{"id":28677,"date":"2024-03-15T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-wildlife-officials-are-visiting-wolf-impacted-communities-after-rocky-start-to-reintroduction\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:36:55","slug":"colorado-wildlife-officials-are-visiting-wolf-impacted-communities-after-rocky-start-to-reintroduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-wildlife-officials-are-visiting-wolf-impacted-communities-after-rocky-start-to-reintroduction\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado wildlife officials are visiting wolf-impacted communities after rocky start to reintroduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado wildlife officials tranquilized a pair of wolves and fitted them with tracking collars near North Park in February. (Courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In some of their first meetings with the general public since wolves were released in December, CPW got pelted with questions from ranchers and recreationalists wanting to dig deeper into the nuances of living with wolves after the groups had time to digest their arrival.<\/p>\n

At meetings that unfolded from Feb. 26 to March 3 in Silverthorne, Steamboat Springs, Winter Park and Florence, attendees asked questions about everything from how to recreate around wolves to what happens if wolves attack cows in pooled herds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe meetings were well-received by both the general public and the agricultural community,\u201d said Travis Duncan, CPW spokesperson. \u201cAttendees have been engaged and stayed well after the meetings to ask more questions specific to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The gatherings come two months after state Sen. Dylan Roberts, at a Joint Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources hearing, accused CPW of intentionally withholding information about the wolves\u2019 release from impacted communities and asking director Jeff Davis if he agreed a \u201closs of trust\u201d resulted in those communities. Davis agreed, saying, \u201cWe have a lot of work to do to work with stakeholders to repair relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

These meetings appear to support that effort.<\/p>\n

CPW to Grand and Summit counties: Treat wolves like moose, with adaptations<\/div>\n

Attendees had different concerns in different regions.<\/p>\n

At presentations in Silverthorne on Feb. 26 and Winter Park on March 3, audience questions focused on the biology of wolves and diving deeper into best practices when recreating with them, Duncan said.<\/p>\n

Local staff reminded attendees that they have a far greater chance of encountering a moose while recreating in Summit and Grand counties than they do a wolf, and that most of the same principles apply when recreating around them, he added.<\/p>\n

CPW\u2019s Living with Wolves brochure calls wolves \u201cgenerally calm\u201d and \u201celusive habitat generalists\u201d that favor deer and elk. It says wolves are \u201cunlikely to approach people or homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeanette McQuade, a Fraser resident, said CPW gave the Winter Park audience additional directives, including \u201cleave space between you and them, warn them you\u2019re out there by talking and carry a whistle, leash your dogs when recreating, and if you do encounter a wolf, face it and slowly back away, haze it if you can and fight back if needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

McQuade said interactions during the question-and-answer session following the presentation \u201cdidn\u2019t get contentious, and when they headed that direction, audience members reminded the crowd to not villainize CPW because they are following state statute.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Silverthorne, questions also veered to the agriculture community, according to a March 4 story by CBS News.<\/p>\n

Eric Odell, CPW\u2019s wolf conservation program manager, said the wolves, captured in Oregon, had a history of depredation, but had not killed livestock for six months prior to capture.<\/p>\n

Odell said wolves are opportunistic eaters and that the Colorado wolves, \u201chave plenty of resources to feed on.\u201d CPW says there have been no reports of depredations on livestock since their arrival. The topic of depredation has been front and center for ranchers since two wolves migrated into Colorado from out of state and began preying on rancher Don Gittleson\u2019s animals in 2021.<\/p>\n

In December, after more attacks, Gittleson asked CPW if \u201c20 mauled or dead animals qualified the wolves as chronically depredating\u201d and requested help dispatching them.<\/p>\n

CPW denied his request, telling him to continue using nonlethal mitigation tools. This prompted Sen. Roberts, D-Avon, to admonish the agency for \u201ccausing unnecessary hardship for livestock producers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, Duncan told The Colorado Sun that CPW had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Colorado Department of Agriculture on expanding assistance to farmers and ranchers to avoid wolf predation.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, he said, \u201cCPW staff is working on a definition of chronic. It will be going through our regulatory process and will most likely be scheduled to be heard by our commission at the May meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happens when wolves attack pooled herds?<\/div>\n

On Feb. 28, at a meeting titled \u201cWolves are Here, What\u2019s Next?\u201d CPW joined the Routt County-Colorado State University extension office to address questions from area ranchers.<\/p>\n

Todd Hagenbuch, agriculture and natural resources specialist for the office, said around 85 ranchers attended.<\/p>\n

Among their main concerns was compensation for cattle lost to attacking wolves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had, I would call it, a conversation, and the ranchers brought up some excellent questions,\u201d Hagenbuch said. \u201cCPW was very honest about explaining how they are \u2018redlining\u2019 some of the rules related to compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Current rules state that if a rancher loses cattle to a confirmed wolf attack, they qualify for additional compensation for cows from the same herd that go missing. But the ranchers wanted to know if cows that are commingled with a herd that has an attack also qualify for compensation.<\/p>\n

Duncan said CPW plans \u201cto work towards revising current rules pertaining to cattle pools,\u201d and that the meeting was \u201cwell-received by the agriculture community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compensation rules for ranchers may be up in the air, however, after Rep. Tammy Story, a Democrat from Evergreen, introduced a bill in the legislature Wednesday that would require ranchers use nonlethal wolf deterrence measures to be eligible for state compensation if their livestock is killed by predators.<\/p>\n

Cattlemen to CPW: \u201cOver communicate\u201d<\/div>\n

In emails to The Sun, Duncan mentioned one more meeting CPW held, with the Fremont County Cattlemen\u2019s Association, on March 2.<\/p>\n

Erin Spaur, executive vice president of the Colorado Cattlemen\u2019s Association, said the Fremont group \u201chas a lot of anxiety about what\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a concern because of what Fremont County encompasses \u2013 other high-mountain towns and high-mountain counties,\u201d she added. \u201cSo, if there are future releases in Gunnison, it\u2019s only two-and-a-half hours away\u201d from Florence through the Gunnison National Forest.<\/p>\n

Spaur said around 50 people attended the event where the discussion focused on the \u201cwolf process\u201d and livestock practices with wolves present.<\/p>\n

CPW shared its most recent wolf map, which details where wolves have traveled since their release \u201cto show members how communications are taking place,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

But \u201cthere really are no formal communications\u201d in agriculture communities that she\u2019s heard of to date, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s, really, if a local CPW officer sees a wolf in a local area, they\u2019re calling the producer there or the president of the local cattlemen\u2019s association. And then it\u2019s up to the president to have a calling tree to get the word out. So we\u2019re trying to get that set up to notify people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spaur said area ranchers are also nervous about \u201cnonlethal deterrents to the whole range of lethal deterrents, knowing what is available. So it was really (ranchers asking) those general questions about what will happen. And what we\u2019re getting back is a lot of \u2018We\u2019ll see. We\u2019ll wait and see what happens.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But attendees \u201cwere pretty agreeable and understood, I think because they don\u2019t have the impending pressure of wolves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Still, the Fremont members are asking for more communication, Spaur said. \u201cI think wolves are now on the ground and producers are pretty anxious for CPW to be saying although they\u2019re here, we don\u2019t have a plan. Or to be told to wait and see. What we keep preaching to CPW is \u2018communicate. Over-communicate.\u2019 It will do wonders in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan said CPW will hold additional meetings.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

leaders admonished Colorado Parks and Wildlife over poor transparency when wolves were released in December. Can the agency rebuild trust?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28,603],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80493,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28677\/revisions\/80493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28677"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}