11 MAY 15-21, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | that CPW has not deployed enough re- sources for nonlethal methods to enact such a requirement. According to a petition sub- mitted by agricultural groups to the CPW commission last September, CPW should have paused wolf reintroduction until more systems were in place to support ranchers. Ritschard, an advocate for the petition, told commissioners that ag groups wanted a range rider program to monitor areas in which wolves live, better carcass manage- ment, and site vulnerability assessments from the CPW, as well as a rapid response team for depredations in place, before any more wolves are brought to the state. The petition also requested a defi nition of chronic depredation so that wolves found regularly preying on livestock can be killed. In December, CPW and the state Depart- ment of Agriculture announced that all of those suggestions would be implemented in the coming year. Parks and Wildlife has hired fi ve wildlife damage experts with plans to hire more, and has also hired a Nonlethal Confl ict Reduction Program Manager; the CDA has added two mitigation specialists. CPW is training range riders to deploy across the state, with fourteen ready for action. As a result of that work, the CPW commis- sion rejected the ag groups’ petition in January — but petitioners might have achieved a win last week thanks to a footnote in Colorado’s new budget, signed by Governor Jared Polis. Polis approved a $2.1 million appropria- tion to be used on the wolf program, and he kept a footnote demanding the funds not be spent on bringing more wolves to Colorado “unless and until full and complete imple- mentation of all state funded preventative measures discussed by the Parks and Wildlife Commission as part of its denial of a citizen petition to halt wolf reintroduction.” Agencies are allowed to deviate from footnotes to the budget if necessary because they are not legally binding, but they typically comply. Ritschard believes complying is the right thing to do in this case. “If you look at some of these other states, those programs were all in place, fully func- tional, before wolves were on the ground, and it helped,” he says. “We need to have that before any more wolves are on the ground, because otherwise we’re already going to see claims that are going to be the same, if not more than last year.” A ballot measure to cancel wolf reintro- duction in Colorado could hit voters in 2026 if a group called Smart Wolf Policy is success- ful. Smart Wolf Policy is currently collecting signatures for a citizens’ petition, but even ranchers and other agricultural producers are not in favor of the measure. A coalition of fi fteen county commissioners, ranchers, hunters and wolf advocates joined together to send a letter to Smart Wolf Policy asking the group to pull its petition. The coalition argued that the petition would prevent the state from pausing reintroduction until the system is better equipped to handle wolves, as the ranch- ers and their supporters had asked in their denied petition to CPW. According to CPW’s Travis Duncan, the agency has heard the “concerns and recom- mendations of all stakeholders,” and used that feedback to create an improved confl ict minimi- zation program. To showcase that work, CPW created a Wolf-Livestock Confl ict Minimization Program Guide that shares tools and methods livestock producers can use; the guide also outlines how CPW responds to depredations. “By working with and providing producers with this information and tools early, CPW hopes to reduce the potential of wolf-livestock confl ict if wolves begin to spend time in the area,” Duncan says. “Having range riders out on the landscape this year strengthens our already strong confl ict minimization pro- gram. CPW hired twelve skilled riders from local communities to join two riders from the Colorado Department of Agriculture in sup- porting livestock producers and mitigating potential wolf confl icts beginning this spring.” Ritschard believes the range riders will be the biggest help of any CPW resource, but still feels Colorado dropped the ball. On that, both wolf lovers and ranchers can agree. “We weren’t quite ready,” Malone ac- knowledges. “Delaying that reintroduction until we had nonlethal methods in place would have been probably a better idea. ...Now that we have range riders hired and ready to go, hopefully, that will be more palatable.” At this point, given how early the state is in the reintroduction process, CPW is not con- sidering changes to the wolf compensation plan. Through Duncan, the department notes that funding levels have met the needs so far. Malone isn’t giving up on the idea that eventually nonlethal methods should be required for compensation, especially for ranchers claiming indirect impacts. Colo- rado still has plenty of time before a self- sustaining population of wolves exists here, which is required to fulfi ll the ballot measure. “We have so many opportunities to not make the same mistakes other states have made and so many more opportunities for a collaborative approach,” Miller says. “Re- introduction is really tough, and it’s fraught with controversy, for sure. There are a lot of feelings on a lot of different sides, but at the end of the day...wolves deserve a space here, and programs like range riding and compensation help to carve out that space.” Email the author at [email protected]. News continued from page 8
