Rocky Mountain Voice

Tag: Colorado Wolves

Colorado Records 17th Wolf Death After Livestock Attacks
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Records 17th Wolf Death After Livestock Attacks

By: Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics   A yearling male wolf in Grand County has become the 17th wolf to die in Colorado in the past two years. Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced that its staff killed the wolf on Aug. 4 because it was believed to be responsible for killing four calves in Jackson and Grand counties between June 29 and Aug. 1. The state agency’s announcement said the producers had pursued nonlethal measures to minimize conflict with the wolf. Ranchers have told Colorado Politics that those minimization efforts are ineffective. The wolf killed on Tuesday is the second mortality in 10 days. Another wolf had been found dead in northwest Colorado, according to a CPW announcement, but no further details were made available. READ THE FUL...
Study adds evidence that wolves can cost Colorado ranchers beyond livestock losses
Colorado Accountability Project, Approved, Commentary, State

Study adds evidence that wolves can cost Colorado ranchers beyond livestock losses

By Cory Gaines | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project The link below was sent in by a reader. It profiles a study out of University of California, Davis which purports to put a price on how much a single wolf in an area can cost a rancher. It’s right there at the top; the image heading this post is the title. I’ll leave it to you to read through the details of the study, note its methods, and come to your own conclusions on the validity of the estimate. For my part, I’m somewhat skeptical of the number itself. I do not at all doubt that wolves put economic costs on ranchers. I do doubt the exact figure and am skeptical in general about estimates.** Rather than looking in depth at the estimate and the method, however, I want to bring something to your attention. This...
Ranchers Question Whether Wolves Are Changing Coyote Behavior Around Colorado Livestock
Cowboy State Daily, Approved, Local

Ranchers Question Whether Wolves Are Changing Coyote Behavior Around Colorado Livestock

By Mark Heinz | Cowboy State Daily Ranchers in northern Colorado wonder if the growing wolf population is causing coyotes to be more aggressive toward livestock. "In 30 years of doing this, I’ve never seen anything like that," a rancher said about two coyotes attacking healthy livestock. A northern Colorado rancher who lives near one of the state’s reintroduced wolf packs said she and her neighbors are becoming increasingly frustrated because when wolves aren’t threatening livestock, coyotes are. Amanda Cerveny said she spotted and took video of a lone canine crossing her property near cattle. She thought at first it could have been a small or young wolf, but also thought it might be a coyote. Her latter suspicions were confirmed by biologist Doug Smith...
Wolf opponents ask federal officials to revisit Prop 114 after Keshel report challenges 2020 result
Rocky Mountain Voice, State, Top Stories

Wolf opponents ask federal officials to revisit Prop 114 after Keshel report challenges 2020 result

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice The fight over Colorado wolves has landed in a federal review process. Opponents of wolf reintroduction are asking federal officials to reconsider Colorado's wolf program after submitting a report that claims Proposition 114 did not actually pass. Colorado Conservation Alliance filed the report June 5 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service during a federal review of Colorado's gray wolf program. Michael Clark, chairman of Colorado Conservation Alliance and CEO of Petrox Resources, signed the submission. The filing takes aim at a message Clark says Coloradans have heard for years. "The message has been both constant and assertive, Colorado's wolf program is 'the will of the people' because Proposition 114 passed," Clark wrote to U.S. F...
Colorado Ranch Hand Reportedly Shoots Wolf While Protecting Calves
Approved, State, The Coloradoan

Colorado Ranch Hand Reportedly Shoots Wolf While Protecting Calves

By: Miles Blumhardt | The Coloradoan A ranch owner says her ranch hand shot and killed the King Mountain wolf pack mother, the Coloradoan has confirmed. The death will test the state's laws protecting the endangered predator, which only allows for the legal killing of wolves under certain situations. Ranch owner Susan Nottingham first confirmed the killing of the wolf to the Coloradoan in an interview June 1. The wolf was killed March 10 on the Nottingham Ranch, which spans 20,000 acres in northern Eagle and southern Routt counties. Colorado Parks and Wildlife, in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is leading an investigation into the wolf death and has not yet released details of the case. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE COLORADOAN
Copper Creek Wolves Drive Majority Of Colorado Livestock Losses
The Coloradoan, Approved, State

