What to know about Colorado's existing wolves and conflicts around reintroduction plan

A little less than two years ago, wolves in Colorado garnered little attention.

Confirmed sightings were rare, and the announcement of the lengthy planning process to reintroduce the apex predator following a narrowly approved, first-of-its-kind ballot initiative was fresh.

Much has changed since then.

Colorado has gone from two wolves that naturally migrated to the state and gave birth to six pups in northeast Jackson County — the first known pups born in the state in around 80 years in spring of 2021 — to the confirmed wolf kills of seven cattle and four dogs, fueling a firestorm of loathing by ranchers and outfitters.

And as Colorado prepares to reintroduce wolves to an area whose population largely voted against the reintroduction, frustration and tension between wolf advocates and opponents has grown, with Colorado Parks and Wildlife caught in the middle.

Here's what to know about perspectives of ranchers who have been impacted by the North Park pack, the controversy surrounding lethal control of wolves and contentious points of the state's draft reintroduction plan.

The night Colorado's long-silent war between wolves and ranchers was rekindled

Jackson County, also known as North Park, is 1,600 square miles of mountain-ringed ranch land in north-central Colorado that's dotted with 1,300 people, half of whom reside in its only incorporated town, Walden.

Ten miles northeast of Walden on the night of Dec. 18, 2021, Colorado ranchers' war with wolves was rekindled decades after the predator was largely killed off.

Rancher Don Gittleson’s worst fear after seeing occasional wolves on his 11,000-acre leased ranch over the prior year was realized the next morning when he saw what little was left of his 600-pound registered Angus calf near his house.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife confirmed the calf was killed by the North Park pack.

“My wife still has nightmares about that night," Gittleson said.

Since then, wolf depredations have ebbed and flowed in North Park, with the latest incident involving two collared wolves killing a working cattle dog and a family pet on ranches 4 miles apart March 13 and 14, further fraying nerves.

"I’m going to do everything I can to throw gasoline on this because I’ve been trying to be that guy that says, ‘OK, they’re here, let’s figure out how to live with them,' " Greg Sykes, the North Park ranch foreman whose dog, Cisco, was killed March 13, told Shannon Lukens of Steamboat Radio. "But now they’ve tied my hands. If I would have went out and found this happening, I guarantee the conversation we would be having would be through a prepaid phone card, because I would have killed the wolves. Something has to be done."

How many cattle and dogs have been killed by Colorado's North Park wolfpack?

The North Park wolfpack has killed four cows, three calves, three working cattle dogs and one pet dog from Dec. 18, 2021, to March 14, 2023. To date, the state has compensated ranchers nearly $13,000, with several cases pending and other claims denied. There is no compensation for pets, but there is for working cattle dogs.

Here are a few things to know about wolf depredations:

• Studies show wolves account for around 1% of cattle and sheep deaths in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.

• Wolf depredation is a small economic cost to the livestock industry as a whole, but impacts to individual producers can be substantial.

• In Montana, 17% of wolfpacks were found to have injured or killed livestock.

• Wolf experts agree that once wolves kill livestock, they often continue the behavior.

• Wolves kill canines such as working cattle dogs and pet dogs because wolves are territorial and view dogs as prey competition.

• Human deaths by wolves are extremely rare.

Why Colorado ranchers have turned to fladry, burros and more instead of killing wolves

Wolves are listed as endangered federally in Colorado and by the state, which prohibits killing wolves unless they are threatening human life.

That's why Gittleson, with help from neighbors and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, erected turbo fladry (electric fencing with bright red-orange flagging) around his herd and was given propane cannons and strobe lights to deter wolves after his early losses.

Wolf advocates came to the ranch to watch over his herd at night. He later added cowbells around the cow's necks. Other ranches tried to train their herds to better defend themselves against wolves.

Still, confirmed wolf depredations continued over the next year on Gittleson's ranch as well as six other ranches around North Park.