Amid wildfire smoke and rising tensions, a lone, uncollared wolf in northwest Colorado tested every mitigation tool—and my resolve—until CPW confirmed chronic depredation and lethal control was clearly the most responsible recourse.
Howls through the smoke
In late July, I learned of a depredation event in Northwest Colorado by an uncollared wolf. I tracked down the affected producer and was on the ground that very evening, stepping into the night in a landscape bordered by evacuation orders and smoldering fires.
As it turned dark, the wolf’s howl echoed from the ridge line above the sheep. I answered with a short blast from my airhorn, but the wolf continued to probe the band. The livestock protection dogs did not answer back, a first in my twenty-plus years of wolf conflict mitigation.
“Between choking wildfire smoke and nonstop wolf activity, we were stretched to the breaking point — sleepless, exhausted, and trying to protect a band of sheep in conditions hard to understand from behind a desk.”
Every Tool, Every Night
For four nights the lone uncollared wolf continued its pursuit of the sheep band. I escalated my response: from air horn, to Foxlights and sound generator, voice war whoops and even a double barrel shotgun blast. All the while, the fires intensified.The fifth night the wolf only howled twice from a long distance. On the sixth, silence.
The next day I began to sweep the sheep bedding areas. A few days later, I made a grim discovery: a week-old ewe carcass. CPW investigators confirmed the ewe had been killed by a wolf, his third confirmed kill in two weeks, marking him as a chronic depredator. This designation qualifies the wolf for lethal control.
When Crises Collide
It’s now a month later, and no further depredations have been reported in the area. But there’s more to the story: CPW’s ability to act was critically constrained—not by policy, but by wildfire activity. Two fast-moving blazes in Rio Blanco County kept officers from safely conducting removal operations. The agency prioritized staff and community safety, as the ranchers, CPW and I continued around-the-clock nonlethal hazing.
For me, the experience has reinforced my commitment to the Western Landowners Alliance’s Four Cs—Compensation, Conflict Prevention, Control, and Collaboration. Working together with CPW, the ranchers and I have done everything possible to prevent depredation: to drive this wolf away from livestock and retrain it to look for natural prey. For one of the few times in my career I am in favor of lethal control for a wolf.
These tangled crises—wildfire and wolf—illustrate the complex, compounding challenges faced by livestock producers in the West. Imagine enduring sleepless nights, deploying every tool in the mitigation toolkit, all while the horizon burns and your safety margins narrow. Hard times call for difficult decisions.
Gary Andrews
Thank you for your excellent article highlighting the challenges. I learned a lot. And thank you for your service!