DENVER — Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is recommending the approval of two high-value claims made by ranchers who lost livestock to gray wolves in 2024, including one claim of nearly $300,000.
The CPW Commission will discuss the details of the claims and may vote on them or request further consideration during its March meeting. The commission will choose if they want to approve CPW's recommendation.
The list of claims recommended for approval only includes those above $20,000.
One claim is for Farrell Livestock, LLC, based in Jackson County. CPW is recommending paying the ranch $287,407.63 for the loss of sheep and cattle to wolves. They saw multiple livestock kills on their property.
The second claim is for Bruchez and Sons, LLC, based in Grand County. CPW has recommended paying them $56,008.74 for their cattle loss. Rancher Doug Bruchez spoke with Denver7 in December about the past year living with wolves, and recalled finding a dead calf — the first confirmed wolf kill since the December 2023 reintroduction — on April 2, 2024.
Both are members of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, which shared the damage claims from three livestock producers at the end of last year. The claims totaled more than $575,000 at the time, but Tim Ritschard, president of the association, said the claim amounts have changed since December.
Ritschard told Denver7 on Wednesday that he preferred to not comment on the recommended approval claims until a final vote is made.
Want to learn more about Colorado's wolf reintroduction? You can explore the timeline below, which outlines all of Denver7's coverage since the very beginning. The timeline starts with our most recent story.
Rachael Gonzales, CPW's northwest region public information officer, told Denver7 on Thursday that the $287K claim recommended for approval is one of the higher ones the agency has seen for wolf-specific damage. CPW only began compensating for livestock depredations by wolves in 2021.
"It’s also important to remember that the compensation structure for wolves is higher than the structure for bear and mountain lion depredation, and is the highest compensation payment program for wolf depredation in the nation due to the voter-mandated reintroduction of gray wolves," she added.
She said that CPW and its partners, which include the Colorado Department of Agriculture, USDA's Wildlife Services, Colorado State University Extension and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, are working to teach livestock producers about the state's conflict minimization program, and the resources available to them. This includes range riders. As of mid-February, nine people who applied to become a range rider in Colorado — a task that involves long days and nights understanding livestock and protecting them from predators, like wolves — have accepted offers from the state.
These tools can help minimize the conflicts with livestock, and therefore could impact the number and amount of claims submitted, she said.
The list of claims recommended for approval includes two others not related to wolves: One is for bear depredation on sheep in Garfield County amounting to a loss of $65,523.23, and the other is for the $41,786.00 loss in alfalfa and grass due to elk grazing.
When a wildlife damage claim is submitted to CPW, the agency can either accept the amount, renegotiate with the producer, or can recommend to deny it. In the latter case, a staff member with CPW's Game Damage Office will contact the producer before the claim is presented to the CPW Commission for final disposition.
Compensation for wolf depredations comes from the General Fund, the Species Conservation Trust Fund, the Colorado Nongame Conservation and Wildlife Restoration Cash Funds, or other sources of funding for non-game species, according to the CPW.
Read Colorado's full gray wolf restoration and management plan below or here.
Dec. 18, 2024 marked one year since Colorado's first wolf reintroduction, which was mandated by voters in 2020. CPW released its first five gray wolves on Dec. 18, 2023, at an undisclosed place in Grand County. Five more were released a few days later in Grand and Summit counties.
This second round of reintroductions came weeks after the CPW Commission decided to deny a petition filed by ranchers to pause the wolf reintroduction program. That commission vote came after hours of testimony, Q&A and public comment at the Jan. 8, 2025 Denver meeting. The work to capture and release this second set of wolves, which began on Jan. 11, concluded on Jan. 18, CPW said.
The 15 new wolves — seven males and eight females, all from Canada — will join the seven surviving from the first reintroduction in 2023, five pups born in 2024 and two wolves that moved south from Wyoming years ago.
Watch our January report about the latest wolf release in Pitkin and Eagle counties in the video below.
CPW keeps a list of confirmed wolf depredations on a public document, and 2024 ended with 17 incidents and 27 killed or seriously injured livestock.
The agency has confirmed one wolf kill in early February in Jackson County, but no other wolf depredations in 2025 as of this story's publishing time. That wolf was not collared, meaning it does not appear to be one of the translocated animals from the 2023 or 2025 wolf releases.
The below map shows wolf movements between Dec. 22, 2024 and Jan. 21 on the left. On the right, you can see how the animals traveled through Feb. 25. The purple shading indicates watersheds.
Gonzales told Denver7 on Wednesday that Colorado has an agreement with Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, which allows any wolf that leaves Colorado to be recaptured and brought back to the state.
"The state of Utah would be responsible for the capture operations and would turn the animal over to CPW for rerelease in the state," she said.
This plan was developed to protect the genetic integrity of Mexican wolves, which are different from gray wolves.
"The genetic uniqueness of the Mexican wolf would be compromised, and recovery made more difficult, if genetics of northern gray wolves were prematurely intermixed with the unique subspecies of gray wolves," Gonzales said.