In the children’s book, the big bad wolf threatens to “huff and puff and blow your house down.” Colorado’s wolves may still be huffing and puffing but the rest is uncertain. Of the 25 wolves the state introduced between 2023 and 2025, 11 are still valiantly clinging to life in the high country, dodging bullets, cars, and electric fences. It’s a gallant effort to keep moving, keep eating, and run an obstacle course among 6 million people.
Ten wolves were trapped in remote areas of Oregon and 15 in British Columbia. They were forced into cages barely large enough to turn around and loaded onto noisy airplanes – Pilatus PC-12s – for the 2-3 hour flights. Imagine the terror that must represent for a wild animal, not to mention landing hundreds of miles away, transfer to loud trucks, the unfamiliar experience of hours on rough roads, then release in front of cameras, applause, and reporters – the scariest of all. They did what any of us would do – they ran as fast and far as they could to get away.
Front Range voters who passed the measure requiring wolf reintroduction had specified that the releases would be on the Western Slope – not in their backyards, obviously. But nobody told the wolves, who naturally migrate vast distances and do not stay put just because some biologist thinks it’s a good spot. The first one to die, in fact, was killed after crossing the Continental Divide into Larimer County. Another crossed the Divide near Leadville, made its way through South Park to Canyon City and Pueblo West, then south near Westcliff before running through the San Luis Valley back to Gunnison.
As of today, four stable wolfpacks are sticking to the Western Slope: in Grand, Routt, Moffat, Eagle, Summit, Pitkin, Gunnison, San Miguel, Montrose, Delta, Mesa, Garfield, Rio Blanco, Ouray, San Juan, Hinsdale, Archuleta, Mineral, and La Plata. But since 2024 they have also roamed Jackson, Clear Creek, Larimer, Boulder, Douglas, Jefferson, Pueblo, El Paso, Gilpin, Lake, Chaffee, Fremont, Park, Teller, Custer, Alamosa, Rio Grande, Saguache, Costilla, and Huerfano.
All that activity requires lots of energy and wolves must eat. They have hunted all manner of wild animals, but Colorado has twice as many head of cattle as British Columbia and a million more than Oregon, and four times more sheep. It’s hard to avoid ranches. The translocated wolves have killed 1 bull, 17 cows, 45 calves, 21 lambs, 33 sheep, 2 steers, and 2 dogs. The cost is enormous. Voters were told the whole project might cost $800,000 annually, but it’s well over $8 million in just three years. The wolves are doing their level best to justify that expense by staying alive, but it has not been easy.
Two have been killed by lions and one by another wolf. But 11 have been shot, two killed by cars, another accidentally by a legal coyote trap, and one still under investigation. Of the wolves that have been shot, all but one were killed by state and federal wildlife officials. Nasty business, especially because it requires 10-15 page reports each time. But Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) agreed in advance to take out wolves that developed a habit of “depredating” on livestock, which was inevitable. The first Colorado Gray Wolf Annual Report, 2023–2024, promised to bring wolves “not from a currently chronically depredating pack,” but the first wolves from Oregon had precisely that habit. That was the first broken promise. The second was that predating wolves would be “lethally removed” if other measures failed.
Years of negotiation produced that agreement with landowners and other stakeholders, adopted unanimously by the CPW Commission. The plan said, “Lethal removal of wolves to resolve wolf-livestock conflict… is viewed by a majority of the Technical Working Group and the Stakeholder Advisory Group [by a vote of 14-1] as being critically important to a successful wolf management program.” It also said repeatedly, “Relocation of depredating wolves has little technical merit.” Yet after one pack had killed 15 cattle and 9 sheep, CPW ignored the agreement and relocated the entire pack to Carbondale, where the killing spree immediately resumed.
Now, because the wolf population is not growing as fast as hoped, CPW has suspended the entire management plan section allowing removal of problem wolves. Stakeholders can only view that as a betrayal of the entire consensus process, without which the management plan could never have been adopted.
Don’t blame the wolves. Cattle and sheep are much less athletic than deer and elk, much easier to catch. What would we expect? In the final analysis, the whole wolf program can only work if it works for the people who live there. Even the CPW Management Plan acknowledged that, with the gift of understatement based on three scientific studies: “Human tolerance toward wolves has long been recognized as an important factor in recovery and persistence of wolf populations.” That tolerance depends on trust, and keeping promises, not huffing and puffing.
Greg Walcher is one of the most recognized and respected national leaders in natural resources policy.
