New map shows where Colorado’s wolves have been
The map was unveiled during a legislative hearing where lawmakers drilled down on CPW over wolf reintroduction
Colorado Parks and Wildlife/Courtesy photo
Collared wolves set loose in Grand and Summit counties as part of voter-approved reintroduction efforts in Colorado have traveled into Jackson, Routt and Eagle counties, according to a new map released Wednesday by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The map, posted on the agency’s website, uses Colorado watershed boundaries to indicate where wolves have been detected. It will be updated on the fourth Wednesday of every month.
The 10 wolves, which were captured in Oregon and released in December, have tracking collars that record their position once every four hours.
The map only shows what watershed boundaries wolves have entered, not exact locations. For instance, even though one watershed where wolves were spotted includes an area south of Interstate 70, CPW officials say the predators have not gone south of the interstate. CPW officials said the exact locations won’t be included to protect the wolves.
The information was released during a hearing at the state Capitol where legislators had an opportunity to ask leaders of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, along with the overall state Department of Natural Resources, questions about their work over the past year.
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Many of the questions focused on wolf reintroduction and the frustrations of Western Slope residents over the lack of information and notification they’ve received from the agency.
Sen. Dylan Roberts, a Frisco Democrat, drilled down on the officials with questions on the discrepancies between how CPW said it would go about the reintroduction and what actually happened. He first asked about CPW officials’ promise in September to not bring in wolves that had a history of killing livestock. Two of the wolves brought to Colorado were from a pack that had done so.
CPW Director Jeff Davis responded that he only meant they wouldn’t capture wolves who were chronically depredating livestock.
Roberts also asked why local officials and ranchers weren’t notified of the releases in their area despite Davis saying in a September hearing that he hoped they would be.
“So is it fair to say that the testimony you gave on Sept. 12 didn’t accurately reflect what actually happened on Dec. 18 as far as notification?” Roberts asked.
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“I would characterize it that that part of the testimony you just stated didn’t but there are other parts of that testimony that did accurately reflect,” Davis responded.
Roberts went on to say he felt trust had been eroded with the people in his community over wolf reintroduction and that he had heard from people who don’t want to work with CPW officers in the future.
Dan Gibbs, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, acknowledged they’ve heard similar reports.
“We recognize we have a lot of work to do with stakeholders to repair relationships,” he said.
Ranchers have voiced concerns that wolves will damage their way of life by attacking their livestock. Since the releases, no livestock has been killed by the wolves, Gibbs said.
Reid DeWalt, CPW assistant director for aquatic, terrestrial and natural resources, spoke about the map in response to a question from Rep. Meghan Lukens, a Steamboat Springs Democrat who represents much of the northwest corner of the state. Lukens asked if it was possible for the agency to notify ranchers when wolves were nearby by using the tracking collars.
DeWalt responded that the collars don’t provide a live feed of the wolves location and that the wolves eventual offspring won’t be wearing collars.
“So I think that needs to be the expectation going forward as to what the public should expect,” he said.
Lawmakers were expected to ask more questions about future wolf releases in the remainder of the hearing.
