Colorado Parks and Wildlife killed its third gray wolf in a single week this month and the ranchers who lost livestock to the pack say the agency only acted after they’d exhausted every nonlethal option available to them.
What happened
CPW confirmed it lethally removed three yearling wolves between September 7 and September 11: two from the Copper Creek and Three Creeks packs in Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties on Monday, and a third from the One Ear Pack in Grand County two days later. Each removal followed what the agency calls “chronic depredation” repeated, confirmed livestock kills tied to the same pack.
The One Ear Pack case is the clearest window into what ranchers are actually dealing with. CPW had already killed one yearling from that pack back on August 4 after livestock conflicts in Grand and Jackson counties. When the attacks didn’t stop, the agency killed a second.
Jackson County rancher Adam VanValkenburg, who has dealt with wolves from this pack’s lineage since 2020 years before the state’s official reintroduction even began says he spends upward of 30 hours a week on nonlethal deterrents alone: range riders, fladry, hazing, altered grazing patterns. It wasn’t enough.
The bigger picture
These three wolves were part of the original 10 brought to Colorado from Oregon under the state’s reintroduction program. Six of the ten are now dead. Another 15 were brought in from British Columbia in January 2025; seven of those have died as well.
Wolf advocacy groups are furious but not for the reasons ranchers might expect. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project argue CPW is killing too many wolves, too easily, and warn it undermines the recovery program’s genetics and long-term viability. Rocky Mountain Wolf Project board chair Courtney Vail said the agency needs to better justify its current policy.
Why it matters
Colorado voters approved wolf reintroduction by ballot measure in 2020 a measure that passed in urban Front Range counties while every rural county it would actually affect voted against it. Six years later, that divide is playing out exactly as rural Colorado warned it would: an urban electorate imposed a policy whose costs are borne entirely by Western Slope ranching families, while activists in Denver and Boulder debate wolf genetics from a safe distance.
CPW has a petition sitting in front of its commission since March asking it to make lethal removal harder, not easier. It hasn’t been heard yet. In the meantime, ranchers are the ones doing 30-hour weeks trying to keep their herds and the wolves alive.
What’s next
The CPW Commission has not scheduled a hearing date for the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition to reform depredation standards. Colorado Conservative Media will track the commission’s calendar and follow up when a hearing is set.
Have you or someone you know dealt with wolf-livestock conflicts in Grand, Jackson, Pitkin, or Rio Blanco counties? We want to hear from you — reach out at coloradoconservativemedia@gmail.com.