Colorado Parks and Wildlife will temporarily stop killing wolves that repeatedly prey on livestock — in most cases — as the state’s population of the controversial canines falters.
Colorado’s wildlife leaders pivoted Wednesday on their default wolf management policy as the success of the three-year-old reintroduction program faces several threats: a high mortality rate, an inability to source new wolves and the possibility of parasites among two of the state’s five packs.
While the change is aimed at preserving the current wolf population, it has further strained already-tense relationships with ranchers who largely opposed the voter-mandated reintroduction and whose herds face wolf depredation.
The state wildlife agency, which announced the change Wednesday afternoon, says officials will still consider requests to remove — but they will act much more conservatively when deciding whether to kill the predator. The agency plans to rework its policy that dictates when a wolf can be killed and will publish the revised rule by April 1.
The state’s wolf plan, crafted as part of the reintroduction of the species, allows CPW to kill wolves that repeatedly kill or injure livestock under certain circumstances.
Since April, CPW has killed five wolves suspected of preying on livestock and is investigating another wolf death.
“We’re doing everything we can to meet our objective of a sustainable population while working with livestock producers and continuing to follow the adaptive guidance provided in the Wolf Restoration and Management Plan,” CPW Director Laura Clellan said in a news release. “Right now, we’re in a critical moment for wolf restoration in Colorado.”
CPW biologists estimate at least 45 wolves live in the state, 20 of which are pups born this spring. Only half of wolf pups typically survive their first winter, so biologists expect the population to decline in the coming months.
The survival rate among adult wolves is troubling to agency officials as well. Over the past year, only 61% of the adults have survived — far lower than the 75% survival rate the agency expected. Four of the state’s five packs could produce pups in the spring, as could some of the wolves that travel without a pack if they were to breed.
Biologists are investigating what could be an infectious skin parasite in two of the packs in northwest Colorado, according to the release. If the diagnosis is correct, the parasite could result in more deaths.
Five of the state’s major agricultural organizations on Wednesday condemned CPW’s decision to halt what it terms “lethal removals.” The groups described the move as unconscionable, reckless and an abandonment of rural Colorado.
In a joint statement, the Colorado Farm Bureau, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, the Colorado Livestock Association, the Colorado Wool Growers Association and the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union said the reintroduction effort had “unilaterally failed to date.”
“Lethal removal is a necessary part of wolf management and conflict management, and it must be used when wolves become chronically depredating,” Mark LeValley, the president of the cattlemen’s association, said in the organizations’ statement. “Suspending that tool leaves ranching families to bear the consequences and undermines the accountability this administration owes rural Colorado.”
Wildlife advocates representing several organizations on Wednesday applauded the decision. They said CPW was appropriately reacting to the reality of the wolf population and protecting the long-term recovery of the species.
“We trust CPW biologists to make the hard decisions in this moment and know they don’t make them lightly,” said Kaitie Schneider, the Rockies and Plains representative at . “The purpose of this program is to have a self-sustaining wolf population and to support the communities and ranchers who will live alongside them — we want to see everyone succeed.”
Starting in late 2023, CPW released 25 wolves over the course of two winters to comply with a 2020 ballot measure that mandated the agency reintroduce the native species. But federal involvement last winter stymied plans to release more wolves to boost the population.
CPW “continues to explore options” for future wolf translocations, according to CPW’s statement Wednesday. The state wolf plan recommends releasing between 30 and 50 wolves over the course of three to five winters.
