During its July commission meeting, Colorado Parks and Wildlife got a deluge of wolf-related updates, after they reintroduced ten gray wolves to the state in December 2023.
One of those updates is officially bringing Colorado’s rules in line with federal rules about whether ranchers can kill wolves. The rules now state that ranchers may shoot wolves if they attack a working dog.
Officials say the language was accidentally left out of its original rulemaking for wolf reintroduction.
CPW’s Deputy Director, Reid DeWalt, said it’s good for ranchers to have clarity as they adjust to the new reality of wolves.
“And we continue to have a few sporadic depredations, but nothing like we had seen this spring, and things have calmed down somewhat, but we do see more widespread depredations, but more sporadic in nature.”
CPW investigated three instances of depredation in July, and 13 total in 2024.
Commissioners also got an update on its new “Born to be Wild” wolf license plate.
DeWalt said the license plates have been very successful so far.
“We sold over 6200 plates so far, as of the beginning of July, and over $300,000 in revenue, so that is for preventative and deterrence type measures,” he said. “It’s a great pot of revenue to have.”
Some of those measures funded by the purchase of the plate include training and community outreach on non-lethal wolf conflict mitigation, specific kinds of technology and fencing to prevent wolf conflicts, and research to continue developing such technology.
He also updated commissioners on the one wolf pup CPW has been able to confirm. DeWalt commended staff on their ability to get out to the den, which was in very remote and rugged terrain.
The breeding pair and the pup are known as the Copper Creek Pack.
The two wolves that naturally migrated from Wyoming are also still alive.
The wolves have not yet wandered south of I-70, and were not spotted in the Upper Colorado River watershed over the last month.
In the July report, the agency addressed rumors that they were using planes to haze wolves at the state lines, saying that they only use aircraft to monitor the population.
