After losing more than a dozen livestock and four cattle dogs to wolf attacks, Jackson County rancher Don Gittleson is getting help from lawmakers, who asked wildlife officials to immediately reconsider their decision denying a request to remove the depredating animals from the area. 

Gittleson said repeated pleas to Colorado Parks and Wildlife to deal with these wolves have been ignored, other telling him to employ “non-lethal” methods to scare the wolves off. These methods have not worked, Gittleson said.

Now, state lawmakers are stepping into the fray.

State Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, and House Speaker Julie McCluskie, D-Dillon, penned a letter to CPW Director Jeff Davis on Monday, chastising the agency for failing to help the rancher who has so far lost 16 livestock and four working dogs to wolves that initially came from Wyoming and have since produced cubs.

At issue is the definition of “chronically depredating,” which is used to decide whether to use lethal methods to take out wolves that repeatedly attack livestock, as is the case with the two wolves that killed or injured Gittleson’s livestock.

In a letter, Roberts and McCluskie noted that CPW has refused to help livestock producers by clearly defining “chronically depredating.”

They said that, after years of “personally implementing non-lethal” means of mitigation and deterrence, Gittleston asked for CPW’s help after another attack on one of his heifers by one of two wolves identified as responsible for the damage to his herd.

“These killed and injured animals are not only the property of our constituents but they are key to their livelihood as agriculture producers,” the lawmakers said in their letter to wildlife officials. “Further, Colorado’s agriculture industry is a crucial part of our state’s economy and producers in Jackson County are dealing with the impacts of these wolves on the landscape, both directly and indirectly, and suffering hardship.”

To Roberts and McCluskie, CPW’s response to deny the request is unacceptable.

“The decision reflected in your letter” of Dec. 22 must be “immediately reconsidered, and that CPW take swift action to remove the depredating wolves that continue to kill and injure livestock and dogs in Jackson County,” the lawmakers wrote.

In addition, CPW must “immediately publish a draft rule for the definition of chronically depredating, or at the very least, provide reasoning to the General Assembly as to why a definition cannot be determined,” they said.

Gittleson told Colorado Politics that he saw wolf tracks on Tuesday morning during his regular patrol of his ranch, which happens several times a day and throughout the night.

He said he agreed with the letter from Roberts and McCluskie.

“We need a definition of a chronically depredating pack,” Gittleston said. “Everyone’s opinion on what this is could be different. You need one opinion on it so everyone knows where things stand. When you’re developing a wolf plan that’s crucial.”

He said the definition also triggers the federal 10(j) rule that allows for lethal takes of depredating wolves.

“Why they left that out is beyond me,” Gittleson said, adding that decision creates “a really big loophole” for CPW to not deal with the problem.

Roberts and McCluskie said they are dealing with other concerns with wolves in their districts.

In a separate area from Jackson County, releasing 10 gray wolves into Grand and Summit counties produced a rash of criticism directed at CPW, which failed to notify ranchers that the wolves were being released. Critics said the agency used the release as a photo op and ranchers also said they learned the animals had been released from news reports.

Some of those new wolves came from packs in Oregon with a history of killing livestock, despite promises by wildlife officials in their wolf management plan that they would not bring wolves with such history to Colorado.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has not yet responded to a request for comment.