As frustration grows, Colorado rancher gets high-tech weapon to protect cattle from wolves

Jackson County rancher Don Gittleson has tried numerous nonlethal means to deter the North Park wolfpack's breeding male that keeps hanging around his ranch and killing his cattle.

But now he's ready to bring out the big gun.

Gittleson has tried range riders, but the wolves attacked his cattle unbeknownst to the wolf advocates watching his herd at night from vehicles in his pasture.

He's tried burros, longhorn cattle, fladry, fox lights and even hung bells around cows' necks with varying degrees of short-term success.

Gittleson is now turning to a $6,000 thermal, night-vision, recording scope he mounted on his .30/06 rifle to shoot the wolf at night if he catches it in the act of attacking his cattle.

The only problem, Gittleson said, is while the wolf continues to check out his ranch north of Walden — even as recently as Tuesday, he said — he’s been waiting for more than a month for Colorado to decide if he can use the scope.

“Not getting an answer to if I can shoot the wolf at night is like Colorado now having to see how other states define chronic depredation," said Gittleson, who has had seven cattle confirmed killed or injured by the North Park pack, with all of those depredations involving the breeding male, No. 2101. “You would think in the three years they’ve been planning for wolf reintroduction, they would have answers to these kinds of questions."

He said Colorado Parks and Wildlife told him to not shoot a wolf using the scope until after the state attorney general’s office can determine the legality of shooting a wolf at night, which is when all of the North Park pack kills have taken place.

He said he first used the scope as a monocular, watching over his cattle herd near his ranch house at night. He said the scope has a range of 2,000 yards or more. The thermal imaging allows him to detect wolves, coyotes and cattle that stray from the rest of the herd.

Catching a wolf in the act of attacking livestock is extremely rare. Given the chance, Gittleson said he would shoot the wolf, but first he needs to make sure he knows how to operate the recording device that would serve as critical evidence during an investigation.

"I absolutely would shoot it because I want to put a stop to what's been happening up here," he said. "Given the governor's and first gentlemen's opinions about ranchers, I know I will be investigated. I want to have all the evidence I can if I have to do it."

Hunting at night with artificial light is allowed for a handful of wildlife, including coyotes and bobcats, but not all wildlife in Colorado. It is illegal to hunt wolves, which are an endangered species.

Under the state’s 10(j) rule, you can kill wolves to protect human life, if wolves are caught in the act of attacking your livestock and if the state deems them to be chronic depredators.

Problem is, Colorado’s wolf recovery plan doesn’t define “chronic depredation," an issue Gittleson brought up repeatedly in public hearings during the state wolf recovery planning process to no avail.

“I’m a stupid rancher and even I knew several years ago how other states defined chronic depredation, but CPW is just trying to figure that out now?" Gittleson said.

The North Park pack has confirmed depredations of 20 livestock, including 14 cattle, three working cattle dogs and three lambs at six different Jackson County ranches over the past two years. The wolves also killed a rancher's pet dog. Those depredations slowed after three or four of the original pack were legally shot just across the border in Wyoming in October 2022.

The most recent confirmed depredations by the pack were:

• The killing of three lambs in November 2023 by the grown black offspring of No. 2101.

• No. 2101 badly injuring one of Gittleson’s calves Dec. 13, just days after the 10(j) rule was implemented.

Gittleson said he would prefer Colorado Parks and Wildlife remove the wolf and its grown offspring, the only two known members of the North Park pack left. He requested the state wildlife agency to do just that in December, but that request was denied.

In a letter, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis said the agency denied the request after looking at the entire history of livestock depredations in the area as well as most recent depredations in November and December 2023 and that the number and frequency events dropped in 2023.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife has paid around $40,000 to ranchers for livestock depredation to wolves. Those include four depredations in fiscal year 2021-22 and eight in fiscal year 2022-23. There have been two depredations in fiscal year 2023-24, according to the state wildlife agency.

Legislators request North Park wolves be removed

Colorado Parks and Wildlife's denial prompted sharp criticism from Democratic Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie and Democratic Sen. Dylan Roberts, whose districts include Jackson, Grand and Summit counties. Their letter, dated Monday, Jan. 22, included copies sent to Dan Gibbs, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the state wildlife agency, and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.

The letter requested Davis "take swift action to remove the depredating wolves" and for Colorado Parks and Wildlife to "immediately publish a draft rule for the definition of chronically depredating" or provide a reason a definition can't be determined.

