6 JANUARY 9-15, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | The Call of the Wild A YEAR OF WOLF REINTRODUCTION IN COLORADO, BY THE NUMBERS. BY CATIE C HESHIRE On December 18, 2023, Governor Jared Polis opened a crate containing the fi rst wolf to be released in Colorado, after voters had approved the reintroduction of the species in November 2020. It was a joyous occasion for environmen- tal groups that had fought for reintroduction for years — and for the wolf itself, which bounded up a nearby hill. But the topic remains a hot one, as plenty of Coloradans still don’t want wolves to re-enter the state’s landscape, particularly agricultural produc- ers on the Western Slope. According to Colorado Parks and Wild- life, wolf reintroduction has gone well, and the agency is planning more releases in 2025. But the end of last year was marked by both livestock and wolves dying, and state lawmakers were discussing pausing the program to make up for budget shortfalls. In fact, agricultural producers have submitted a petition to CPW asking that reintroduction be halted. Although CPW staff recommended denying the petition, commissioners will have the fi nal say, with a vote slated for their January 8-9 meeting. But no matter what the commissioners decide, a petition to repeal wolf reintroduction is now working its way to the 2026 ballot (see story below). With a full year now on the books, here’s a look back at wolf reintroduction in Colorado: Wolf Numbers in 2024 The 2020 voter-ap- proved initiative required CPW to begin reintroduc- ing wolves in Colorado by the end of 2023. By De- cember 20, 2023, CPW had moved ten gray wolves from Oregon to public land in Summit and Grand counties. Since then, wolves have been tracked in watersheds touching nine Colorado counties: Rio Blanco, Gar- fi eld, Eagle, Pitkin, Lake, Summit, Grand, Routt and Jackson. CPW tracks with GPS monitors but doesn’t release live or exact locations to preserve privacy and safety for the wolves, and notes that just because wolves have been in part of a watershed doesn’t mean they’ve been in all of that territory. Two wolves mated to form what wild- life offi cials call the Copper Creek Pack, while the others are described as wandering around the state. Another wolf pack had already roamed down from Wyoming into Colorado in 2023, according to CPW, so there were offi cially two packs in Colorado during 2024. While one pair mated and produced four known pups, three Colorado wolves died in 2024. According to CPW, one wolf died after fi ghting a mountain lion, and another died in September after an interaction with an- other wolf. The male of the Copper Creek Pack died in CPW custody this fall, after the wildlife agency had captured the entire pack to try to mitigate their propensity for preying on livestock near Kremmling. CPW offi cials said the wolf already had a leg injury when it was captured and subsequently died from that injury, but the wolf also sustained a gunshot wound in a separate incident. (A major award has been offered for informa- tion about the shooting.) Confi rmed Livestock Depredations When wolves interact with livestock in a manner that leads to injury or death, that is considered wolf depredation. In Colo- rado, agricultural produc- ers reported seventeen confirmable incidents to the state after wolves were reintroduced. In Grand County, eight confirmed incidents oc- curred between April and September, with six cows or cattle involved, along with three calves and nine sheep impacted; CPW did not specify where the eight incidents resulted in death or injuries. In Routt County, four in- cidents occurred in June and July. All four were related to wolves preying on calves. From April through June, four depredation in- cidents took place in Jack- son County. Again, each resulted in the death of a calf. Finally, Elbert County saw one confi rmed incident on March 15, when a llama fell prey to wolves. According to the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, though, the confi rmed depreda- tions aren’t even the tip of the iceberg. On December 31, Tim Ritschard, president of the association, wrote a letter to the CPW commis- sioners detailing a newly submitted claim by three ranchers saying that the state should pay them over $500,000 for wolf-related losses. Money Paid for Lost Livestock After a depredation incident is confi rmed, the owners of lost livestock can submit claims to the state for reim- NEWS KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS continued on page 8 Governor Jared Polis releasing the fi rst wolf in Colorado in December 2023. ENDANGERED SPECIES COALITION PACKING IT IN? On January 3, Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy submitted a draft statutory propo- sition to the Colorado Legislative Council that, if ultimately approved by voters, would repeal the law that Coloradans passed in 2020 to require wolf reintroduction in the state. “It just became glaringly clear to me and to thousands of other people in Colorado that this law was just not working for many stakeholders in the state,” says Patrick Davis, campaign manager for the initiative. “This law is bad for ranchers, farmers and rural communities in Colorado. It’s bad for the taxpayers. It’s bad for the hunters and sports- men and the small businesses that support these rural communities.” Gray wolves are being reintroduced to Colorado because voters passed Proposi- tion 114 in November 2020, directing CPW to begin reintroducing wolves by the end of 2023 and to continue those efforts until a self-sustaining population of wolves exists in Colorado. Wolf advocates pushed the ballot mea- sure after giving up on the idea that the fed- eral government would take on the project, something that had been expected for years but never happened. A majority of those who voted for the measure were from Colorado’s Front Range; most of those against were from rural areas and the Western Slope. Many of those voters have had concerns from the start, and signed a petition asking the state to pause wolf reintroduction. The proposed ballot measure would go even further: Rather than pause reintro- duction, it would completely repeal the law requiring reintroduction. The wolves that have already been introduced wouldn’t have to be removed, but the program would be no more. In its announcement of the ballot mea- sure, Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy cited four reasons for the petition: economic harm to ranchers and livestock producers, rising grocery prices because of the higher costs for ranchers, resulting threats to food security and the farm-to-table movement in Colorado, and the protection of Western heritage. “It gets us back to a point where we’re having a discussion with all of the stake- holders: the ranchers, the farmers, the small businesses, the rural communities, the economic development agencies around western and northern Colorado,” Davis says. “The end game of this initiative is to go back to the beginning, and let’s have a fresh start with all of the parties, including those that are interested in reintroducing wolves into Colorado.” But those interested in reintroducing wolves aren’t buying what this group is selling. “It is a petty tantrum executed by an extremist faction of the livestock industry,” says Rob Edward, president of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, which was the driv- ing force behind the 2020 ballot measure. “They apparently would rather spend mil- lions trying to nullify the law than use that money to actually help ranchers adapt to having an important carnivore back on the land. Just think what they could do if they jumped into the coexistence game with all that cash.” Supporters raised $2.4 million to pass Proposition 114, while the opposition spent $1.06 million. CPW only used $1.57 million on wolf reintroduction in the 2023-2024 fi scal year out of an allocated $2.1 million, so this new ballot initiative could cost more than the current reintroduction project. To get on the ballot, though, the pro- ponents will have to pass muster with the Legislative Council Staff and the State Title Board to ensure that the initiative is clear. From there, they’ll have to get signatures equal to 5 percent of the total votes cast in the last race for Colorado Secretary of State, which means they’ll need 124,238 legitimate signatures in order to get on the ballot in 2026. An initial public hearing with the Legisla- tive Council Staff will take place at 10 a.m. January 17. — CHESHIRE
