Commissioners in two of three counties targeted for wolf translocation 2.0 say they got the heads up that gray wolves from British Columbia have arrived in Colorado. But no one will say where the animals are being released, and that’s led to ranchers and outfitters trying to take the matter of breaking the news into their own hands.
Over the past week, members of the Facebook group Colorado Wolf Tracker used live flight tracking software to identify a plane they believed was carrying wolves to Colorado and shared unattributed information about potential state-owned and private property where 10 wolves from Canada and a pack of five captured in Grand County last fall might be released.
Then on Sunday they staked out the Eagle County Regional Airport before following CPW trucks to state wildlife areas where they thought the animals would be dropped.
Ranchers and outfitters say CPW invited the scrutiny and that it could have been avoided had the agency been more transparent about the second round of wolf releases, giving them time to prepare for a new predator in their midst.
“I mean if they had said ‘it’s going to be January 13 at Garfield State Wildlife Area, but we’re going to close the road 24 hours in advance and not let anybody up there,’ then we’d be happy,” said Josh Wambolt, a Redstone rancher and outfitter who posts on the page.
They didn’t, so on Sunday, Wombalt’s parents parked themselves at the Eagle County airport in Gypsum and waited to see what would happen.
Wombalt said they reported seeing two CPW trucks “with the tops of cages visible” from the beds and one pulling an enclosed trailer leaving the airport and turning west onto Interstate 70. A video credited to Randy Wambolt shows them driving through Glenwood Canyon.
Josh Wombalt said another observer then followed the vehicles to a CPW office near Glenwood Springs, but neither she nor a third observer saw anything that “looked suspicious.”
The third observer told Wombalt he saw two “private vehicles with camper shells” unlock the gate and drive into the facility at around 10:30 p.m. and that “no vehicles with cages left again.”
Garfield County says no wolves here
Perry Will, a former state senator who will be sworn in as Garfield County commissioner Tuesday, said Kirk Oldham, CPW official for areas in Mesa and Garfield counties, told him the first batch of British Columbia wolves “were not released in Garfield County.”
CPW would not confirm Will’s information, citing complexity of the operation along with wolf and employee safety. The agency promised a news conference with their experts to answer all media questions when the operation is complete, which may take two weeks.
Fred Jarman, Garfield County manager, also told the board of county commissioners Monday that CPW confirmed wolves would not be released in Garfield County.
In addition to Garfield County, locations in Eagle and Pitkin counties were under consideration for the second release of wolves since Colorado residents voted to reintroduce them in 2020.
Pitkin County Commissioner Francie Jacober said Monday afternoon she had a sense of where the wolves would be released but would not say where. She also said she “couldn’t believe” CPW told Garfield County officials wolves weren’t being released there, but that Matt Yamashita, CPW wildlife manager for her area, called her and the other Pitkin County commissioners to say they’re in the process of being released.
Jacober’s son Tai is a Carbondale rancher and CPW commissioner representing agriculture producers west of the Continental Divide.
An Eagle County Department of Natural Resources official, Marcia Gilles, said Eagle County has not received information from CPW confirming a release location.
The wolves can be released on private or state land. Statutory mandate prevents CPW from releasing them on federal land.
The first 10 reintroduced wolves were released in Summit and Grand counties in December 2023, and a problem-plagued year followed. That started with Grand County officials complaining they’d been given no notice before wolves were dropped in their county. CPW chose not to kill a pair of wolves feeding on ranchers’ livestock after a biologist determined the female was pregnant and denning. The pair subsequently had five puppies, and in August CPW began trapping the family group, now known as the Copper Creek pack, and transported all but one pup to a private sanctuary.
The adult male arrived with a gunshot wound and died Sept. 3. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with wolf conservation groups is offering a $100,000 reward for information.
One other male wolf was also found dead in Grand County on Sept. 9. Wildlife officials said it had a healed gunshot wound and its death was attributed to a fight with another wolf.
CPW in November announced it had identified locations for the release of more wolves, and the re-release of the surviving Copper Creek animals, in Eagle, Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties. Officials in Rio Blanco lobbied against the release there, citing bad winters that hit the elk and antelope herds hard. That left Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties.
Speculation about where the animals might be released intensified last week, as CPW mulled a request to pause the program, and Colorado Wolf Tracker started tracking a plane they identified as owned by Lighthawk Conservation Flying, a group of scientists working with environmental groups “to create flight campaigns that achieve significant conservation outcomes.”
The Facebook group breaking wolf news
The landing page of the Colorado Wolf Tracker Facebook group says it serves “as a place to post reports of wolf sightings and depredations in Colorado, along with photos and locations.”
But comments became increasingly vitriolic toward wolves, CPW, Gov. Jared Polis and wolf reintroduction supporters over the first year of reintroduction. They amped up even more Sunday when the plane allegedly carrying the wolves was en route to Eagle.
State Sen. Dylan Roberts, whose constituents include ranchers on the Western Slope, told The Sun he saw the group take on “a whole new level of activism” Sunday.
He said he wanted everyone to remember “CPW employees are just doing their job as they’ve been directed by their superiors,” and he hopes “for this round of releases and for the next round of releases, and forever, however long this continues, that people can have very valid objections and concerns about wolf reintroduction in Colorado, but that they would be able to draw a line between that and somebody just doing their job.”
Wambolt said any concerns that the group might have tried to stop the release were unfounded.
Had ranchers known where they were going to be released, however, “they could have spent the last week preparing to save their animals,” he said. “We could have worked on getting nonlethal deterrents in place” that CPW and Colorado Department of Agriculture encourage ranchers use to protect their livestock from wolves. The deterrents include range riders, guard animals, fladry (fencing with hanging flags), flashing lights, scare devices and places for proper carcass disposal, and the agencies provide for implementation.
It’s not just cattle that are at risk for wolf attacks though, Wambolt added.
“You know, I have goats, chickens, turkeys, horses, all that stuff, and it’s the smaller animals you have to worry about,” he said. “Kids are gonna start getting their 4-H goats and all that, too, so a lot of people could be impacted, even people that, you know, could be pro-wolf.”
This article was originally published by a coloradosun.com . Read the Original article here. .