My guess is by the time this column runs, wolves from British Columbia will be on the landscape in Colorado. Eric O’Dell was conspicuously absent at the Jan. 8 Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting, attending virtually. CPW Director Jeff Davis, in a press conference following the vote rejecting the petition of 26 organizations and 63 Colorado counties to pause further releases, didn’t directly answer questions from media about where O’Dell was, but did say there is a sense of urgency to get the BC wolves to Colorado so they can begin interacting with the wolf population here. Davis said elected officials in the counties identified for release will be notified and the smart money is those calls will be made any day now. It’s almost like they knew how the vote would go.

In addition to the BC wolves, CPW is also chomping at the proverbial bit to release the female and four pups from the Copper Creek Pack. The wolves have been held at a wildlife sanctuary, presumptively the Wild Animal Refuge in southeastern Colorado, and have been fed roadkill. Davis said the female needs to teach the pups to hunt and releasing them back into ranch country is “important to a lot of Coloradoans.”

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The Commission meeting was somber and long. There were 102 commenters, most of which were anti-ag folks reading from scripts and throwing around terms like “ecosystem balance” and “sentient beings.”

In the end, not a single CPW Commissioner appointed to represent agriculture producers voted with the state’s ag groups. Chair Dallas May attempted several times to discredit commenters’ claims ranchers are getting rich through depredation compensation, which I appreciate. I also appreciate Chair May’s attempts to curb personal attacks on ranchers during public comment.

I listened to the Commission meeting in its entirety, and the end, including the vote, while on my way home with my kids from church classes. My son, who is a first grader, asked if the wolves would come eat our calves now. My daughter, a sixth grader, listened intently to several commenters on both sides of the issue. After the vote, she asked me a question I can’t answer, “Why do they hate us so much?”

There were clear winners and losers at the meeting. I listened to anti-agriculture commenters blame ranchers for hating wildlife, refusing to cooperate, refusing to submit to the inevitable, refusing to take on the additional work of stringing fladry in snowdrifts. I listened to commenters assume the person who shot the male wolf of the Copper Creek Pack was sitting in the room and another blame ranchers for animal neglect. I listened to commenters lump all ranchers in with the fool from Wyoming who ran down a wolf with a snowmobile and tortured her. I listened to commenters blame ranchers for refusing to take financial losses. I listened to claims the ranchers are entitled bullies. And I listened to commenters name specific ranchers during their vitriol.

The three commissioners appointed to represent the interests of production agriculture, Chair May, Commissioner Tai Jacober, and Commissioner Eden Vardy, voted to reject the petition for rulemaking that would have granted a short pause in releases to allow CPW additional time to ensure services are in place. These are services officials admitted during the meeting are not fully functional.

Perhaps the most telling indicator loose ends are still flapping in the breeze was the inability of any CPW officials to answer whether the 30-some depredations would meet the new definition of chronic depredation.

I don’t know Jacober or Vardy and given the tight community of agriculture producers in the state, that’s worth noting. I vaguely recall Jacober’s bankruptcy proceedings in Weld County that involved a contract to purchase cattle he claimed didn’t meet his grass-fed standards. I know less about Aspen’s Vardy though he has on occasion spoken up in defense of agriculture previously.

Commissioner Marie Haskett, appointed to represent sportspersons and outfitters, cast the sole vote supporting the pause in releases. She said it was a big statement made by 26 organizations, 63 of 64 counties, the Joint Budget Committee and the majority of the ad hoc wolf groups when they requested or supported a pause. She said the lack of empathy shown to livestock producers is disturbing, and said she finds the comments disparaging livestock producers personally offensive. She asked reasonable questions and brought forward information — like that night penning cattle isn’t allowed on public lands so it’s not an option for many ranchers — that is common knowledge among ranchers and should have been considered.

There are multitudes of questions left unanswered, but I assure you the one that I can’t answer — why they hate ranchers so much — is the one that keeps me up at night.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.