December 23, 2023 – CPW: Colorado Parks and Wildlife successfully completes gray wolf capture work in Oregon
Today, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) experts completed capture work in Oregon, finishing their work in the state. As a result of the CPW team’s work in Oregon, the agency released a total of 10 gray wolves onto state-owned public land in Summit and Grand counties, continuing the agency’s efforts to create a permanent, self-sustaining gray wolf population in Colorado. This total completes the agreement with Oregon for the December 2023 – March 2024 capture season to provide up to 10 wolves to Colorado. No further releases are planned this calendar year.
CPW will continue working to source additional animals until up to 15 wolves have been reintroduced in Colorado by mid-March 2024.
Ultimately, CPW plans to recover and maintain a viable, self-sustaining wolf population in Colorado while balancing the need to manage interactions between wolves, people and livestock.
“We are grateful to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for working with our agency in providing these 10 wolves,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis. “We have now completed our work in Oregon by capturing those gray wolves per our agreement with ODFW. We will continue our plan to release animals for the next few seasons in order to ensure that wolves don’t just survive but thrive in Colorado as they did a century ago.”
Resources for the agricultural community
Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff will conserve and manage wolves in concert with the rest of our state’s native wildlife. That will involve active management to address conflicts between wolves, people, livestock, and other wildlife species.
When wolf-livestock depredations occur, CPW will work closely with ranchers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to recommend approved hazing methods. Some methods include, but are not limited to: carcass management, physical barriers (i.e., fencing and electrified fencing), guard animals, auditory and visual scare tactics (i.e., fladry, lights, sirens), and increased human presence/vigilance.
CPW and the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in November 2023 outlining how the agencies will collaborate to manage the reintroduction of gray wolves and work to prevent wildlife and livestock conflicts. The MOU will help the agencies to coordinate in support of Colorado’s livestock and landowner communities in advancing non-lethal predator management and help prevent wildlife and livestock conflict.
CPW personnel have received wolf-livestock depredation field identification/investigation training from Wyoming Game and Fish. CPW personnel are also skilled in identifying/investigating livestock depredations caused by other depredating species.
Wolf Resource Guide
A Wolf Resource Guide has been developed that is available online and in printed format to be distributed to ranchers in Colorado who are experiencing wolf depredations.
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