Wolf reintroduction update Part 1:

Gunnison County stakeholders asking for consideration prior to local releases

By Katherine Nettles

Although reintroduced gray wolves have been confirmed to travel in and through Gunnison County for the past several months, intentional releases of more wolves on the Gunnison Valley landscape this winter is not looking likely at present. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife commission (CPW), tasked with reintroducing the gray wolf to Colorado since a ballot measure passed in 2020, had previously indicated its intent to release wolves this winter in the southern release zone, which spans from Monarch Pass to Montrose but is mostly in Gunnison County. But agricultural stakeholders and Gunnison County officials have asked CPW to slow down and more thoroughly address issues of the prior two years of releases first.

Although the wolf reintroduction ballot measure passed by a thin margin statewide, the measure was mostly opposed by voters on the Western Slope, where the reintroductions are to take place—and it was opposed by 57% of voters in Gunnison County. Moreover, the local ranching community and county leaders have voiced repeated concerns with CPW’s plans to include locations within the county in its third year of releases. Recent, unrelated federal developments may allow CPW and Gunnison County ranchers more time to recalibrate.

Local issues

The Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association submitted a petition this summer asking CPW to pause its next stage of reintroduction while addressing depredation issues from the previous two years of reintroductions in northern regions of Colorado’s Western Slope. CPW has said that in 2025/26 it would be targeting areas in the aforementioned southern release zone near Gunnison County for wolf releases.

Gunnison County commissioners also wrote a letter to CPW this fall, urging them to respond to the stockgrowers’ request and expressing many of the livestock growers’ same concerns for managing wolves on a landscape that has developed a ranching heritage.

Commissioners stated more than half a dozen specific concerns with the wolf reintroduction so far, including depredation mitigation and avoidance, range rider programs, timely depredation investigations, wolf location data sharing, increased costs for ranchers and more.

The letter stated, “Our growing concern is that as more issues present themselves, confidence in the program and relationships are being strained. If some of these issues are not resolved, we fear that some relationships could be broken, and the fallout could harm other collaborative work between our ranchers and CPW.”

Commissioners said they were also concerned about the toll on local CPW field offices. “They are caught in a true no-win situation between the challenges of turbulent reintroduction program and the hopes and expectations of those in their community to address the issues we stated above. Please do not underestimate the strain of decision making in Denver that has to be communicated locally is and will continue to be a potentially overwhelming task for those on the ground.”

CPW transitions

CPW hosted a two-day meeting this month in Sterling, and CPW southwest region public information officer John Livingston reviewed that there was discussion around the stockgrowers’ citizens petition and about the wolf reintroduction process during the director’s update. Public comment on the subject was heard as well.

Livingston said CPW has engaged with producers and local stakeholders on future releases in the southern release zone, including the Gunnison Stockgrowers to support them with information and resources. 

“CPW has expanded our conflict minimization and depredation investigation assets in the last year in response to the anticipated needs of producers. This included bringing on our nine wildlife damage specialists (three of which are based in the SW region). These damage specialists supplement the efforts of district wildlife managers and other regional staff by investigating suspected wolf depredations among other types of damage such as that caused by bears, mountain lions and various ungulates. Damage specialists also assist with conflict minimization efforts including deploying mitigation tools and coordinating additional human presence and observations of livestock and wolf activity,” said Livingston.

“CPW also established our range rider program this year that hired 11 seasonally contracted staff in northwestern Colorado. We are currently working on implementation of the Range Rider program for the 2026 season with an expanded number of riders,” he continued.  For future releases in the southern zone CPW intends to open range riding positions in January and Livingston indicated that CPW director Jeff Davis discussed some of the concerns of producers and CPW’s efforts to meet their needs – including this expansion of range riding efforts.

As reported this week by the Colorado Sun, Davis announced on Tuesday, November 25 that he was stepping down from his position with CPW to join the state’s department of natural resources; Laura Clellan was named as interim director beginning December 1, a former executive director of the Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

Follow us next week as we discuss new federal guidelines and CPW’s now uncertain path of sourcing wolves.