By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice
Wolves are roaming, ranchers are riding – but the rulebook hasn’t changed. Wolves are traveling farther, forming dens and producing pups. Many have turned up dead — especially in Wyoming, where wolves that prey on livestock can be killed on sight under state law.
Yet not one federal or state land-use plan in Colorado has been updated since gray wolf reintroduction began in December 2023.
That’s the backdrop for Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s May 13 press release announcing that its Range Rider Program is fully operational and patrolling western Colorado.
Eleven contracted riders hired by CPW have joined two staff from the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) to monitor livestock, haze predators and report signs of wolf-livestock conflict across nine counties.
“Having range riders out on the landscape further expands our already strong conflict minimization program,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis.
The riders, selected from local ranching communities, will patrol Jackson, Grand, Routt, Eagle, Garfield, Pitkin, Summit, Rio Blanco and Moffat counties from April through October. Each rider is required to provide their own truck, trailer, horse and gear.
The state estimates the program’s cost at roughly $500,000 this year, funded in part by its “Born to Be Wild” license plate program. Colorado is now one of just three U.S. states with a formal range rider initiative, joining Washington and Arizona.
But wolves aren’t staying in the rural zones originally envisioned by CPW’s 2023 Wolf Restoration and Management Plan.
In April, CPW confirmed that a male wolf released in late 2023 had traveled more than 1,000 miles across 14 counties, including as far south as Hinsdale and as far north as Jackson. The animal repeatedly crossed public and private land, underscoring the mobility of the species – and the limitations of existing jurisdictional planning.
“This is a powerful reminder of how far these animals can go,” said CPW spokesperson Travis Duncan.
It’s not just dispersal. This spring, CPW also confirmed sightings in Jefferson and Douglas Counties – within 20 miles of the Denver metro area. In response, CPW has described these instances as exploratory but natural.
But no federal Resource Management Plans (RMPs) for lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, or National Park Service have been revised to reflect the spread of wolves into these populated corridors.
At the state level, CPW has adjusted some implementation zones – most notably removing Meeker and Rio Blanco County as planned release sites – but no state-level land use planning document has been formally amended either.
In simple terms, this means the state is changing where wolves go – but not updating the official policies that govern what happens after they get there. Those policies affect everything from hunting regulations and livestock protections to how landowners, outfitters and energy producers are allowed to use the land.
Without updated plans, agencies and businesses are left without clear rules – and in some cases, open to lawsuits or shutdowns if a wolf appears where the paperwork says it wasn’t supposed to.
Meanwhile, reproductive signs are growing. CPW has confirmed multiple suspected dens, including a known female in Jackson County believed to have birthed pups again this season.
Reports of wolf pups in at least two locations make 2025 the first year since the 1940s that Colorado has documented multiple breeding sites. The pups are offspring of Oregon wolves brought in by CPW – not natural migrants.
These developments have sparked legal and regulatory questions.
In May, federal officials launched an investigation into the death of a collared gray wolf inside Rocky Mountain National Park – a protected area that, like many other federal lands in Colorado, lacks a current, specific plan for managing the recently reintroduced gray wolf population.
Planning gaps aren’t going unnoticed. Rep. Lauren Boebert sent a letter calling for a halt to future wolf releases until Resource Management Plans are updated and federal NEPA review requirements are met. And the Alliance filed a federal lawsuit arguing that state and federal agencies unlawfully bypassed environmental review by treating the reintroduction as a foregone conclusion without assessing its broader impacts.
The issue isn’t merely regulatory. It’s about whether the rules are keeping up with reality.
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires federal agencies to conduct environmental reviews when new conditions could significantly impact land management, endangered species or commercial activity.
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) and the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) direct agencies to revise their land-use plans when conditions change – but leave it to agency discretion to determine when those changes warrant a formal update.
And with wolves now breeding, roaming metro-adjacent corridors and raising young – the argument for “new conditions” has rarely been clearer.
For now, CPW is betting on proactive tools like range riders and local engagement to reduce conflict.
But even as the wolves disperse, reproduce and reshape Colorado’s ecology – the state’s regulatory framework remains largely unchanged from when the first reintroduced pack stepped off a trailer in December 2023.