The emotions surrounding Colorado’s ongoing wolf reintroduction hit new highs last week as state officials worked to bring another 15 wolves from British Columbia to the Western Slope. Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Saturday that the operation was successful, capping off a nine-day period that was cloaked in secrecy and punctuated by rumors and threats. State officials say the tight-lipped nature of the operation was necessary because of the threats they’d received from members of the public. At the same time, some of the rumors and threats that took root during the operation resulted from the lack of information being provided to the general public by state officials.
“CPW has a responsibility to balance the safety of staff and the animals with the level and timing of information provided during this complex wildlife operation,” CPW explained in a press release Saturday. “Unfortunately, staff safety was threatened as CPW offices were watched and threatening social media posts and phone calls were received.”
In that same press release, officials said the 15 wolves released as phase two of the state’s ongoing wolf reintroduction were released in batches of five on Jan. 12, 14, and 16. (The Jan. 12 date coincided with the 30th anniversary of wolves being reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park, CPW points out.) All 15 of the wolves were released in Eagle and Pitkin Counties, with the exception of one wolf that reportedly died during the capture operation. State officials also re-released five members of the Copper Creek Pack (a breeding female and four pups), which had been relocated from Grand County after repeated depredations on livestock there.
The re-release of the Copper Creek wolves in particular highlights the anxieties being felt over gray wolves, and the erosion of trust between the public (particularly the ranching community) and the state officials tasked with implementing the controversial reintroduction program. State officials said during the lead-up to the most recent release that livestock depredations should be less of a concern with this next batch of wolves, which came from an area in BC without any livestock present. But if last week serves as any indication, the temperature around wolf releases is still extremely high on Colorado’s Western Slope.
‘Heavily Threatened’
In a Joint Senate and House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Jan. 15, CPW deputy director told legislators that CPW staff members had received threats related to the ongoing wolf reintroduction, according to Steamboat Radio. Dewalt said a number of those threats had come from a certain social media group, but he did not share specifics, according to the Rocky Mountain Voice.
“We have been pretty heavily threatened during this operation, which is sad to say,” Dewalt said. “We’ve been followed during the operation. We have people staking out our offices. There have been threats of violence on social media and through phone calls. We’re taking this very seriously. And it’s just unfortunate that that is occurring out there. I don’t think any CPW staff member should be threatened with violence because they’re doing their job.”
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Later in that meeting, DeWalt told Sen. Marc Catlin that the latest batch of wolves had already arrived in Colorado, saying “Yes, wolves have arrived in Colorado and could be in your neighborhood soon.”
This subtle announcement was “a big deal” according to Sen. Catlin, as well as for the other Coloradans who’ve complained about the lack of transparency from CPW around the latest phase of wolf reintroduction. By the time it was made, however, many residents of Western Colorado already knew (or, at least, were willing to bet) that the wolves from B.C. were already on the landscape. In the absence of official updates, those residents were seeking updates wherever they could find them. Many were tracking planes they believed were carrying wolves and spying on CPW staff, while some claimed to know exactly where the wolves were dropped. This led to several unverified rumors and at least one rancher getting caught in the middle.
Filling the Information Vacuum
On Jan. 14, that rancher, who lives in Pitkin County, confronted a group of alleged wolf poachers that drove up to their residence, according to the Aspen Times. The group reportedly arrived at the property after a false news report that the ranch owners had allowed Colorado Parks and Wildlife to release wolves there. (Protocol surrounding the voter-mandated wolf reintroduction require CPW to release wolves on either state-owned ground or on private property where landowners have given explicit permission.)
The false news report that led the group to Lost Marbles Ranch was published the morning of Jan. 14 in Colorado Politics and then retracted Thursday. The reporter admitted the error after being contacted by the ranch owner, according to a social media post shared earlier that week. But by that point, it was too late. The group arrived on the Pitkin County ranch Tuesday afternoon wearing camouflage and carrying guns, the Times reports.
The main source of this information was social media. Members of one Facebook group, Colorado Wolf Tracker, many of whom are ranchers or sympathetic to ranchers, have said they’ve had no choice but to share info due to the lack of updates being provided by CPW.
By Jan. 12, just two days after CPW started its operation in Canada, there were already rumors swirling — both in the local news and on the Colorado Wolf Tracker page — that a plane carrying wolves from B.C. had landed at the Eagle County airport, and that those wolves would soon be unloaded somewhere in Garfield, Eagle, or Pitkin County (the same counties mentioned in CPW’s Jan. 10 announcement).
Those rumors were well-founded, at least in hindsight. And although they had little effect on the outcome of the operation, they ultimately raised the emotional stakes around wolves in Colorado.
“It takes one to light a wildfire,” the ranch owner, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Times of the misinformation that led to Tuesday’s incident.
Eroded Trust
CPW’s initial announcement that the relocation operation was underway followed a critical Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting that was held two days earlier, when commissioners denied a citizen petition to delay wolf reintroduction. The petition was rooted in legitimate concerns held by the ranchers in Western Colorado who voted against wolf reintroduction but have nevertheless had to pay the price of living with wolves. Their concerns have only intensified during the first year of wolf reintroduction as wolf depredation claims on livestock became a costly reality.
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The way CPW handled some of those depredating wolves only led to more complaints from ranchers, and it sowed further distrust between the livestock community and the state agency that has been tasked with the controversial reintroduction program. Agency officials recognized this and have said they plan to be more transparent during this phase of reintroduction than they were during the first phase, which took place in Summit and Grand Counties last winter.
But as last week’s operation was conducted, CPW provided no public updates on the ongoing wolf release to ranchers, reporters, or the public at large. In an emailed response to a set of questions that Outdoor Life sent CPW Friday, a spokesperson gave the same answers that other media outlets received.
“Due to the complexity of the operation, and to ensure the safety of our staff and the animals, CPW will not be sharing wolf release details while the operation is underway,” the spokesperson explained in the emailed statement. “We will issue a press release once the operation is complete.”
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