Wolves raising concerns
By Rob Gebhart
Moffat County Commissioner Les Hampton and Moffat County Land Use Board member Jean Stetson have applied to be on a wolf management planning committee.
Hampton said the county approached the state Department of Natural Resources about having representation on the committee in the summer of 2003, when it became evident that wolves would likely migrate to Moffat County from Wyoming. Hampton said former DNR Director Russell George promised the county a seat at the table.
Hampton said his biggest concern was the killing of livestock, but he thought wolves might be able to help control overpopulated elk herds.
“We need to find a balance, a mechanism for dealing with itinerant wolves,” Hampton said.
Stetson, too, said the plan would be a “process of balancing.” She said she wants to see regulations set up that would provide ranchers with the ability to protect their livestock. She voiced concern that urban Colorado residents would want to support wolves in Colorado.
Her concern seems to be supported by the large number of environmentalists that applied for the planning committee.
“From my understanding, urban areas are very much in support of wolves, but they’re not the ones having to deal with it,” Stetson said. “You can sit in Boulder and say this sounds hunky-dory, but on the ground we’re the ones having to deal with this.”
March 31 was the closing date for nominations for the wolf management planning committee. Gary Skiba, a Colorado Division of Wildlife official working on the wolf management plan, said he received 30 nominations from environmental groups, 12 from livestock interests, three from local government and four from wildlife biologists. The committee has a limited number of seats for each interest.
Moffat County resident Jim Redmond has encountered many wolf haters. Redmond owns wolf crossbreeds. In 1987, Redmond helped fight a Senate bill that sought to prohibit wolf crossbreeds in Colorado, a ban practiced by 11 other states. At the first Senate subcommittee meeting Redmond attended, he encountered many Coloradans who held the view that the only good wolf is a dead one.
Now, as the DOW gears up to develop a plan to manage the imminent arrival of wolves in this state, Redmond said he sees many of the same viewpoints at play.
“As far as the wolf is concerned, we’re treading on their territory,” Redmond said. “They were here first. Nature has a plan but we’re always screwing it up. But people think anything with the big W is a threat to livestock, mankind and the world, and we need to eradicate them.”
Wolves that were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park have migrated south through Wyoming and the DOW has confirmed wolf sightings as close as Baggs, Wyo. Wolves can travel up to 60 miles a day, so they could arrive in Colorado at any time, Skiba said.
Wolves living north of Interstate 70 in Colorado are listed as threatened on the endangered species list. But once Wyoming completes and receives approval for a wolf management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will likely de-list the Northern wolf, Skiba said. Mexican wolves, which live south of I-70, would remain protected by the Endangered Species Act.
Redmond said he worries that once wolves are de-listed here, it will be open season on the species, as well as dogs that resemble wolves, such as malamutes and huskies.
To keep his own dogs around the house and keep predators out, Redmond has strung a 7,500-watt electric fence around his property. After the dogs get stung once, they stay away from the fence, he said.
Wolves behave the same way, Redmond said. They won’t mess with fences, preferring easier targets, he added.
Redmond said he doesn’t believe wolves will impact livestock or big game as strongly as many people expect they will. He said packs of feral dogs would kill more sheep and calves than wolves would.