As Coloradans contend with the introduction of wolves into the state, conservationists criticized the U.S. Forest Service for not banning wolf hunting in Wyoming.

The Center for Biological Diversity sent a letter Wednesday to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and three other federal officials, complaining about wolf hunting in Wyoming.

The organization accused Forest Service officials of violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect wolves moving from Colorado into Wyoming from hunters in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. The forest lies astride the Colorado-Wyoming border, with the Medicine Bow Forest in Wyoming lying west of Laramie. The Routt National Forest lies west of Walden and extends south along the Continental Divide to near Kremmling.

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It was near Kremmling that a gray wolf was accidentally shot by a coyote hunter in April 2015, according to a May 29, 2015 press release from the conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife.

“Colorado’s precious, endangered wolves shouldn’t be gunned down when they wander across a state border they don’t even know exists,” said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation program director at the Center. “To truly help Colorado’s wolves recover, the Forest Service needs to move quickly to ban wolf hunting and trapping in the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest. Our federal public lands should be safe havens for rare wildlife.”

The problem is that wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountain wolf population are not protected by the Endangered Species Act. A 2022 court ruling that restored endangered species protection in the lower 48 states excepted wolves in Idaho and Montana. They have been de-listed from the Act since 2011, and wolves in Wyoming have been de-listed since 2017.

Wolf populations in those states are managed by state authorities according to plans made in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is responsible for Endangered Species Act enforcement.

In most of Wyoming, wolves are designated as predators that can be shot on sight without a hunting license or permit except in the northwest part of the state, which has been designated as a trophy hunting area for wolves.

Two wolves were seen in Colorado in January 2021 and later that year, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, staff members saw six pups with the pair in Jackson County, north of Walden.

According to the Center, in 2022 Colorado Parks and Wildlife received reports that Wyoming hunters killed three wolves in Wyoming near the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest.

Center officials say that by not banning hunting of wolves in Wyoming, the Forest Service is violating the Endangered Species Act.

“Because hunting and trapping threaten the survival of endangered wolves in Colorado that travel to Wyoming, the Forest Service should prohibit wolf hunting and trapping across the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest,” according to the letter to Secretary Vilsack.

Walden is the scene of the first wolf kills of livestock since the last Colorado wolf was killed in the 1940s.

Colorado wolf importation hasn’t started yet, but one rancher feels he’s already at the epicenter

Colorado rancher Don Gittleson has so far been at the epicenter of wolf predation. His ranch is north of Walden, which is about 100 miles west of Fort Collins, is near the Wyoming border.

“When there are wolves on the landscape, (ranchers) have lost animals to wolves,” Gittleson told The Denver Gazette in an interview. “And we haven’t figured out to stop that yet. Odds are that’s not going to stop.”

So far, Gittleson said he has lost about 10 cows and calves since the wolves showed up. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has paid for some of them, and denied claims for others.

According to Travis Duncan, spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, as of Feb. 16, the state has paid $10,447 in compensation to Don Gittleson for two claims involving four cattle.

Inquiries to the Department of Agriculture were not returned as of press time.