Wolf-livestock conflict minimization workshops with Colorado agriculture and wildlife agencies

2024/12/13 | Colorado: Eagle County

Wolf-livestock conflict minimization workshops with Colorado agriculture and wildlife agencies

By Matt Barnes

I attended the wolf-livestock conflict minimization workshop in Gypsum, one of several hosted by agriculture and wildlife agencies in western Colorado this fall. The agencies have been busy building out conflict minimization programs, which collectively might be the most robust program of any western state with wolves.

I served on the Stakeholder Advisory Group, in which ranchers, outfitters, hunters, and wildlife restorationists developed consensus recommendations for the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan, during 2021-2022. One of the group’s most important recommendations was the one that a subcommittee developed on conflict minimization: the work that agencies and ranchers can do, preferably proactively, to prevent or minimize conflicts, as part of the broader work of conflict reduction or coexistence.

During the Commission hearings on the draft wolf plan, in the winter and spring of 2023, I argued that while the plan was designed to work for all sides, its main weakness was insufficient detail on conflict minimization. That has now been more than rectified with the hiring of 13 human-wildlife conflict specialists (10 at CPW and 3 at CDA), a well developed program with publications and training for ranchers, site assessments, a stockpile of equipment, and a Colorado range rider program. That's more than any other western state has provided. Most range rider programs in other states were actually led by ranchers and NGOs, not states (the exceptions are Washington and Arizona). I was involved in a few of the range rider projects in the Northern Rockies, and am familiar with several more. In my experience, the ones that are most successful are those where range riders in the classic sense—cowboys—don’t just ride and observe, but actually manage herds proactively using good grazing management and stockmanship.

The Colorado range rider program will be led by the Colorado Department of Agriculture, working with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, as Dustin Shiflett from CDA explained at the workshop. Adam Baca of CPW said that there have been four range rider projects in Colorado so far: two that never had any depredations, one where depredations stopped entirely, and one where there were several depredations before and one after the rider started, probably due to the situation and the learning curve.

Lauren Emerick from USDA Wildlife Services talked about the livestock guardian dog program, and about the emerging use of drones to observe, and in some cases disrupt, wolf-livestock interactions. Veronica Yovovich, CSU Extension specialist, talked about ways that CSU is supporting agencies and ranchers, including the Center for Human-Carnivore Coexistence, and the Wolf Conflict Reduction Fund.

Colorado also has the Born to be Wild license plate, which is now on over 12,000 vehicles, and has raised over $600,000 for conflict minimization. That's unprecedented: no other state has anything comparable. The plate was developed by the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, but the funds go to CPW—and eventually to ranchers and rural communities.

Colorado is now better prepared than any other western state was at the time that wolves returned, and that’s the story that mostly isn’t being covered in the media, which has been, overall, overwhelmingly negative.

Perspectives on wolves, one year after the first releases | Denver7

Colette, Stephanie, and Jordan from Colorado’s ABC affiliate Denver7 interviewed Dustin Shifflett and me at the workshop, for their special piece on wolves on the one-year anniversary of the first releases on December 18. They also interviewed wolf biologist Brenna Cassidy at CPW, and rancher Doug Bruchez in Grand County. I spoke about how what is seen as a clash between people is really a clash between underlying worldviews and visions for the future of the West; and how we can have ranching, hunting, and carnivore restoration, and there will always be conflicts—some preventable, some inevitable—and the ultimate success of the program will depend on how well we all deal with those conflicts.

That includes impact-based management as described in the wolf plan, conflict minimization as discussed in the workshop, and the long-term, boots-on-the-ground work to prevent and respond to conflicts at the ranch and community level. It won’t always be easy, but we are going to have ranching, hunting, and wolves.