By Catie Cheshire | Westword
Colorado is eighteen months into the state’s wolf restoration project, and the teeth are still coming out.
So far, the state has paid over $370,000 in claims to ranchers who have been impacted by the presence of wolves near their operations. Although wolf advocates and detractors both agree that Colorado should compensate people for wolf-related losses, ranchers believe the funds are not enough to cover the full breadth of the impact of the carnivores in this state. Conversely, wildlife advocates question if some of the reimbursements that ranchers have claimed are a good use of taxpayer money.
The wolf-related claims that made many wildlife advocates howl came on December 31 from three ranchers in Middle Park. The ranchers argued the state should pay over $500,000 for wolf-related losses — but of that amount, less than $18,500 was for direct death or injury to sheep and cattle caused by wolves. The rest was for missing livestock, reduced weaning weights and fewer births at ranches with confirmed wolf attacks or kills.
The Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan allows for compensation for indirect losses, but the amounts claimed exceeded what the state legislature had contemplated when it established the Wolf Compensation Depredation Fund, which receives $350,000 annually from the general fund.
Still, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously approved almost $290,000 for one of the claims in March. That request, from Farrell Livestock, included $178,000 for reduced weights in over 1,400 calves and $90,000 for a 3 percent conception rate decrease compared to the three years prior to 2024. And that’s not counting an as-yet-unapproved claim by Farrell Ranch for $112,000 in missing cattle and another $100,000 claim from a rancher in Grand County. If those are approved, the 2024 allocation would be far overspent.
The 2024 budget was officially exceeded on May 8, when commissioners approved a $32,768 claim for two confirmed depredations on calves and fourteen missing calves; the commission will consider the remaining six-figure claims later this year.
“What we’re seeing is, ‘Wow, these claims are really big.’ They’re bigger than we’ve seen before, but we’re also trying to iron out the system so it’s fair and balanced to people and wolves,” says Samantha Miller, a senior carnivore campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity who lives in Grand Lake.