Vern Evans
As Colorado prepares to reintroduce its second batch of gray wolves this winter, the state agency responsible for the voter-mandated reintroduction effort is facing even more pressure from livestock producers. On Dec. 31, ranchers in Grand County submitted a request to Colorado Parks and Wildlife seeking $582,000 in compensation for the impacts they say gray wolves have had on their operations. If that total amount is approved, the Colorado Sun reports, it would drain the state’s Wolf Depredation Compensation Fund and force CPW to divert money from the state’s general fund to cover the costs.
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The half-a-million dollars in claims submitted by the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association at the end of December are from just three ranchers in Grand County who had repeated conflicts with wolves over the course of 2024. The mostly rural county on the Western Slope has been at the center of the state’s gray wolf debate because it’s where two reintroduced wolves formed a mating pair and established the state’s first-ever named wolf pack, the Copper Creek pack. And it didn’t take long for those wolves to start preying on livestock. CPW confirmed at least seven livestock depredations by the pack in April and May alone.
After denying repeated requests from the MPSA to lethally remove the depredating wolves, CPW made the surprising decision to capture and relocate the Copper Creek pack in August. The agency failed to catch one of the pups, however, and in September, the breeding male died during the capture process. Agency officials said at the time that the wolf’s death was unrelated to the relocation operation, and that it was in poor condition when it was captured. Federal officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have since announced that the male wolf that died had been shot beforehand.
The incident remains under investigation, according to a statement released Thursday, and there is now a $65,000 reward being offered for information about the illegal killing.
Compensation for Harried Herds
As part of their reimbursement request, Grand County ranchers are contending that the losses they’ve experienced from reintroduced gray wolves go beyond confirmed wolf kills and attacks. Of the $582,000 in submitted claims, just over $18,000 is related to confirmed livestock deaths and injuries by wolves, according to the Sun. Most of the remaining $564,000 in claims are for livestock that have gone missing on ranches with a confirmed wolf attack; for cattle from affected ranches that were taken to market with a lower-than-normal weight; and for lower conception rates among livestock on affected ranches.
CPW still has to investigate each of the claims, and there’s a chance that some claims won’t be approved by the agency. That’s because it can be difficult to prove that wolves were solely responsible for the missing livestock and lower conception rates being cited by ranchers.
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But it could still have serious funding implications for the state. The $582,000 request far exceeds the $175,000 that was allotted to the Wolf Depredations Compensation Fund in the fiscal year 2023-24 to cover depredation claims and minimize conflicts with livestock. That allocation increases to $350,000 during the 2024-25 fiscal year, which resets on July 1.
Tensions Grow in Grand County
Grand County is where CPW officials performed the initial phase of wolf reintroduction in December 2023, releasing the first five Oregon-born wolves onto the landscape. At the time, ranchers there were already fiercely opposed to the reintroduction effort, which was voted in by a slim majority of Coloradans in 2020. (Along with most counties on the Western Slope, where the wolves are being reintroduced, most voters in Grand County voted “No” on Proposition 114.) As proof of their worst fears, ranchers pointed north to Jackson County, Colorado, where wolves that had immigrated naturally from Wyoming were already killing cattle.
It took about four months for those fears to be confirmed, and continued depredations by the Copper Creek pack during the spring and early summer further stressed relationships between ranchers and wildlife managers in Grand County. The MPSA and like-minded groups would continue to criticize CPW’s wolf management actions and what they saw as a “troubling trend of prioritizing wolves over the legitimate needs and rights of livestock producers.”
It’s no surprise then that the relocation of the Copper Creek pack was a breaking point of sorts. The agency now says it will release the remaining Copper Creek wolves back into the wild sometime between January and March. But even before that decision was made, and within weeks of when the actual relocation took place, the MPSA submitted a formal petition to the state’s wildlife commissioners asking them to pause wolf reintroduction for the time being.
CPW officials asked commissioners in December to deny the MPSA’s petition, pointing to an improved Conflict Minimization Program and clearer guidelines around chronic depredation and lethal management considerations. But the decision is ultimately up to the wildlife commissioners, who will discuss the MPSA’s petition during a scheduled meeting Wednesday.
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The commissioners’ Jan. 8 decision could have serious implications for the future of wolf reintroduction in Colorado. So could a recently announced ballot measure that was filed by a Colorado group Friday, and which seeks to repeal the voter-approved wolf reintroduction program entirely. Proponents of the new ballot measure say the law was a mistake that “disrupts [a] delicate balance” and that they plan to get it on the 2026 ballot, according to Colorado Politics.
“Our heritage and our people are in danger in Colorado today,” Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy said in a statement shared with CP on Jan. 3. “Since gray wolves were reintroduced to Colorado in December 2023, taxpayers have paid for the privilege of watching these apex predators tear into our agricultural economy and ecosystem.”
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