Posted on 05/29/2025 9:31:37 AM PDT by george76
A series of devastating wolf attacks occurred over Memorial Day weekend at the Lost Marbles Ranch, Crystal River Ranch and McCabe Ranch, leaving two calves dead and others injured. A broad daylight attack at the Lost Marbles Ranch, carried out by three wolves from the notorious Copper Creek pack, took place in the heart of the calving grounds, a large meadow where ranchers actively monitor mothers and newborns during the critical calving season.
The wolves separated a cow and a calf from the main herd, severely injuring the calf.
While many in the public romanticize the idea of seeing a wolf, local ranchers live with the daily reality of fear, stress and loss. Since calving began in early March, emotional strain has continued to mount, taking a profound toll on families.
“It’s hard to describe the heartbreak of finding a calf torn apart in the middle of the field you’ve been tending day and night,” said Mike Cerveny, the rancher whose animals were attacked. “We work around the clock to protect our livestock, only to be blindsided like this and not even told wolves were in the area until it was too late.”
Cerveny also experienced confirmed wolf depredations in March of this year.
In a separate but related incident on Thursday, another calf was killed and a second injured on the Crystal River Ranch, west of Highway 133. While Gov. Jared Polis’s office and state agencies publicly celebrate the implementation of the range rider program, its on-the-ground execution tells a different story.
“CPW (Colorado Parks and Wildlife) dispatched a range rider to the area but failed to provide essential information, including my contact information, specifics about the property or even a map of the terrain,” said Tom Harrington, Crystal River Ranch manager and president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. “I learned about the wolf activity and the range rider’s presence through our local brand inspector a day before I ever heard from wildlife officials.”
When the dead calf was found, CPW staff investigated the scene and verbally confirmed it was a likely wolf depredation.
“We were promised partnership,” Harrington continued. “But it seems that the relationship has gone to the wayside. We’re left trying to figure this out on our own, rancher to rancher, neighbor to neighbor. The governor wants celebratory headlines about his successes, but he couldn’t care less about the actual impacts. He’s made his disfavorable opinion about those of us who choose a rural lifestyle loud and clear.”
Ranchers across western Colorado expressed deep frustration and disappointment with CPW and Colorado Department of Natural Resources leadership. Promises made during listening sessions, including proactive communication, on-the-ground support and the avoidance of relocating problem wolves, have been broken repeatedly.
The Copper Creek pack, responsible for numerous livestock depredations last year before being relocated by CPW, was released in Pitkin County earlier this year.
“These attacks are a clear betrayal of the public trust,” said Erin Spaur, executive director of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. “CPW assured ranchers they would not import known depredating wolves from out of state or move problem wolves from one region to another. Yet here we are. The very pack that wreaked havoc on ranchers last year is now someone else’s problem. Given the history with the Copper Creek Pack, CPW should immediately remove them to comply with the State’s Wolf Plan and the chronic depredation definition.”
Compounding the sense of betrayal is the continued lack of communication. Many ranchers hear about wolf activity not from CPW, but from neighbors. In other regions, requests for non-lethal deterrents are met with a lack of available resources. Local CPW staff who live in these communities and understand the stakes are stretched thin, left to manage the fallout from decisions made far from the Western Slope.
“This isn’t just about one attack or another,” said Brad Day, a neighboring rancher who helped Cerveny in the aftermath of the Memorial Day attack. “This is about a failed process that prioritizes politics over people. In true Gov. Polis fashion, the reintroduction was rushed, communication is broken and producers are the ones paying the price emotionally and financially. He would rather control how CPW field staff do their jobs than actually listen to them.”
Day also experienced a calf depredation this weekend, in addition to attacks on two animals on May 17. Several more are missing. He is the third rancher in close proximity to suffer wolf-related losses in a one-month timeframe.
The broader ranching community is calling for a responsible pause in wolf reintroductions to allow agency programs to be fully implemented, refined, and assessed. After this denning season, the state’s wolf population is expected to approach 40 animals. Following last year’s half-million-dollar depredation claims, ranchers argue that more time is needed to reduce conflict, evaluate current efforts, and learn what works before expanding the reintroduction effort.
As one rancher put it, “We’ve been thrown to the wolves literally and figuratively by leaders who will never have to live with the consequences of their decisions.”
Farmers need water to grow food..
Pacific Gas and Electric Company has finally revealed the staggering price tag for dismantling the century-old hydroelectric facility: $532 million
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4319767/posts
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
and Yemi Mobolade the Nigerian mayor - Colorado Springs pals... update.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4319775/posts
Didn’t Colorado just reintroduce wolves?
Sue the Sierra Club and similar organizations who supported re-introducing the wolves.
Then sue them again
Wait until the de-extincted fire wolves get loose? Or the governments genetically engineered dogmen chimera.
Imported Canadian, not native, huge wolves .. to destroy family farmers and family ranchers
Shoot,shovel,shut-up
The governor and his husband hate the middle class / Kulaks.. They are wasting taxpayers = TABOR refund money = with crazy schemes like a train from Denver to Craig.
NW COLORADO, Rifle is there. Sure the towns people there know how to handle that problem.
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Ship the wolves to Boulder and release them at the university.
A very good case can be made for why wolf introduction is bad for biodiversity.
Don't be. Wolves breed so fast it is nigh on impossible to keep up with hunting. The only thing that really works is poisoned baits.
There is a reason wolves were wiped out over 150 years ago. Only city slicker animal lovers like Roger Caras demanded they be brought back.
Ancient Farmer’s lament modernized.
I raise sheep, the wolves kill them.
When I protect my sheep, I am arrested.
Because a GREAT MAN who is above raising sheep,
Would be in need of wolves.
Yes. = Ship the wolves to Boulder and ..
Of the state’s 64 counties, just 13 (Denver, Boulder ..) voted for Canadian imported wolves on lands west of the Continental Divide..
True = wolf introduction is bad for biodiversity.
Wolf packs not only kill directly / also indirectly thru skinny cows, sheep .. that are not eating, miscarriage their babies.. causing financial strain on the family ranchers.
War on the middle class .. six million kulaks were starved to death, sent to death camps in Siberia... ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
I am speaking of vegetative and insect biodiversity. Without careful management, exotics eventually take over.
S - S - S.
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