PITKIN COUNTY — Distrust of Colorado Parks and Wildlife's implementation of the wolf recovery plan runs as deep as the Capital and Sopris creek drainages where longtime ranching neighbors Mike Cerveny and Brad Day run around 700 cattle combined.
The two buddies from Wisconsin moved to the stunning Roaring Fork Valley about 30 years ago and have been steadily building their herds on leased ranches, unable to buy their own property due to the high cost of land 20 miles from ritzy Aspen.
They admit there are plenty of challenges ranching among multimillion dollar homes steadily squeezing the ranches they lease.
But the latest challenge is a gut punch that staggered the steady ranchers because it happened so quickly, secretly in conjunction with a nearby private landowner and without communication from the agency that rereleased wolves at their backdoor.
"They never told us what pack we got, just that initially we will have conflicts," Mike Cerveny, a Pitkin County rancher who suffered the first of the eight Copper Creek pack's depredations in Pitkin County this year March 3, told the Coloradoan. "Well, we found out later they dropped off the Copper Creek pack and these wolves have been chewing on, chasing, injuring and killing our calves since the first week of March.
"CPW tries to put a nice little bow on the wolf program, but it's just a bunch of lies and half-truths is all it is."
Copper Creek pack writing another chapter of livestock killing in Pitkin County
Colorado Parks and Wildlife removed the Copper Creek pack's breeding adults and four pups last fall after confirmed repeated depredations, mainly on the Farrell Ranch in Grand County. The agency placed the wolves in a temporary holding facility, at which the adult male died from a gunshot wound it sustained in the wild. Trappers failed to capture a fifth pack pup.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis said previously that rereleasing the remaining five pack members on private land is a decision he made alone and that he "question(s) that decision every day." He added the landowner knew they were getting the Copper Creek pack in Pitkin County.
The rerelease of the pack went against the state's wolf recovery plan that explicitly states known depredating wolves should not be translocated to others areas of the state.
The depredating resulted in the state wildlife agency lethally removing a yearling male from the pack May 29 under its definition of chronic depredation, defined by three confirmed depredations in a 30-day period, to see if it would alter the pack's propensity to kill cattle.
Cerveny and Day said it hasn't.
"The wolves' behavior, like CPW's, hasn't changed," said Cerveny, who has had two direct conversations with Davis.
Cerveny, who leases the Lost Marbles ranch, and Day, who leases the neighboring McCabe Ranch, have suffered seven of the eight confirmed Copper Creek pack wolf depredations in Pitkin County this year, the latest being one of Day's calves found on a public grazing allotment July 18. It was the first wolf kill on public land.
Cerveny and Day said there also have been several unconfirmed wolf kills and that the pack continues to attack their cattle despite the presence of range riders, which is another beef they have with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The Copper Creek pack alone has already likely accounted for more than $400,000 in compensation awards to ranchers, with potential for compensation to match that total after the pack's depredations this year.
"If they have a problem pack, why should they allow one pack to define the whole program," Cerveny said. "Like everything else, wolves are wonderful creatures in their own environment. I just don't want them eating my cattle."
Eric Odell, Colorado Parks and Wildlife wolf conservation program manager, told the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission at its July 17 meeting in Grand Junction there have been challenges but no surprises in how the wolf reintroduction has gone, including wolf-livestock conflicts.
"It is a success," Odell said about the program. "We are working toward success in many different ways, not just from a wolf population side of things but from a producer perspective as well; we hope to aim toward that."
Ranchers say range riders are unprepared for a tough task
Most experts agree range riders have proven to be among the most effective deterrents to prevent wolves coming into conflict with livestock in the West, especially on public grazing allotments, if properly deployed.
A range rider is a person who patrols, usually via vehicle, ATV or on horseback, areas where there are livestock and predators in close proximity in an attempt to prevent conflicts.
Concentrated range riding by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Agriculture have been highly effective in some areas of Colorado while failing in others, ranchers have told the Coloradoan. They said the program is plagued by Colorado Parks and Wildlife not getting the program fully established before this spring's calving season, resulting in a rush to hire and train inexperienced range riders.
The state wildlife agency's range rider budget of $500,000 is funded by sales of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project's "Born to Be Wild" specialty plates that have generated more than $900,000. Many ranches also do their own range riding as part of their normal chores.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced earlier this year it was hiring 12 range riders, a number it never reached and now is down to nine due to riders leaving with no adequate replacements found.
