The story: Less than a year after they were reintroduced to northern Colorado, a pack of gray wolves will be relocated from Grand County due to a series of livestock attacks.
Who you'll hear from:
- Michael Saul, the director of the Rockies and Plains Program with The Defenders of Wildlife, a national organization that is "dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities."
- Tim Ritschard, the president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers, representing ranchers in Grand County
Our promise to you: Denver7 continues to cover in-depth the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado. For this story, we spoke with both proponents and critics of the decision to capture and relocate the Copper Creek pack – the first confirmed wolf pack in Colorado since the voter-mandated reintroduction.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced in a Tuesday night press release that it would capture and relocate the pack following a series of depredations in Grand County. Most recently, eight sheep were killed in a July 28 incident.
The Copper Creek pack recently made headlines after producing the first wolf pups since the reintroduction in Colorado. The pups were recently captured in this video, which was released to the public.
CPW said it would release more information after the relocation operation was complete. It's a move that the Defenders of Wildlife questioned in an interview Wednesday.
"How does [CPW] intend to safely capture the entire pack when, as best we know, only the mother has a working collar," asked Michael Saul, whose organization advocated for the reintroduction of wolves in Colorado. "It's hard to catch wolves in the best of circumstances and it's especially risky to attempt to capture pups under six months old."
- Hear from Saul, as well as the organization representing ranchers in the area, in the video player below:
CPW had previously denied a request from a local rancher to take lethal action against the wolves in July. The rancher has been requesting help from CPW since April following multiple cases of depredation.
In a letter, CPW said in part that the rancher had "delayed using or refused to use other nonlethal techniques that could have prevented or minimized depredations."
Additionally, the letter said the use of a "dead pit," where the dead bodies of cattle were placed, was attracting the wolves to the property.
"Some tools were used, but the recommended correct tools, and tools offered at public expense were either not used or were not accepted," said Saul. "It's tragic to see that pack removed to an uncertain fate, in a risky operation, as a short-term solution to one ranch's problems.”
However, Middle Park Stockgrowers president Tim Ritschard disputed Saul's claim that ranchers aren't using nonlethal deterrents.
"We've used every single one of them," he said. "Nonlethal has a shelf life."
Ritschard argued that the ranch used every deterrent except for one: fladry, a line of bright, rectangular, heavy-duty flags hung on a wire surrounding a pasture perimeter. Denver7 took a trip to Jackson County to go in-depth on the deterrent earlier this year.
As for the dead pit, Ritschard said similar pits are commonly used by ranchers as a deterrent for coyotes, keeping their focus on dead livestock and away from live cattle.
“I'm glad to see something's being done," said Ritschard.
Colorado is set to begin another wolf reintroduction this winter. In addition, CPW announced on Wednesday that a collared wolf that was reintroduced in December "spent some time" in Rocky Mountain National Park. Because the park is federally managed land and management authority ove gray wolves in the park resides with the National Park Service, which works closely with CPW, the department said.
