By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
Residents in Pitkin and Eagle counties have some new international neighbors, a press release from Colorado Parks and Wildlife reads.
Fifteen wolves from British Columbia — eight females and seven males — were rounded up by helicopter and darted from the air, then placed in pens while veterinarians examined and treated the wolves for parasites, and vaccinated them against rabies, canine distemper virus, canine adenovirus, canine parainfluenza virus and canine parvovirus.
Along with the 15 wolves from British Columbia, the remaining members of the livestock-killing Copper Creek pack — a female and four pups — were released after being caught and penned at a wildlife sanctuary since last August.
“In British Columbia, CPW worked closely with a team from the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship to capture the gray wolves. CPW biologists, veterinarians and wildlife officers flew to Prince George, B.C., in January and met with B.C. biologists, veterinarians, wildlife officials, and helicopter capture crews. The full team assembled after the Jan. 8, 2025, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting and began capture operations in the Canadian province 48 hours later,” reads the press release.
“Temporary pens were built to hold the animals while waiting to be flown to Colorado. Each pen contained hay (for bedding) and ice blocks (for a water source) for the animals while the team worked to capture wolves for each flight back to the United States,” wrote CPW.
In a press release dated Jan. 11, CPW announced they were beginning the operations. The plane that was known to be working with CPW flew to British Columbia the morning of Jan. 10, arriving in B.C. in the late afternoon. The same plane returned with the first load of wolves on Jan. 12.
Some people believe that it would be impossible to locate, trap, have the animals thoroughly evaluated by a veterinarian and back on the ground in Colorado in two days.
According to the CPW press release, 16 wolves were actually caught, but one of them died before they could transport it to Colorado.
According to an article written by M. John Fayhee in the Aspen Times on Jan. 19, “The techniques honed by the wolf cull operations (in British Columbia) most likely will be used, or rather, are being actively used, to capture the 10 to 15 wolves to be transported to Colorado. The same helicopters used to gun down wolves by the hundreds will be used to capture the wolves destined for Colorado.”
Also in that article, Fayhee quotes Mike Phillips, a founder and board member of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, and who is one of the people credited with the success of passing the 2020 ballot initiative 114. Phillips is quoted as saying, “You follow old tracks, come up behind them in a helicopter, shoot them in the ass with a dart. The helicopter lands, people jump out, get the wolf, stick him in a crate, and take him to a holding facility.”
In that same article, Phillips is quoted as saying that the process really “sucks for the wolf.” Continuing the quote, ”You’re upending their world. And I don’t use that phrase lightly…in the end you take what you can get, and when they are released in Colorado, they’ll just have to figure it out.”
CPW released five wolves in Colorado on each of three dates: Jan. 12, 14 and 16 in Eagle and Pitkin Counties, as expeditiously as possible, after their capture in British Columbia. CPW also stated in the press release, and photos provided by CPW confirm, that all the wolves including the Copper Creek pack, released on Jan. 18, were released after dark. The reasons given for the night releases include the lengthy travel time back from British Columbia, and border inspections.
Once again, CPW officials cited that the reason for their lack of transparency concerning the 2025 wolf release operations were due to safety for their employees.
“CPW has a responsibility to balance the safety of staff and the animals with the level and timing of information provided during this complex wildlife operation. Unfortunately, staff safety was threatened as CPW offices were watched and threatening social media posts and phone calls were received.”
CPW doesn’t make it clear in their press release that although they felt threatened, it is not a criminal act for the public to watch CPW operations from public property as long as they don’t legally interfere with or impede operations.
CPW has refused to answer questions about whether any complaints have been filed as a result of these “threats”.
They also allege that Facebook posts were being considered threats to the employees. It is in fact, not a crime, to post nasty comments about CPW employees born of frustration over the lack of transparency from CPW.
It may be unwise, but it is not illegal to do so on social media. Those kinds of words, spoken out of frustration, echo around the world on other subjects.
Some people, including elected officials, have said publicly in recent days that it is perhaps the cloak of secrecy itself that has caused the rise in passion and public outrage that have resulted in the public trying to find out the information that they need to know, if wolves will be arriving within a few miles of their livestock operations.
People understand that Prop. 114 is now law, they say, and the wolves will arrive as outlined in the law.
A rancher in Garfield County, whose name will not be published, said, “I think everyone understands that we don’t need to know the exact spot or the exact time of day they are going to release them. If they would just tell us what county and an approximate day, with a little advance notice, we could do what we can on our own places to try to prepare and protect our cow-calf operations. It would be nice to know if we need to keep a closer eye on our kids and pets. Just let us feel like we have some idea when we need to be on the lookout for trouble, so we can do what we can to avoid it within the law.”