Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners voted unanimously Wednesday to approve payments equalling more than $343,000 to two Grand County ranchers for losses attributed to wolves. The decision pushes the limits of the Colorado Wolf Depredation Compensation Fund’s allocated budget.
Now the state will pay Farrell Livestock $287,407, which includes compensation for 15 cows killed by wolves in spring 2024. The payout also accounts for a 3 percent reduction in conception rates and reduced calf weight in the herd (compared to three years before the 2024 figures).
“The request for payment on this is not a bonus to anybody, it’s simply trying to recover some of the costs that have been lost and actually should have been to these producers last fall,” CPW commission chairman Dallas May said in the meeting before the commission voted.
Colorado law requires the state to “pay fair compensation to owners of livestock for any losses of livestock caused by gray wolves,” including lower birthrates and missing cattle.
During the Wednesday meeting, CPW also approved claims from Bruches and Sons totaling $56,008.
Colorado lawmakers allocated $350,000 in 2024 for the Wolf Depredation Compensation Fund, double the amount available the previous year. Since wolves were reintroduced in 2023, Colorado has approved $348,906 in wolf compensation claims, including those approved by the 11-member commission on Wednesday.
Multiple compensation requests remain unresolved. CPW is still negotiating with Farrell Livestock concerning a $112,000 compensation claim for missing livestock. The stockgrower claims those losses could be the result of wolf kills, although carcasses were never recovered. The commission is likely to review those claims during meetings this summer.
“We could get a half million dollars out of this deal and it wouldn’t touch the losses we actually had to sustain our operation,” Conway Farrell, the owner of Farrell Livestock, told the Coloradoan. “We need the money to stay in business. This is money we usually would have had last fall to go through another year of ranching.”
Money from hunting and fishing license fees cannot fund wolf depredation reimbursements. Instead, compensation for stockgrowers comes from the state’s General Fund, the Species Conservation Trust Fund, the Colorado Nongame Conservation and Wildlife Restoration Cash Funds, and other funding sources for non-game species.
CPW released a total of 10 wolves outfitted with GPS collars in Grand County in 2023 as the first phase of the state’s efforts to establish a self-sustaining wolf population.
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In January CPW released another 15 wolves they had captured in British Columbia and relocated to Pitkin and Eagle counties. Officials also re-released five wolves from the first round of reintroduction. The original Copper Creek pack was captured for relocation after a string of livestock deaths.
“Everybody needs to see the true impacts of what happened and what they voted for,” Farrell told 9NEWS. “We need people to see that their vote down here on the Front Range can affect everybody on the mountain.”
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