By Lindy Browning | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice
“Everyone feels anxiety and fear about all this,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis told commissioners as they approved a large payment to two Colorado ranchers in Grand County that lost livestock as a direct result of the wolf reintroduction program.
The agenda item was on the commission’s consent agenda — generally reserved for items so routine as to not require discussion. A motion was made to approve the depredation claims in the amount of $343,000 and some change.
“I feel like we’re working with ranchers and livestock operations,” Davis said. “It may not feel or look like it to them sometimes, but we are.”
Davis continued, “These are large claims. We are the only western state that pays for itemized claims that include more than the actual value of an animal that is killed, but also the decline in pregnancy rates and weaning weights. Although the ranching communities feel like this is something we are doing to them, they are working hard with us.”
When the subject of public comment was introduced by multiple commissioners, Davis told them there was quite a bit of public comment in their meeting packet, but appellate courts in Colorado have ruled public comments on adjudication is inappropriate because it exposes the parties (claimants) and the division (CPW) to the unfair prejudice extraneous to the record.
“The issue of the day is to stipulate that the sheep claim and the cattle claim is either approved or not,” Davis said. “If the stipulation is approved, then we pay the portion of the claim that the rancher has agreed to and we continue to work with him on the portion of the claim that has not yet been agreed upon. If the stipulation is denied, then the whole amount will be put on hold for a later time.”
There is some misunderstanding on how the claims are required by law, to be paid, he said. Some members of the public aren’t understanding the law requires that they pay not only for the dead animals, but the other impacts on livestock growers, Davis added. He asked Travis Black, the CPW’s Northwest regional manager, to explain the breakdown of the claims.
There is a base compensation that covers direct livestock kills for 15 animals CPW investigated and confirmed were killed by a wolf.
“Livestock prices are very high right now,” he said.
Concerning the claims for missing sheep, he said no one denies there were wolves in the immediate area, and they had already been killing livestock.
“This rancher has made a claim in the $400,000 range and that $287,000 should be paid to him. There are various subparts of the claim that we need more time to settle, approximately, $112,000 for some cattle that we are trying to resolve. No one wants to hold up that $287,000 dollar claim,” Black said.
Black continued, “We pay on reduced weaning weights when a rancher has three years of records that determine average weaning weights. We saw and verified that when the wolves were in the area for this rancher, his weaning weights averages dropped 36.5 pounds per animal. If you multiply the loss over 1,470 head of calves, that is a loss of $178,000. We also pay for a loss in conception rates if the rancher has three years of records. We saw a reduction by 2.9 percent in conception rates in this operation and that equates to about $90,000.”
Chairman Dallas Mays explained to commissioners who were not familiar with ranching operations or with the terrain in the areas where livestock is being lost, “That countryside is so rugged that you may never find an animal that has been killed.”
Further, he said, “One event on a ranch impacts the entire ranch. I was surprised the numbers weren’t up to 25 percent higher. High altitude cattle are very desired on the market. This is not someone asking for a bonus or a dividend.”
Jeff Robinson, a non-voting member of the commission said, “The law says we will compensate for these losses.” With that the commission voted unanimously to pay the compensation packages.