Colorado Parks and Wildlife will allow ranchers to use artificial light to aid in killing wolves caught in the act of attacking their livestock at night. 

The change follows a 6-4 vote by the Parks and Wildlife commission at its meeting on June 13.

The ruling is significant because wolves generally attack at night, yet ranchers have been unable to shoot them due to a statute that prevents hunters from shooting at an animal after dark and using artificial light. 

Currently, livestock owners are allowed to use night vision technology to conduct hazing that doesn’t harm or kill a wolf. They’re also allowed to kill a wolf they catch it attacking livestock in daylight. The new rules gives them added support after dealing with wolves introduced in December killing 11 cows on ranches in Grand and Jackson counties and another calf in Routt County on June 16.

At the start of the commissioners meeting, Jeff Davis, CPW director, said, “It’s really important, from my perspective, that we, the state, do everything we can to minimize any burdens on the agriculture industry.” 

The ruling “is a psychological win for ranchers who’ve felt they’ve been backed into a corner and attacked with no weapons,” said Grand County commissioner Merrit Linke.

“But it’s very, very unlikely that it will result in a bunch of wolves being killed,” because ranchers are only allowed to shoot them when they’re caught in the act of attacking livestock, he added.  

“In the act of attacking” means the actual “biting, wounding, grasping, or killing of livestock or working dogs,” or “chasing, molesting or harassing by wolves that would indicate to a reasonable person that such biting, wounding, grasping, or killing of livestock is likely to occur at any moment.”

A permit is required to kill a wolf caught in the act, but it can be issued retroactively if an applicant can provide evidence meeting the criteria. 

The idea of letting ranchers use artificial light initially bothered commission chairman Dallas May, who ranches on the Eastern Plains and said he has first hand experience of people using them to kill wildlife illegally. But after learning that scopes and binoculars with artificial light often are equipped with built-in recording devices, he reconsidered, saying they could provide “irrefutable proof” of in-the-act activity and “protect both producers and wolves” because they would show if a rancher shot a wolf while it was attacking livestock or simply running through a herd.

“That’s what I’m afraid of, having wolves beneficial on the landscape that aren’t killing cattle being taken out and having wolves that will kill filling in,” he said. “We don’t want to put anyone in the position of becoming a felon and this provides that burden of proof.”

Marie Haskett, who owns JLM Outfitters in Meeker and represents hunters and outfitters on the commission, said the commission shouldn’t put the burden of purchasing recording devices, which can $5,000 to $10,000, on ranchers.

If CPW doesn’t help them, they could take things into their own hands, she added, referring to a poisoning in Oregon, likely targeting a wolf, that led to golden eagles, dogs and other carnivores being poisoned, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. 

Darlene Kobobel, founder of the Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center, admonished the commission for considering the use of night aids. “Wolves have been reintroduced for less than six months and now we are requesting tools to kill them,” she said. “Cattle have no defenses because they have been bred out of them. Therefore producers need to work harder when you have domestic animals in wild territory where bears, coyotes, lions, wolves and even dogs can be a threat.”

Reid DeWalt, assistant director for the aquatic, terrestrial and natural resources division, said once the existing wolves have established packs, it may no longer be possible to target a specific wolf for lethal removal. Instead, “you’re going to target a pack and members of that pack. I’m not saying we’re going to remove the entire pack but you might not know the offending animal,” he said.

“Wolf management, at least for us for a while, is really all about changing animal behavior,” Davis added. “That’s why we talk about all the non-lethal (methods). We’re really trying to alter the behavior of individual animals or the pack itself.”

The commission approved the use of night aids without requiring recording devices.

The also approved: 

• A 45-day permit for killing chronically depredating wolves
  Chronic depredation includes documented repeated depredation and harassment of the permit applicant’s livestock or working dogs; use of various nonlethal conflict minimization materials and techniques; likelihood that additional and continued wolf-related depredation would continue if lethal control is or is not implemented; and unintentional or intentional use of attractants that may be luring or baiting wolves to the location.
  
• Classifying bison as livestock so bison ranchers can be compensated for wolf kills
  Colorado has more than 50 bison operations that combined raise an estimated 10,000 head of bison, according to the National Bison Association. Compensation requirements will be the same as for livestock. 
  
• Compensation for livestock lost in “pooled herds”
  Livestock owners who pool herds together can now seek compensation for missing calves, yearlings or sheep if a wolf kills any animal within the herd. 

DeWalt also briefed the commission on an “ad hoc working group” CPW has been forming “to build relationships among the agency, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, livestock producers and wolf restoration advocates, not to rewrite the plan but to get further input as we implement the plan,” he said.  

The group includes representatives from the ranching community, wolf restoration advocates, the Colorado Department of Agriculture and CPW. 

A third-party facilitator, the Consensus Building Institute, will help the group “build trust and decrease tensions, address conflict as it arises while implementation continues and explore potential alternatives to address chronic depredation and determine when chronic depredation permits should be given,” DeWalt said. Recommendations will open for public comment. 

“It’s so important, I think, that we take a pause, we take a breath, and we see each other as the people we are and recognize the value of these rural lands to our mission of perpetuating wildlife,” said Davis.