Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which faces sharp criticism over its plans to release more wolves on the Western Slope in the coming months, met with county commissioners last week from the counties where the next reintroductions are slated to take place.

Those counties are Pitkin (Aspen), Rio Blanco, Eagle and Garfield, according to the agency.

The idea of more wolves on the Western Slope didn’t sit well with county commissioners — except for Pitkin County. And Pitkin County doesn’t have state lands, so dropping wolves into that county would require a private landowner to grant Colorado Parks and Wildlife permission to do so.

Three of the four counties voted against the 2020 ballot measure to reintroduce wolves; Pitkin County was the only one of the four where voters supported it.

The wildlife agency had hoped to get private landowners to grant them that permission with the first reintroduction last December, but got no takers.

The agency had failed to notify county officials and ranchers last December about the releases, which led to deteriorating relationships between rancher and landowners, and the agency. 

The reintroduced wolves, which came from Oregon and from packs with a history of killing livestock, have since killed dozens of livestock and working dogs this year. 

On Thursday, a coalition led by the Middle Park Stockgrowers and which includes Colorado Counties, Inc., will seek a rules change with the wildlife commission that would delay the reintroduction of the next batch of wolves. The new wolves are supposed to come from British Columbia, since no entity in the western United States will give Colorado any more gray wolves. 

The Colorado Outdoors Coalition, in a statement Tuesday, said the “rushed timeframe” to bring wolves to Colorado has led to the deaths of dozens of livestock and no education or available resources for those who must live with the apex predators.

Since the reintroduction, three of the 10 Oregon wolves have died; a mating pair from that groups plus four pups were rounded up in August and September. The male of the pair died shortly after, and is believed to be responsible for numerous livestock killings.

In a statement, CPW Director Jeff Davis vowed to conduct conversations.  

“As we move forward with the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan, which is mandated by law, we are committed to having conversations with local elected officials and communities near possible release areas,” he said. 

The agency’s statement did not include any feedback or reaction from the county commissioners who attended that Nov. 8 meeting, other than to say the commissioners had an opportunity to ask questions and share feedback from their local communities and producers.

As with the release last December, CPW’s statement said it would not make any “final release site decisions” until the operation is underway. 

“We recognize that this is a challenging situation and all involved are listening to their constituents. We wanted to create an opportunity for officials to have their questions answered and to understand how we can assist our local partners in informing their communities,” Davis said in the statement.

The meetings, which involved multiple county commissioners, were not publicly disclosed.

The CPW statement said the Nov. 8 meeting “marks the beginning of the collaboration efforts as we enter the next phase of gray wolf introductions and continues the discussions that have been taking place since January 2024.”

“Colorado Parks and Wildlife remains committed to engaging further with county officials, local producers, and other stakeholders in areas where wolves currently reside and in locations where wolves may be released in the future,” the agency added. 

Garfield County commissioners on Tuesday discussed the meeting between the county commissioners and the wildlife agency.

Commissioner Tom Jankowsky noted that Eagle County has more state lands than Garfield or Rio Blanco. Garfield County’s largest state lands are just north of New Castle and near Rifle. Commissioners from Eagle and Rio Blanco, as well as Garfield, were vehemently opposed to wolves in their counties because of concerns from ranchers, Jankowsky said.

This week, a CPW-produced calendar saluting the agency’s “landowner recognition program” was distributed to ranchers in Grand and Jackson counties, including to ranchers whose livestock have been killed by wolves.

The January calendar features a photo of wolves.