The range rider program was part of the state wildlife agency's amped-up conflict mitigation program this year. That included more than 200 site assessments and nonlethal tools such as fladry and scare devices to give to ranchers to address their concerns and reduce the 29 wolf depredations in 2024 that have cost the state $603,327 in awarded compensation claims, which is more than $253,000 over what the state budgeted.
The agency stated in news releases that "range riders are trained personnel with a specialized set of skills" and "bring extensive experience in livestock behavior, land management, and animal husbandry." The agency also stated that each hire is "providing their own truck, trailer, horses, ATV/UTV, and necessary gear for on-range patrols."
But Day and Cerveny said that's not been their experience.
"What they are putting out versus what is happening are two completely different things," Day said about the range rider program. "We're being lied to and they are lying to the public."
Day and Cerveny pointed out range riders are brought in from other parts of the state with little knowledge of the area, which severely limits their ability. They said an exception is a local range rider contracted by Colorado Parks and Wildlife who has been effective monitoring the wolves, mostly at the rider's own discretion, Cerveny said.
Cerveny said a 23-year-old range rider hired by Colorado Parks and Wildlife showed up for work on their ranches without an ATV, horse or thermal imaging to use when night patrolling. They lent the rider an ATV, which Cerveny said the rider got stuck three consecutive nights and they had to pull the person out.
He said the one contracted part-time range rider who regularly rides their ranches lent thermal imaging device to the rider.
"They can do whatever announcements they want and talk about this stuff at meetings but it's just a bunch of lies and the public needs to know that," Cerveny said. "The range riders aren't here to keep the wolves off our cattle, they are here to just find the dead ones."
The range rider experiences Day and Cerveny have had are not isolated incidences, according to other ranchers.
Tom Harrington, a Pitkin County rancher who had the other Copper Creek depredation this year, previously told the Coloradoan the range rider deployed to his area after a May 23 confirmed depredation was dispatched "completely blind" without essential information such as his contact information, a map or specifics about the ranch, resulting in the range rider never riding close to his cattle.
Southern Jackson County rancher Adam VanValkenburg told the Coloradoan a range rider showed up at his ranch this spring without a horse and never showed up again.
'They haven't rode my place for probably a month-plus for sure and the den is on my property.'
Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Luke Perkins, in addressing Coloradoan questions concerning range riders currently deployed in the Pitkin County area, stated the agency has two range riders in Area 8, which includes Pitkin County and parts of other counties, along with a Colorado Department of Agriculture rider in the area.
Perkins said there is an "emphasis on areas of concentrated wolf activity associated with denning and pup rearing" and that one range rider is specifically assigned to the area around Snowmass, where the McCabe and Lost Marbles ranches are located.
"They haven't rode my place for probably a month-plus for sure and the den is on my property," Cerveny said. "You see what I'm saying about the lies?"
Cerveny said three range riders from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Agriculture converged on the ranches after they suffered a series of depredations by the Copper Creek pack over the Memorial Day weekend.
He said the agency's concerted effort along with the ranches supplying riders was effective and mostly continued through mid-June, when a thermal imaging video taken by a range rider on the ranches showed wolves harassing and attempting to attack their cattle was shared widely on social media.
But in early July, government range riders left for the Fourth of July holiday weekend and never returned, save for one local rider who is tasked with riding their ranches and their expansive public grazing allotments, Cerveny and Day said.
Day said that while range riders were enjoying the holiday, the wolves continued causing conflict running his cattle to exhaustion and injuring several calves. Day believes one of those calves was the one found dead at the base of an aspen tree July 17. The necropsy indicated the calf suffered a bite wound that abscessed and was severely infected.
A wildlife agency investigation confirmed the calf died from a wound inflicted by a wolf or wolves from the Copper Creek pack.
"It's just frustrating," Day said.
Cerveny said he and Day aren't about fighting the vote by citizens to reintroduce wolves, adding, "People have this idea that these wolves are living their best life in a remote place never to bug anybody, but they're around people all the time," including in neighbors' yards.
Cerveny said with all the issues involving the Copper Creek pack, what hurts the most is Colorado Parks and Wildlife rereleasing the known depredating pack on private land without notice.
"You don't spend your life thinking about how people are hurting you; you just try and figure out how you can manage it, navigate it," Cerveny said. "It brings into question the viability of this when you're dealing with this all the time."
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado ranchers say wolf plan based on 'lies and half-truths'
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