Copper Creek Wolves Drive Majority Of Colorado Livestock Losses

By Miles Blumhardt | The Coloradoan Beef, and mutton, are often what's for dinner for one Colorado wolfpack that has racked up a $700,000 tab, according to a review by the Coloradoan. The Copper Creek pack has been implicated in more than 60% of the state's confirmed depredations — 49 of 78 —since Colorado began reintroducing wolves in December 2023, a review of Colorado Parks and Wildlife's confirmed depredations records and ranchers' depredation claim filings shows. Those losses led to payouts by the state exceeding $700,000. That is greater than 40% of the total amount Colorado has paid for wolf depredations in that time. In total, the agency awarded ranchers more than $1.6 million in wolf depredation claims combined in 2024 and 2025. That's more than doub...
Feds Open Public Comment Period On Colorado Wolf Reintroduction
Complete Colorado, Approved, State

Feds Open Public Comment Period On Colorado Wolf Reintroduction

By Savana Kascak | Complete Colorado DENVER–The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is requesting public comment and information regarding Colorado’s gray wolf importation program. This request comes just months after the federal agency threatened to take over wolf management in Colorado due to ongoing problems. As previously reported by Complete Colorado, FWS sent an official warning to Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) management saying Colorado violated the terms of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) by releasing 15 wolves in January 2025 without informing citizens. FWS also criticized CPW’s management of the Copper Creek pack, which has a history of livestock depredation, and which cost Grand County ranchers alone $450,000 in losses. On April 4, FWS issued ...
Colorado Wolf Program Costs Taxpayers More Than $1 Million In Livestock Claims
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Wolf Program Costs Taxpayers More Than $1 Million In Livestock Claims

By Marianne Goodland | Colorado Politics After paying more than $700,000 in March to ranchers for livestock lost to wolves, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission is poised to approve two additional claims totaling $262,000 at its meeting this week. Those approvals would bring total payouts to about $970,000 with another $56,000 in claims rejected across the March and May meetings. And that figure only reflects claims requiring commission approval. Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) staff can sign off on claims under $20,000, and the state’s wolf‑depredation website shows that, in 2025, the agency received 32 such claims totaling $47, 142.55, ranging from $88.50 to $3,500. That’s a total of $1.072 million for 2025 alone. READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT...
Rural Colorado Rancher Warns Wolf Conflicts Are Hitting Close To Home
The Fence Post, Approved, Commentary, State

Rural Colorado Rancher Warns Wolf Conflicts Are Hitting Close To Home

By: Wade Allnutt | Commentary, The Fence Post I write this letter as a taxpayer, livestock producer and, most importantly, as a father of two young children. I am not writing to point fingers, but to give a first-hand account of what was voted on and what we in rural western Colorado are now living with as a consequence. The recent confirmed wolf depredation of a dog in Jackson County on Feb. 7, 2026, hits close to home for me. However, it is no more important than the depredations and mounting stress others have faced across western Colorado since this process began as a result of Proposition 114. This was also not the first depredation event for this ranch; they have had five other confirmed depredations of cattle in the last two years. Colorado is not an untouched w...
Does anyone care about the wolves? Or just the politics behind them
GregWalcher.com, Approved, Commentary, State

Does anyone care about the wolves? Or just the politics behind them

By Greg Walcher | Commentary, GregWalcher.com If you were a grey wolf, it would be hard to imagine a more hostile environment than this state, into which 25 wolves have been involuntarily and violently extradited from their natural homes. It is reminiscent of illegal immigrants from south of the border being deported to prisons in unfamiliar countries like South Sudan and Uzbekistan. Those people have at least been accused of committing some crime. But what exactly have these wolves done to deserve such a fate? Wolves are among history’s most hated creatures. Writers have taught children for centuries to fear the Big Bad Wolf. Think of the villains in “Little Red Riding Hood” and at least three other Grimm’s fairy tales, or “The Three Little Pigs,” or at least four Ae...