COLORADO, USA — Three states across 26 organizations asked the Canadian government to not gift any wolves to Colorado.
This comes after British Columbia agreed to let Colorado Parks and Wildlife capture up to 15 wolves this winter and bring them to Colorado in September. A formal petition was filed the same month against the CPW Commission seeking a new rule to delay introductions "until Colorado's wolf management program can adequately address the conflicts between wolves and livestock producers."
But the authors of the letter say Colorado's wolf reintroduction program hasn't gone well so far as three wolves have died. About two dozen livestock were killed by the wolves along with many additional "missing" livestock and wolf-related deaths, according to the letter.
"Of the ten wolves introduced in December 2023, at least three have died, and Colorado captured and removed a fourth introduced wolf and her four pups that were linked to high livestock fatalities. So, the program has not been good for the wolves or for the ranching community," the letter reads.
The letter also points out that other states won’t send wolves to Colorado due to serious concerns over the state’s program and that the petition demonstrates that Colorado needs to implement a fully developed site vulnerability assessment for affected ranches, a program for carcass management, a range rider program for managing wolf access to livestock for many ranching regions and a rapid response team for livestock depredations.
The petition also says that Colorado says these programs are being developed, but they are not yet in place. Funding issues for the program aren't resolved.
In a statement to 9NEWS, CPW Director Jeff Davis said, CPW is meeting with local communities and elected officials for discussions about potential release locations and how to prepare to live with wolves. CPW "continue[s] to conduct site assessments with willing ranchers and we are partnering with CDA and hosting local conflict mitigation training sessions with producers to further prepare for wolves on the landscape," the statement says.
Tim Ritschard, president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, signed the letter that went out Wednesday. 9NEWS has talked to Ritschard recently and he said he doesn't want CPW to release more wolves this winter and ranchers don't know what to prepare for.
"I don't know. It's all unknown to all of us," Ritschard said. "Even with a summer of it, it's still an unknown. So, I don't know. It's just a lot of unknown questions."
Davis addresses this in his statement:
"It’s also important to stress the biological importance of continuing the releases of wolves to supplement the first round of releases done last season. Adding animals to our existing population will increase the likelihood of pairing, breeding and pack formation. This will create territories and allow us to monitor patterns within a territory. Thus, improving our ability to collaborate with ranchers on active behavior and coexistence strategies to best protect livestock.
"CPW takes our responsibility for the wellbeing of the ranchers, their livestock and the wolves very seriously. We are confident we will be successful restoring a sustainable population of gray wolves to Colorado while avoiding and minimizing impacts to our critical ranching industry and rural communities.”
9NEWS reached out to the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship for comment. They responded with:
"[British Columbia] regularly works with other jurisdictions and is supportive of partnering with them on their wildlife management and conservation goals. We have entered a Memorandum of Understanding with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and will be respectful of their decisions on this matter."