Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced a temporary suspension of its chronic depredation directive, a move that means wolves identified as repeat livestock killers will stay on the range during the fall cattle-gathering season. The decision marks a notable reversal in how the agency balances predator management against the concerns of the ranching communities most exposed to wolf activity.
Since April, the agency has lethally removed five wolves and is presently looking into the death of a sixth. CPW told county commissioners that going forward it would weigh each potential wolf removal individually, applying a notably cautious standard out of concern that the population may not grow during the current biological year, which runs through March 31, 2027.
Agricultural organizations were quick to condemn the move. Colorado Farm Bureau president Carlyle Currier labeled the decision reprehensible, saying it "directly contradicts direct stakeholder input that was painstakingly gathered over years of good-faith dialogue between the Department, sportsmen, wildlife advocates, farmers, ranchers, biologists and more." Currier also said he found it difficult to comprehend that CPW would step back from its commitments to farming, ranching, and rural communities given the progress made on conflict mitigation, nonlethal tools, compensation structures, and broader reintroduction efforts.
Bonnie Eddy, executive director of the Colorado Wool Growers Association, described her members as frustrated. The organization had long pressed for a workable definition of a self-sustaining wolf population, she said, and found it "shocking to see CPW abandon its landowner partners to capitulate to politics and jerk the rug out from under livestock producers that are experiencing ongoing wolf attacks on livestock."
A Grand County commissioner who also ranches said that local leaders and producers have simply run out of patience. The commissioner argued the agency's new posture is "a direct violation of the plan that the CPW adopted from the technical working group and the stakeholder advisory group." He recalled that even wolf advocates from states such as Montana, Wyoming, and Oregon had acknowledged during planning discussions that culling a single wolf is sometimes necessary to protect five others, because allowing problem animals to remain without consequence does nothing to shift pack behavior.
Colorado ranchers have put significant resources — both time and money — into nonlethal deterrents. The agency is also contending with what appears to be a mange outbreak among the wolves, a contagious skin condition that strips animals of their fur and reduces pup survival rates. Conditions are made more difficult by an ongoing drought year, in which hunger has spread across the landscape and predators throughout the food chain are pressing into new food sources.
Rocky Mountain Farmers Union president Chad Franke characterized the suspension as the most recent instance of the administration failing to follow its own plan, pointing to an earlier episode in which wolves that had previously been removed for depredation were returned to western Colorado.
How CPW will handle depredation complaints before the biological year closes in March 2027, and whether the agency will revise its policies under pressure from agriculture groups, remains to be seen.