Wolf advocates want to make it harder to legally kill reintroduced wolves and ensure ranchers first exhaust a detailed list of nonlethal hazing methods.
It’s the latest in a debate between animal protection groups and hunters that is coming to a head this spring in various venues.
The Center for Biological Diversity says Colorado Parks and Wildlife regulations don’t do enough to protect animals. Hunting groups want the status quo. The fight has already played out at the Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting last week when the center introduced a petition to ban the sale of commercial fur in Colorado. They’re also backing a bill to ban the killing of beavers on Colorado public lands.
The center said nonlethal coexistence measures involve “proven tools that protect rural livelihoods and support predictable wolf behavior,” but that CPW’s current rules aren’t clear enough about what reasonable conflict minimization measures are.
They want tighter rules around the use of things like flags hung on fences to scare predators, flashing lights, livestock guardian dogs and range riders, as well proof these have been used — and the removal of dead animal carcasses away from herds — before CPW will issue a permit to kill a wolf confirmed to have killed livestock.
The petition would also require written, evidence-based determinations before lethal control begins. It would require evidence from wolf kills be independent from compensation claims. And it would establish consistent standards for all lethal control operations, whether taken by the state or federal agency or an individual livestock operator that receives approval from the state.
It comes as the number of surviving translocated wolves brought to Colorado since December 2023 has dropped from 25 to 13, after a series of deaths, including that of a male gray wolf during a capture operation in which CPW biologists were trying to fit it with a new tracking collar.
The other wolves died in conflicts with other predators; when they were killed after wandering into and preying on livestock in Wyoming; from blunt force trauma when hit by a vehicle; from complications related to entrapment in a snare set legally for coyotes and by lethal removal after one wolf preyed on livestock in Pitkin County.
As of early 2026, at least 26 wolves tied to relocation efforts are on the ground, including the surviving 13 reintroduced from Oregon and British Columbia, four known pups born to the Copper Creek pack in 2024, and at least six born to the One Ear pack and three to the King Mountain pack last year. One other pack has formed but a CPW spokesperson said an updated pup count won’t be available until the 2025-26 Colorado Gray Wolf Annual Report is released this summer.
Prior to the capture-operation death, CPW spokesperson Luke Perkins said the wolf deaths were not “unexpectedly high.”
But Colorado’s wolf population is vulnerable after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stopped CPW from bringing 15 wolves it had planned to capture in British Columbia into the state in January.
A gray wolf pup born to the King Mountain Pack in Routt County was photographed on June 22, 2025, by a Colorado Parks and Wildlife trail camera near the pack’s den. Biologists believe all four of the packs that include wolves moved from Oregon and British Columbia have pups. (Colorado Parks and Wildlife photo)Claims for compensation when wolves kill livestock are also high: At its meeting Thursday, the Parks and Wildlife Commission approved more than $700,000 in compensation to six ranchers who reported losses in 2025. The agency is reviewing additional 2025 claims that could push the compensation total above $1 million. When Colorado voters approved wolf reintroduction they did so with the stipulation that producers be compensated fairly for the carnivores’ impacts.
The Center for Biological Diversity’s petition says changes it seeks will increase consistency and transparency when dealing with chronic depredation determinations.
It would also reduce the time a chronic depredation permit is valid from 45 to 30 days.
Alli Henderson, the Center for Biological Diversity’s southern Rockies director, said “Colorado can protect livestock and uphold science-based wolf management at the same time. This petition is about clarity, fairness and prevention, and making sure lethal control is truly a last resort.”
But Tim Ritschard, a Grand County rancher and president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, said producers are already doing everything they can to prevent conflict, and nonlethal methods “have a shelf life” so “what is the agency going to do when they stop working?”
Compensation “just shows what’s really working on the ground and the true cost of wolves coming back,” he added.
And the petition seems like a politically driven “attack to try and remove livestock off of public lands or remove agriculture in general,” he said.
On Wednesday amid controversy, the Parks and Wildlife Commission voted 6-4 to advance a petition from the center that could ban the commercial sale of up to 17 furbearing animals in Colorado. Up next: CPW staff will draft potential regulations for the commission to review and eventually adopt, typically in a two-step process, at a future meeting.
“The vote on March 4 initiated the rulemaking process, which means staff will bring back potential regulatory language for the Commission’s consideration,” CPW spokesperson Travis Duncan said. “The commission may or may not approve of these changes. Initiating rulemaking does not mean that a citizen petition will be approved (or not).”
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