Colorado knows where and when it’ll release wolves next — just not where the animals will come from
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has spent $1.6 million in the last year on reintroduction efforts
Jerry Neal/Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Colorado Parks and Wildlife will look to continue adding to its gray wolf population this winter as it prepares to release between 30 to 50 wolves over the next three to five years.
The reintroduction goal, outlined by the state law, will require the agency to release between 10 to 15 each year.
While the agency doesn’t yet have a source for the wolves it plans to release this winter, Reid Dewalt, deputy director of policy for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, announced the agency will again be releasing the animals in the northern part of the state at its commissioner meeting on Friday, Aug. 23.
“We really need to supplement the wolves we put out and then look for opportunities just to move through that zone,” Dewalt said.
Colorado now has 11 adult wolves alive in the state, Dewalt reported. After a mountain lion killed one of Colorado’s 10 reintroduced wolves this spring, the total number includes the nine remaining wolves as well as two wolves that naturally entered the state before reintroduction efforts began in December.
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The number does not include the three, 4-month-old wolf pups that were confirmed this week by the agency after a video surfaced. The three pups are part of the Copper Creek Pack in Grand County this week. The pack is the first and only confirmed pairing of the reintroduced wolves.
“We know, obviously, that there’s three, but there could be more,” Dewalt said. “We’re continuing to work in that area to determine the total numbers of pups.”
Colorado’s first 10 wolves came from Oregon, and state officials were expecting to receive 15 additional wolves from The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington this year. However, in June, the Washington tribe announced it would no longer provide the state with the wolves citing public objection in Colorado to the wolves.
As of Friday, while the agency has not found a new source, Dewalt said it was confident it would find them and stay on schedule.
“We continue to work with other locations that have wolves to secure a population of wolves for an upcoming release this winter,” Dewalt said. “We have a level of confidence that a new source will be found soon and that we will continue to proceed with the legally directed process with releases this winter.”
Last year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spent $1.6 million on gray wolves as it continues reintroduction efforts for the animal after Colorado voters passed Proposition 114 in 2020. The figure reflects the wolves’ last biological year, spanning from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024.
This is according to a financial report made by Justin Rutter, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s chief financial officer, at the Thursday meeting.
The figure includes “environmental assessment costs, public outreach and the actual implementation of the program,” and falls below the $2.1 million appropriated by Colorado’s General Assembly for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, Rutter reported.
Travis Duncan, the agency’s statewide public information officer, stated in an email that the gray wolf appropriation for the 2023-2024 year has continued at $2.1 million.
The agency is also expected to receive around $600,000 in revenue from the “Born To Be Wild” wolf license plate created by the reintroduction bill.
Dewalt said this will be “an important fund” for deterrence and “less-than-lethal measures for producers,” at the commission’s Friday, Aug. 23, meeting.
As the state reviews its first biological year of wolves, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is expecting to release its first annual legislative report in the coming days.
