Efforts Launched to Kill Pro-Wolf Law; Sparks Ignite Between Governor and Ranchers
Trevor Phipps
Ever since wolves were first reintroduced to Colorado at the end of 2023, sparks have ignited statewide. Moreover, a huge and divisive rift has grown between Colorado ranchers and state government officials that is getting quite political.
Locally, residents have remained quiet on the issue as the reintroduced wolves, part of a previously approved ballot issue, have only negatively affected regions in Northern Colorado. However, the most recent wolf tracking data shows that some of the wolves are migrating closer and closer to the Ute Pass region. As a result, the controversy regarding these wild animals could come howling away in Teller County
The wolves were first released in undisclosed areas of Summit and Grand County, and at first, they stayed north of Interstate 70. But as more wolf tracking maps get released by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Division (CPW), evidence shows that the wolves are moving south and east from their original locations.
The most recent Collared Gray Wolf Activity Map released by CPW on Dec. 22 shows that the wolves have migrated further south of Interstate 70. At least one of the tracked wolves has now moved south of Eagle and Summit Counties into Lake County.
The watersheds where the wolves have been tracked by collars surround the town of Leadville. Data shows the wolves have moved into watersheds south of Leadville to the border of Chafee County, and east of the town to the border of Park County (Teller County’s neighbor to the west).
The recent data shows that wolves have gotten closer to Buena Vista (located 74 miles west of Woodland Park) and Fairplay (located 64 miles northwest of Woodland Park and 49 miles northwest of Teller County’s western border with Park County). Many fear that it could just be a matter of time before the wolves move into Park and even Teller Counties.
Ranchers Vs. Government Standoff
When the wolf reintroduction process first started, ranchers immediately came out and said that state officials weren’t being transparent with where the wolves would be released and the history of the packs they came from. It was initially discovered that some of the wolves relocated to Colorado from states in the Pacific Northwest had a past of depredating livestock.
Ranchers fought back by denying private property access to state officials conducting research. State officials then launched a campaign to try to increase transparency surrounding the wolves and to create better relations with local ranchers. CPW officials even relocated one wolf pack that was believed to be responsible for multiple livestock depredations.
However, as the controversy stirred, Colorado Governor Jared Polis added fuel to the fire when he blamed ranchers for the exorbitant $5 million the wolf reintroduction project has cost the state. And these costs have an impact, as the state is now facing a major budget deficit, and officials are looking at every cent they spend on certain programs.
“This could have cost a lot less if ranchers wouldn’t have said, ‘Oh, don’t get them from Wyoming, don’t get them from Idaho.’ We probably could have done it for a quarter of the cost there, and there’s still time,” Polis said, according to Ski-Hi News. “Ranchers, I mean, if their organizations — Middle Park and those guys — say to Wyoming, ‘Give Colorado wolves,’ they probably would. The only reason they’re not is they hear from ranchers that they shouldn’t, so that drives up the cost.”
These comments infuriated ranchers, who now maintain Polis is completely out-of-touch with rural, Colorado.
To make matters worse, ranchers from Colorado filed livestock loss claims adding up to around $582,000, which would bankrupt the state’s Wolf Depredation Compensation Fund. For the ’24-’25 fiscal year there was only $350,000 allocated from the state’s general fund to the depredation compensation fund.
Since wolves were first reintroduced in December 2023, the state has confirmed 17 wolf depredation incidents involving livestock as of January 2, 2025. However, many ranchers claim that the depredation numbers are higher after several cattle and sheep have gone missing.
Local Ranchers Launch Battle to Kill Pro-Wolf Law
At the beginning of the year, a group started the process to put a measure on the ballot to repeal the state’s wolf reintroduction process that was narrowly approved by voters in 2020. Proposition 114 passed with just a 50.9 percent vote in favor and a 49.1 percent vote against with four out of the five counties targeted by CPW for wolf releases overwhelmingly voting against it.
Proponents of the ballot measure to repeal the wolf reintroduction law consist of a group called Colorado Advocates for Smart Wolf Policy. Key members include Stan VanderWerf of El Paso County (who actually served as a former county commissioner who has strong ties with the Ute Pass region) Spencer Thomas of Garfield County. The latter area is one of the counties CPW plans to release wolves into in the near future.
“Our heritage and our people are in danger in Colorado today,” the group said in a statement according to Colorado Politics. “Since gray wolves were reintroduced to Colorado in December 2023, taxpayers have paid for the privilege of watching these apex predators tear into our agricultural economy and ecosystem.
The group is now tasked with getting the ballot measure approved before they can start the campaign to collect signatures on a petition to put the issue to a vote. However, since efforts made by ranchers to stall the release of more wolves failed, the state plans to release 15 more wolves from Canada as early as this month.
As a result, more groups of wolves are slated to be released in Colorado before the new anti-wolf measure possibly gets on the ballot during the November 2026 election. It is not certain how these releases will impact Teller County specifically, but the wolf situation will remain a highly disputed topic in the next year.