What's next for Colorado's wild wolves
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Where collared gray wolves have roamed from Oct. 22 to Nov. 26. Image: Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Wildlife officials are preparing to release as many as 20 gray wolves in western Colorado in the first three months of 2025 while pledging program changes to reduce conflicts with ranchers.
Why it matters: This represents a major moment in the controversial initiative after the botched first release in December 2023 eventually led officials to recapture a pack from the wild.
State of play: The state plans to capture up to 15 new wolves from British Columbia and relocate them to private and public lands in three counties: Garfield, Eagle and Pitkin.
- The reintroduction is projected to take place from January through March.
The intrigue: In addition, officials will release four wolves from the Copper Creek pack in the same areas.
- The wolves sourced from Oregon, which now include a breeding female and four pups, initially were located in Grand County, but killed as many as a dozen livestock, creating pressure to relocate them. Three of the 10 wolves released in December have died.
- Their relocation runs counter to the state's wolf management plan, which forbids "translocation of depredating wolves" to other parts of the state, Colorado Politics reports.
What they're saying: The Polis administration defended the move. Travis Duncan, wildlife agency spokesperson, said the plan is not a mandatory regulation and "calls for flexibility."
The big picture: A year after the first reintroduction, the state is taking a different approach to fulfilling the initiative narrowly approved by voters in 2020.
- An expanded conflict minimization plan designed to provide more support to ranchers to avoid using lethal means to protect their herds is expected to be finalized this month.
- And the state hired eight new specialists to manage potential conflicts with plans to add five more this month.
Yes, but: The ballooning cost of the program, estimated at $5 million so far, is generating more consternation.
- Amid a budget crisis, state lawmakers are even considering delaying reintroduction efforts to save money.
- Gov. Jared Polis recently fueled the controversy by blaming ranchers for the extra costs because they opposed the reintroduction, which made it harder to source wolves to relocate.
Between the lines: The turmoil is visible inside Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
- In an August email, obtained by 9News, director Jeff Davis wrote that the agency and wolves "have been dealt impossible cards and we are playing them as wisely as we can because we are both survivors."
- The agency later said the email was deleted and couldn't produce related records.
The other side: The Colorado Cattlemen's Association is frustrated with the rollout and tone at the state level.
- "There's always a guard, or a wall up," the association's executive vice president Erin Karney told 9News. "We're not getting that transparency, that communication, that honesty … we're looking for."
The bottom line: The Polis administration is under pressure to make the second wolf reintroduction go smoothly, and the future of the initiative may depend on what happens in early 2025.