Colorado Counties, Inc., has weighed in on the side of ranchers and agricultural organizations seeking a delay in the arrival of the next batch of wolves in Colorado.

The organization’s membership, which represents every county in the state except Denver*, voted by acclimation last week to send the letter to Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Department of Natural Resources.

The Oct. 7 letter thanked the agency for removing the Copper Creek pack last month, which had been killing livestock in Grand County. Despite their removal, wolves continue to kill livestock in the same area.

CCI asked the agency to delay reintroduction efforts to address a number of issues that arose from the release of the first batch of wolves in Grand and Summit counties last December.

Since then, the wolves have attacked and killed dozens of cattle and sheep, primarily in Grand and Routt counties. Wolves that migrated into Jackson County from Wyoming have also killed dozens of livestock in the past several years.

The letter stated the rush to introduce wolves last December meant CPW staff had ” limited time to plan, staff and educate impacted stakeholders about the realities of living with wolves.” They cited the lack of communication and training, which they said left producers and rural communities vulnerable to livestock depredations.

Colorado Counties Inc. (CCI) pointed out that while Proposition 114, which was approved by a narrow margin and primarily by Front Range voters, estimated the program’s annual costs at $800,000. Over a four-year period, and as reported by Colorado Politics, the cost has now exceeded $5 million. Funding for the program is inadequate, CCI’s letter said.

The letter also discussed non-lethal deterrents, pointing out the widely divergent opinions on their effectiveness. “These methods should be tailored to specific conditions, property evaluated, and communicated effectively to ranchers and producers,” CCI’s letter said.

The CCI letter noted the lack of a clear definition of “chronic depredation,” which has been a major sticking point for ranchers who have lost livestock to the same wolves, such as the Copper Creek pack and wolves in Jackson County.

At last week’s CPW commission meeting, Director Jeff Davis said an ad hoc group working on wolf issues is leaning toward a definition of three confirmed events in 30 days. The agency’s wolf depredation page lists at least two instances in April and July in which wolves in Routt or Grand counties met those criteria.

The CCI letter also raised concerns about the range rider program operated by the Department of Agriculture. “A well-funded, well-staffed, and well-trained Range Rider program is essential to protect livestock from wolf predation,” the letter said, “This program must be implemented and operational at scale before any further wolf introductions occur.”

The program has been slow to get off the ground. The ag department awarded $20,000 to the Middle Park Stockgrowers last April after six cattle or calves, most on the same ranch in Grand County, were killed by wolves believed to be the Copper Creek mating pair. But Tim Ritschard, who heads Middle Park, told the commission last week that the funding for the program is inadequate.

Ritschard said the program must be sufficiently funded before the next wolves come into Colorado, along with a rapid response team that will stay in an impacted area until the threat is removed. “We’re afraid of more [wolves] on the ground,” Ritschard said.

Rancher Conway Farrell, whose family has seen wolves as close as 50 yards from their home and who has lost dozens of sheep and cattle to predators, addressed the need for rapid response during the Oct. 3 commission meeting. In the most recent incident in September, it took CPW staff eight days to get to a site where a livestock depredation had taken place. By then, nothing was left of the carcass, and CPW will not confirm what killed the calf.

“This is not rapid response,” he said. “PW staff is not trained to what everybody thinks, and they’re understaffed to make quick responses to get these animals in a timely fashion.” That leads to trust “being abolished” between the agency and the producers.

Doug Bruchez, whose family has ranched in Grand County for five generations, told the commission the program is underfunded and unprepared for new wolf releases. For range riders to be effective, they need a lot of equipment: a truck big enough to pull a trailer, horses, four-wheelers, snowmobiles, and equipment that allows riders to see in the night, which he said is when they’re most effective. “Each range rider is going to need at least $100,000 worth of equipment in order to effectively do their job.”

Bruchez said the range rider hired for Middle Park never received any training on wolf behavior. “We were lucky to find a person that the community trusted and that had a history with livestock behavior.”

Fiscal problems that arose in working with the ag department last April meant the Middle Park Stockgrowers had to pay the range rider out of their own funds, Bruchez said.

Finding qualified candidates in the future will be difficult, Bruchez told the commission. That is complicated using non-lethal explosives, which is a liability issue and requires permission from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

That ties into the preparation and time needed to deploy a range rider effectively, which Bruchez said should be proactive, not reactive. “This program, as it currently sits, is not prepared,” he said.

Both Bruchez and Ritschard pointed to a petition submitted on Sept. 27 by 26 organizations, including Middle Park, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, and two dozen mostly producer organizations, seeking a rules change to delay the next introduction.

Ranchers press Colorado Parks and Wildlife for rule changes on wolf management

Comments during the Oct. 3 meeting indicated that the commission will review the petition next month.

CPW and the Department of Natural Resources did not respond to a request for comment on the CCI letter.

Editor’s note: correction to reflect CCI represents every county except Denver.