Colorado Parks and Wildlife's first annual report on reintroducing wolves notably excludes any mention of the dozens of livestock killed by the apex predators in two counties.
That's because the timeline for the report didn't fall within the "biological year" as defined by the wildlife agency.
The report covers April 1, 2023 — more than eight months before the wolves were released in Colorado — through March 31, 2024.
By ending the "biological year" on March 31, the report excluded any mention of wolves killing livestock, primarily in Grand County. Wolves that migrated from Wyoming — not the animals reintroduced in Colorado in December — have been killing livestock in Jackson County for the past four years.
The state's decision to use April 2023 to March 2024 as a "biological year" appears to be a matter of choice. Other states — notably Oregon, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, Arizona, and New Mexico — base their annual reports on a calendar year. In the past, Idaho has based its report on a biological year that runs from May 1 to April 30, a nod to the reproductive cycle of wolves.
However, Idaho hasn't produced an annual report since 2016.
On April 2, the first livestock depredations occurred from the wolves that moved to Grand County from Oregon last December.
Grand County Commissioner and rancher Merrit Linke believes the decision to end the biological year on March 31 is deliberate. He told Colorado Politics this week that he thinks the "biological year" end date was chosen to avoid any discussion of the killing of livestock in his county.
Almost all of the Oregon wolves brought to Colorado last December came from packs with a history of depredations before coming to Colorado, including during the agency's self-defined "biological year" of April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023.
According to the state of Oregon's depr edation report , five wolves, including two identified by CPW as 2309-OR and 2312-OR, came from Wallowa County, where there was a history of livestock attacks in 2023. In some cases, however, the department could not say what had attacked the livestock.
The two wolves, known as 2309-OR and 2312-OR, are believed to be the mating pair that has produced three pups and are responsible for the killing of at least nine sheep and seven cattle in Grand County.
The pair has been dubbed "Bonnie and Clyde" by area ranchers.
Among the wolves brought to Colorado, at least two from the Five Points pack were based in Umatilla and Union counties. The pack had as many as 12 adults and pups born in April 2023. Four of the Five Points wolves were lethally managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the wolves were determined to be chronically depredating.
Another wolf came from Grant County, where three separate wolf packs attacked livestock at least 10 times a week before the wolves were brought to Colorado.
The CPW report does not mention that the wolves that came from Oregon came from several packs with a history of depredation, nor does it mention the promise made by the agency's director on Sept. 12, 2023 during a legislative hearing at the state Capitol that wildlife officials would do everything possible not to bring “problem” wolves to Colorado.
The report also doesn't mention CPW's communications failures when the wolves were released last December. That included failing to notify elected officials in the counties where the wolves were released or livestock producers in those counties where wolves were in the area.
That led to months of criticism at the state Capitol by lawmakers. It also strained the relationships between livestock producers, landowners and the wildlife agency, which needs the cooperation of landowners for the state's conservation programs.
CPW's Travis Duncan told Colorado Politics this week the agency had been planning and designing the report for many months.
"And the pace of depredations did not affect the agency’s decision. Wolves are born in April, making this a good marker for reporting on their success in Colorado," he said.
As to why the report omitted any mention of the communications failures or complaints by lawmakers, Duncan said, "The report is an account of CPW’s efforts during the wolf biological year and not a play-by-play of reactions from lawmakers and the media to agency decisions."
The 12-page report discusses the wolf status, management, monitoring and research, and education and outreach.
The "translocation" criteria dictated that the animals brought to Colorado had to be wolves between one and five years old, not to be breeding males or females, and "had to not be from a currently chronically depredating pack."
"None of the wolves that were captured were deemed to be unsuitable for translocation," the report says.
It does not cite any information from Oregon on the history of depredation.
The report notes that between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2023, CPW helped put out 7.25 miles of fladry, a rope mounted along the top of a fence, which includes strips of fabric or colored flags that will flap in a breeze.
However, ranchers noted that fencing means wildlife can't move through the area.
The five locations with the fladry were all in Jackson County, where ranchers have lost more than two dozen cattle, sheep, and working dogs to wolves that migrated into Jackson County from Wyoming. Ranchers, including Don Gittleson of Walden, who has lost seven cattle and working dogs to wolves, have argued that the non-lethal deterrents proposed by CPW don't work.
CPW's report claimed 200 pairs of cattle were protected in the five locations that used fladry in 2023.
As to ranchers' requests for lethally managing wolves killing livestock, CPW has so far hesitated to come up with a definition of chronic depredation, which would allow for permits to kill the apex predators.
The agency noted it received requests for depredation permits from a North Park producer — Don Gittleston said he's asked for one — and a second request from the North Park Stockgrowers Association.
"This situation was not deemed to be chronic by CPW and USFWS, in consultation with one another," the says without explaining that CPW has never come up with a definition of chronic depredation.
"When a situation is deemed chronic, Chronic Depredation permits to landowners will only be issued when agency resources are not able to address the situation directly," the report says.
Under the report's section on education, outreach, and media responses, CPW only points to news releases it had issued.
"Media response occurred at the local, regional, state, national, and international levels," the report says.
The report does not include even one news report on the wolf project.
CPW announced last week it would relocate wolves from the Copper Creek pack in Grand County — the pair and their pups — to another location based on the wolves' appetite for livestock, instead of wildlife.
Local News
