‘Wolves at Our Doorstep’: Advocates introduce gray-wolf mix, address rancher concerns at Aspen Ideas Festival

As Colorado’s collared wolves continue to make their way deeper into the Western Slope, Professor of Wildlife Ecology at the University of Colorado Boulder Joanna Lambert pointed to previous wolf re-introduction efforts in the United States to bolster Colorado’s re-introduction plan during the Aspen Ideas Festival on Thursday.

“In talking to folks around Yellowstone, you know, those wolves went in 30 years ago … and it was intense, it was vitriolic,” she said. “Now, when you talk to ranchers right outside the park, say up in Paradise Valley, they’re like, ‘Eh, wolves, schmolves. We don’t want them here, and you guys put them in here, but I’ve figured it out.'”

During the “Wolves at Our Doorstep” panel, Lambert, a board member of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, and Mission: Wolf founder Kent Weber argued that wolf re-introduction efforts will address a growing biodiversity extinction crisis. Wolf re-introduction in other areas has helped regulate overpopulated prey and improved fauna growth in those areas, they said. They also argued that pushback to those efforts, largely from ranchers throughout the state, comes from a place of fear or misinformation about wolves.

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A rancher was not on the panel, but when asked how they could ease the concerns of ranch owners who fear re-introduced wolves will kill their livestock, Weber suggested using experiential education, like that of Mission: Wolf, to introduce people to wolves while teaching them about past re-introduction efforts.

Mission: Wolf has a wolf sanctuary for human-raised wolves who can’t survive in the wild. But it also has an “ambassador wolf program” where it introduces wolves from the sanctuary to show the nature of wolves around humans.

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“What I found is that a personal encounter is what changes everything,” Weber said. 

At the panel on Thursday, he introduced Nashira, a 7-year-old gray wolf-German Shepard mix, who sauntered around the audience as Weber and Lambert answered questions from the moderator and the audience.

By introducing wolves to spectators who are able to pet them as they walk by, Lambert argued it takes away the fear of the animal.

“Like all vertebrate species, we are wired for fear; this is a really really basal adaptation,” she said. “It is appropriate in settings to have a fight or flight response of that which we do not know … We had not lived with wolves in Colorado since the ’40s, and through most of the 20th century for the most part, and so in the absence of the habituation to something, in the absence of knowledge of something, what kicks in? It’s fight or flight.”

Gray wolves were deemed eradicated from Colorado in 1940, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. After the narrow passage of a statewide 2020 ballot measure, CPW released five wolves in a remote forest in Grand County in December 2023.

Since then, the wolves have traveled deeper into Eagle and Summit counties and withdrawn slightly from parts of Routt and Grand counties. State officials also confirmed last week the first wolf pup was born from re-introduced wolves in Grand County.

In June, the CPW commission passed new regulations to help ranchers deal with depredating wolves. They include allowing the use of night vision technology that could be used to haze, injure, or kill gray wolves; defining domestic bison as livestock, including hybrids; making pooled ranchers — livestock owners that graze stock together — eligible for compensation claims; and adding working dogs to the list of animals that can be protected if a wolf is actively attacking it. 

There have been nine confirmed wolf attacks on livestock since the state began reintroducing the animals in December, but only one of those cases has resulted in a payout under the state’s compensation fund. Only two claims have been filed by impacted ranchers, according to state records.

The state is required to compensate ranchers for any losses or injuries due to wolf attacks, known as depredations. The compensation is up to $15,000 per head of cattle or working dog, and is only granted when a depredation is proven as wolf-caused.

The state plans to continue releasing wolves on the Western Slope for the next three to five years. Wolf re-introduction efforts will require the transfer of about 30-50 wolves to the state, according to CPW.