Colorado ranchers ask wildlife officials to delay next wolves release

Colorado ranchers are renewing their demand for state wildlife officials to delay the release of more wolves until they finalize more programs to prevent attacks on livestock.

Ranchers on Thursday formally asked Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners to delay the releases — expected in early January — to prevent communication issues and depredations similar to those that happened after the first wolves were reintroduced in December 2023 as part of the voter-mandated program.

"CPW needs more time," Tim Ritschard, president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, told commissioners during their meeting.

The Middle Park Stockgrowers and 26 other livestock and agricultural producers first filed their petition to delay the next release on Sept. 27. The petition asks the CPW Commission to adopt a rule that would pause further wolf releases until CPW defines chronic depredation, fully funds range riders to haze wolves from livestock, conducts site assessments on ranches near the release site and creates a rapid response team to deploy to areas where wolves are preying on livestock.

Since the reintroduction last year, wolves have killed or injured at least 17 head of cattle, nine sheep and one llama, according to CPW's list of confirmed depredations. Most of the killings occurred in Grand County.

"Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife itself has admitted that the agency needs to provide 'additional support' to livestock producers to address wolf-livestock conflicts, and it is safe to say the agency's introduction of wolves has not gone smoothly," the petition states. "Given the turbulent start to this program, the program elements described below need to be funded and in place before any additional gray wolves are introduced in Colorado."

Ritschard and other ranchers urged the commission to take action and quickly implement the rule delaying releases until those conditions are met.

Caitlyn Taussig, a fourth-generation Grand County rancher, said at the meeting Thursday that she had been waiting for three years for clear answers about how best to manage livestock carcasses to prevent the attraction of wolves since she does not own the equipment necessary to bury them. She also noted that the range rider program — which sends someone to watch for wolves and keep them away from herds — was neither fully funded nor fully operational.

"Adding more wolves now will inevitably create more conflict and further damage relationships between landowners and CPW," she said. "Decades of good relationships have deteriorated in just a year."

CPW staff is tasked with reviewing the petition and writing a recommendation for the commission. But CPW has not yet drafted its recommendation, and CPW Director Jeff Davis on Thursday did not give a specific answer as to when the recommendation would be ready.

"We're still in the review process, so it's hard to say how long it would take for the drafting of the recommendation, in coordination with the attorney general's office," Davis said.

Davis said that the agency already had begun work on many of the changes desired by the livestock industry. CPW officials met with government officials and ranchers in Garfield, Eagle or Pitkin counties — the three counties where the next releases may take place.

The agency is finalizing a definition of "chronic depredation," CPW deputy director of policy Reid DeWalt said.

Wolves that are found to be chronically depredating can be removed from the landscape, but the agency never formally defined the term. The lack of definition created contention between ranchers in Middle Park and the agency when CPW for months would not kill or remove a male wolf found to be routinely killing livestock.

The agency later removed the wolf from the wild — along with its mate and their pups — and it died in captivity.

CPW is also working on creating an improved range riding program that would contract with riders across the state to provide hazing services when wolves are in an area, DeWalt said. The new program could cost about $500,000 a year .

"Trying not to be defensive, but we have learned a lot and are doing a lot differently already," Davis said.

Since CPW relocated 10 adult wolves to the state and released them in December, three have died. In addition to the seven survivors, CPW has confirmed five pups, and the state also has two known adults from a pack established earlier by wolves that migrated from Wyoming.

Wolf advocates during the meeting said CPW should continue the releases as demanded by a majority of voters and outlined in the wolf management plan.

"Pausing wolf releases is not consistent with the mandate of Prop. 114," said Delia Malone, wildlife chair for the Colorado Sierra Club.

Ritschard said the law requiring the reintroduction of wolves does not mandate when more wolves are released, only that the reintroduction begin by Dec. 31, 2023, as occurred late last year. A delay would not violate the law, though it would contradict the wolf management plan drafted by CPW.

"You should be willing to change your approach to address challenges as they arise," he said.

CPW Commission chair Dallas May said scheduling a special meeting to rule on the petition before the panel has received CPW's recommendations would be fruitless.

"I understand the implications and that this is a very contentious issue," he said, "but the fact remains that we have to do it in a proper way."