Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) has begun planning for the next round of gray wolf releases.
On Friday, Nov. 8, CPW met with county commissioners and staff from Rio Blanco, Garfield, Eagle and Pitkin counties — areas where the wildlife agency is planning to place wolves during the 2024-25 capture and release season. Rio Blanco County was later removed as a potential location due to the limited number of state-owned sites that adhered to the criteria in the plan, their proximity to livestock and the potential impact to elk and deer herds recovering from the severe winter of 2022-23.
During the half-day meeting in Rifle, CPW staff shared the current status of wolves in Colorado, initial planning and approaches to the upcoming capture and release efforts and an overview of criteria needed for potential release locations. CPW also gave a brief recap of the programs in place to minimize wolf-livestock conflict.
At the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting in August, CPW announced it would once again be releasing wolves in the northern release zone. When choosing potential release locations, wildlife managers and biologists identified state-owned lands that have habitat that can support wolves and natural prey sources. Final release site decisions will not be made until the operation is underway. Variables, including weather, animal welfare, staff safety and many other day-of-operation logistics are taken into consideration.
During the wolf releases in December 2023, several wolves moved far beyond the areas where they were originally released as expected. With this in mind, CPW staff are looking at social considerations — human and livestock — in the areas surrounding the release sites, where potential movement could occur. This included analyzing human presence, recreational activities and established communities and assessing the potential for conflicts with livestock.
CPW has been collaborating with the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) to host conflict reduction training sessions in several counties within the Northwest Region. During these training sessions, producers receive information on range riding, carcass management, livestock protection dogs and investigations into wolf depredation.
This training aims to prepare agricultural producers ahead of the calving and lambing season, which typically occurs in early spring each year. Upcoming sessions are scheduled for Eagle and Gunnison counties in December.
Wolf activity observed
south of I-70 for first time
Since the collared gray wolf activity map was updated in late October, CPW biologists have noted GPS locations from a wolf south of I-70. Although CPW does not publicly provide location information on Colorado’s wolves outside of the map releases (issued on the fourth Wednesday of every month), the agency is providing this update because this is the first time GPS data points have been observed south of I-70.
CPW encourages anyone who believes they have seen a wolf to fill out the wolf sighting form found at cpw.state.co.us/wolf-sightings.
(Source: Colorado Parks and Wildlife.)
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