“We write to express our frustration and disappointment with the recent Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) decision denying the request of Mr. Don Gittleson and his neighbors to remove the depredating wolves in North Park," they said in the letter. "Further, we are confused by CPW’s refusal to assist livestock producers across the state by clearly and publicly defining the term 'chronically depredating.' "

The Coloradoan sent an email to Colorado Parks and Wildlife on Thursday asking for a response by Davis regarding the legislators’ letter. The agency responded that Davis will provide a written response to McCluskie and Roberts addressing concerns mentioned in their letter as well as additional questions and information from Wednesday's Joint Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources and House Agriculture, Water & Natural Resources Committee.

Gloves come off as legislators rip state wildlife leadership over issues involving recent wolf releases

Members of that legislative committee grilled Davis, Gibbs and Reid DeWalt, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s assistant director after the state's recent wolf releases during Wednesday's hearing.

Topics included widespread complaints of Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s lack of transparency and communication, including the state wildlife agency’s failure to notify Grand County officials and ranchers near the initial releases; failure to define chronic depredation in its plan; and that half of the 10 released wolves were from packs with a documented recent history of depredation in Oregon.

The harshest criticism during the highly contentious hearing came from Republican Rep. Michael Holtorf, a rancher who represents Eastern Plains counties and sits on the Agriculture, Water and Natural Resources Committee.

He characterized the wolf release as a "dismal failure" to ranchers, commissioners and communities where the wolves were released.

“It will be near impossible for you to win that trust of Colorado ranchers,'' Holtorf said. "Our memories are very long. The wolf is an apex predator that wants to kill, and cattle and calves are easy targets."

He characterized the wolf release like “putting a child predator in a grade school and expecting a different outcome. This is what’s happening to the ranching community."

Roberts said ranchers in his district have lost trust in Colorado Parks and Wildlife and said they will shut their gates to the agency.

Gibbs responded that that has already been the case.

"That's accurate in terms of landowners that were willing to work with us on conservation efforts that are now telling our staff, 'Hey, I really don't want to work with you anymore,' " he said. "That's painful because the majority of our wildlife live on private lands even though we have a lot of public land on the West Slope. We recognize we have a lot of work to do to work with stakeholders to repair relationships."

Davis said he has already met with and will continue to meet with ranching organizations to rebuild that trust.

At Wednesday's hearing, Roberts questioned the accuracy of Davis' and DeWalt's testimony in front of the Water Resource and Ag Review Committee at a Sept. 12 hearing. Roberts quoted Davis at the 2023 hearing as saying, “There are probably enough wolves between the two states (Oregon and Washington) that we will get our hands on wolves that don’t have a history of (depredation)."

Roberts asked Davis if he believed his testimony was accurate

“I do and I’m happy to explain," Davis said. "I think sometimes people forget these are carnivores. There’s a fallacy that if we were to go get wolves from a wilderness that have never seen livestock that they would never depredate on livestock. When I testified in that hearing, it was not necessarily clear to me that we were talking depredation vs. chronic depredation. That’s the piece we were following in our plan and not taking wolves from packs that have a chronic depredation history."

Roberts asked Davis if he could definitely say that Colorado did not release wolves that have a history of chronic depredation.

Davis answered yes.

Roberts then asked DeWalt about the accuracy of his testimony at the same 2023 hearing regarding notification of people in the surrounding area. Roberts quoted DeWalt as saying, “the hope would be that the day of (release) we call them and say we are releasing wolves in this area. So it won’t be, like, a surprise. They will know they are in the area. Those relationships are super valuable to us with those landowners. We are not going to pull a 'gotcha' or surprise on anyone."

Roberts then asked DeWalt if Grand County commissioners and ranchers he referenced in his 2023 testimony were notified that the Dec. 18 release was about to happen.

Regarding county commissioners, DeWalt responded: “To my knowledge; they were notified after the releases.’’

And as to landowners, he responded: “I’m unaware that happened.’’

Roberts then asked DeWalt if it was fair to say the testimony DeWalt gave in 2023 didn’t accurately reflect what actually happened.

"I would characterize it that that part of the testimony you just stated didn’t, but there (are) other parts of the testimony that did accurately reflect the communication," DeWalt responded.

Davis said Colorado Parks and Wildlife decided not to release an additional five wolves from Oregon by mid-March, citing a need for the agency to pause for self-review and to address issues involving its recent releases.

The agency recently announced it secured up to 15 more wolves from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington that will be captured and released into Colorado between December 2024 and March 2025.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado rancher takes high-tech aim at wolves to protect cattle