Colorado on the hook for $1 million in costs to pay for wolves’ livestock kills – Colorado Politics

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After paying more than $700,000 in March to ranchers for livestock lost to wolves, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission is poised to approve two additional claims totaling $262,000 at its meeting this week.
Those approvals would bring total payouts to about $970,000 with another $56,000 in claims rejected across the March and May meetings.
And that figure only reflects claims requiring commission approval.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) staff can sign off on claims under $20,000, and the state’s wolf‑depredation website shows that, in 2025, the agency received 32 such claims totaling $47, 142.55, ranging from $88.50 to $3,500.
That’s a total of $1.072 million for 2025 alone.
In 2025, CPW received claims totaling $649,765.90 and paid out at least $425,478.61. That brings the total damages for just the first two years after wolves were released in Grand, Pitkin, Eagle and Summit counties to $1.722 million.
The state’s wolf compensation fund is appropriated $350,000 annually. CPW must find other sources to pay those claims — because Proposition 114 required damage claims to be paid for wolf depredations.
To do so, CPW has tapped the state’s Species Conservation Trust Fund, which receives $5 million annually. The agency can also use funds from the Colorado Nongame Conservation and Wildlife Restoration Cash Fund, which is funded by a tax-deductible contribution through state income tax returns and other unidentified sources within Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The nongame fund has generally received less than $200,000 in contributions per year.
Beyond wolf ndepredation payouts that are now nearly five times the state budgeted amount, the program’s total cost is projected to exceed $10 million in its first six years.
Originally, Proposition 114 estimated the program would cost $800,000 per year.
Last July, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife official told the CPW Commission that the Blue Book — the voter guide explaining ballot measures — noted that “actual state spending will depend on the details of the plan” the commission developed and on the cost of compensating ranchers for wolf‑related livestock losses.
Since voters approved the measure in 2020, those additional costs have included funding to establish the range‑rider program, hiring staff for conflict‑minimization work, and conducting “extensive public outreach.”
The 2026–27 budget allocates $2.1 million for the wolf‑restoration program, but a footnote prohibits the wildlife agency from using taxpayer dollars to acquire additional wolves.
The agency has not brought in any more wolves since January 2025, when 15 were brought in from British Columbia. Seven of those 15 wolves have since died, including two that migrated into Wyoming. One was shot by staff from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for killing sheep.
The federal agency has since told Colorado it can no longer bring in any more wolves from British Columbia or elsewhere outside a six-state Western region: Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and eastern Utah.
Five of the six states have refused to allow Colorado any wolves. Oregon allowed Colorado to take 10 wolves in 2023, including several that came from packs with a history of killing livestock. That’s despite the state wolf plan recommending against taking wolves with that kind of history.
Wolves relocated to Colorado began killing livestock in April 2024. The most recent death was a calf in Pitkin County on April 23, 2026.
For the first “biological year” for wolves, between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2025, CPW reported 30 livestock and one dog were killed by wolves. In the second year, CPW reported another 44 livestock were killed, along with a dog.
That doesn’t acknowledge the trauma livestock experience when wolves are in the area, according to ranchers, which has led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in claims tied to lower birth rates and lower market weights.
Last month, the state Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee rejected two of three gubernatorial appointments to the CPW commission, in part because of a lack of experience with the constituents the appointees were intended to represent. The nominees, James Emerick and Christopher Sichko, withdrew their nominations moments before the Senate could vote on them.
Gov. Jared Polis now has five commission appointments he can make before he leaves office next January. They include three commissioners whose appointments expire in June.
However, any appointments made after the end of the 2026 legislative session can be voided and replaced by the next governor, something Polis did with three CPW appointees nominated in 2018 by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper.
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