KREMMLING, Colo. — Every morning a group gathers at the Moose Café in Kremmling, Colorado where 6 a.m. pancakes are always served with a healthy helping of four-letter words.
"He calls it the 'Sewing Club,' I call it the 'Bull#$!@ table,'" said Tim Bock, as he drank his coffee.
The "Sewing Club's" language is colorful, but one word they deem dirtier than the rest – is "wolves."
"It's just government not listening to people – it was done by a vote of the people, but the people who voted for it don’t have an idea what the effect is," said Gary Baumgartner, who used to be a Grand County commissioner. "It’s not going to effect the Front Range – it affects the ranchers, it affects recreation with the hunting."
In 2020, Colorado voters decided to reintroduce wolves to the state by less than 2%. Colorado Parks and Wildlife was tasked to make it happen by the end of 2023. On Dec. 18, 2023, CPW released five gray wolves from Oregon in Grand County. They did not tell the locals, or local politicians.
"It felt, when they first did this, it felt like a slap in the face – in more than one way, because we weren’t notified," said Merrit Linke, whose family has ranched the area for generations, and is also a Grand County commissioner.
Linke found out that the wolves were released in Grand County through a text message.
“I don’t know the words to describe it," Linke said. "It just seems improper to do that, and it builds that whole notion of lack of trust – you’re an elected official, but we don’t trust you to hold information.”
Linke said he still has not heard much from Colorado Parks and Wildlife about the whereabouts of the wolves, or future plans to release more. After the first release, three more wolves were dropped in Grand County. Linke and others in the area did not know about those either.
In January's 2023 Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meetings, CPW officials apologized for the lack of communication on the reintroduction.
“I want to be really crystal clear that, and offer my sincerest apologies to you all," said Jeff Davis, director of CPW. “We’re here for the whole darn public and that means the pro-wolf people and that means the ranchers, and that means everybody in between, and as long as I’m here, which maybe, hopefully a long time, we want to be that bridge – we are that bridge."
Parks and wildlife also said they would communicate more with ranchers and the public about future plans and also where wolves are located. There will be a tracking tool, of sorts, available online. 9NEWS reached out to CPW multiple times and have not heard back about when this tool will be available to the public.
“That’s the intention, that we don’t have land owners that are surprised,” said Reid DeWalt who is the assistant director for the aquatic, terrestrial and natural resources branch for CPW. “I just want to make sure folks know there is more information coming.”
People like Linke and locals, like the members of the Moose Cafe's "Sewing Club" are waiting for that information. Until then, they rely on their friends and neighbors to keep them informed.
"A lot of people I’ve talk to, yeah, that trust has been gone, is gone, because of how this was handled, because of how this was done to, to the producers, to the land owners," Linke said.
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