More wolves welcomed to Colorado

Colorado’s next 15 wolves will be coming to Eagle, Pitkin, and Garfield counties in the next 2 two weeks

There is speculation that some of the wolves are already in the state.

Colorado’s next wolves are from British Columbia. Some reports suggest that the first of the transplants may already be in the state.

Farmers and ranchers are paid for production bringing wolves back to Colorado, but they can seek reimbursement for damages.  

On Saturday, Colorado Parks and Wildlife issued a press release stating that operations to capture and bring up to 15 more wolves from Canada started Friday and would last up to two weeks. 

The next day, reports surfaced that a plane carrying wolves leaving Prince George, British Columbia, landed at the Eagle County Regional Airport in Gypsum. 

Parks and Wildlife would neither confirm nor deny that the next wolves to be reintroduced are already in Colorado nor that the flight had anything to do with wolf restoration. 

“Due to the complexity of the operation, and to ensure the safety of our staff and the animals, (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) will not be sharing wolf release details while the operation is underway,” Bridget O’Rourke, the agency’s statewide public information officer, said in a  statement,

Reports of the possible arrival of wolves surfaced Sunday on the Colorado Wolf Tracker Facebook page, which had been tracking possible wolf flights during the past week. The plane that landed in Eagle County on Sunday afternoon was identified as a plane from LightHawk Conservation Flying’s fleet. LightHawk is a Grand Junction-based nonprofit that flew the transport flights during Parks and Wildlife’s last wolf translocation efforts in December 2023. According to a flight tracker, the plane flew directly from British Columbia to Gypsum.

The tracker showed the plan
In its Saturday announcement, Parks and Wildlife stated that once captured in British Columbia, the wolves would be examined and treated for any detected diseases and infections on their capture site. From there, the wolves are to be collared and transported via crates to Colorado on an aircraft. 

The release reports that “wolves will be released at select sites in Colorado as soon as possible once they arrive to minimize stress on the animals.”

All 10 wolves brought from Oregon in 2023 were released in Colorado the day after their capture. This operation included three separate flights of nine wolves, with the final wolf transported via car. The full operation lasted five days, from the first capture on Dec. 17 to the final release on Dec. 22.  

Ahead of the latest planned releases, Parks and Wildlife identified that it was considering potential release sites in Eagle, Pitkin, and Garfield counties for these next 15 wolves. It held community meetings in each of these counties in December and January to discuss what these releases could mean.

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