Colorado Parks and Wildlife spent more than $3 million on the state’s wolf reintroduction program in one year — more than three times as much as what voters were told it would cost during the ballot debate in 2020.

In 2020, budget analysts estimated that implementing the reintroduction program would cost approximately $800,000 annually, starting in fiscal year 2023-2024.

The actual expenses from July 2024 to May 2025 — the Colorado Parks and Wildlife told a legislative committee on Monday — stood at $3 million.

That spending included $1.6 million for staffing, $900,000 for operations, $410,000 for compensating ranchers whose livestock have been preyed upon by the wolves, and $85,000 for “conflict minimization.”

In 2023, the first year of the reintroduction program, wildlife officials brought in 10 wolves from Oregon from packs with a history of depredating on livestock. Earlier this year, they brought in 15 wolves from British Columbia.

The plan entails bringing in 10 to 15 wolves a year for three to five years — up to 50 of the apex predators by the end of that period. Also under the plan, state officials are supposed to specifically reject the relocation of wolves with “a known history of chronic depredation, and sourcing from geographic areas with chronic depredation events should not occur.”

During its presentation to the Water Resources and Agriculture Review Committee, wildlife officials outlined for lawmakers what chronic depredation means and discussed the state’s “conflict minimization” strategies, which included hiring 10 range riders and “drone hazing.”

The agency said other states have a “long history of co-existing with wolves successfully using these tools and methods.”

The agency added that it has hired 10 “wildlife damage specialists,” who are tasked with responding to reports of wolves harassing or killing livestock.

CBS News Colorado quoted ranchers as telling legislators during the hearing that they have lost trust in the state wildlife agency.

“A depredating pack was known to have depredated in Oregon before they put them in Middle Park,” said Tom Harrington, a cattle producer in Roaring Fork Valley. “They had serious impact there. They packaged them up, put them away for awhile. And then, they put them back out — right in my backyard.”

“That was my decision. I take full responsibility, and I question that decision ever day,” CBS News quoted CPW Director Jeff Davis as telling legislators.