wolves’ arrival.
There may, of course, be pushback from ranchers, vacation homeowners and backcountry users as to some locations. That was expected, as the CPW leadership said during the runup to the 2020 election question that approved their reintroduction that it would listen closely to specific concerns and adjustments could be made.
If the Wyoming gray wolves remain in Colorado during 2022, depending on their behavior, they may give the reintroduction plan writers some firsthand examples of what might occur on the Western Slope. An unmanaged focus group, of sorts.
Coloradans enjoy seeing on occasion a moose and bighorn sheep, and knowing that lynx are chasing rabbits across the snow, but the gray wolf could easily be a new arrival of a different sort.
