My dad swears he saw one in Colorodo on the way to Brekinridge. I didnt think there wolves in CO.
Please let me know.
Thanks,
W.

Older article'

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=83292

I saw Wolf tracks in the La Platas early 80's

They want them in RMNP. So I would bet you a six-pack they are there. A few years back, two had been sighted near Baggs Wy. Then three different wolves in the same area. That isn't to far, considering how far they had already traveled.

If your dad thinks it was a wolf and states such i give him credit. Most likely it was. Several years ago my wife and i thought we saw a wolf around midnite during a bright winter nite area people thought we might be lifting the elbow to much. Then a guy i worked with was getting ready to retire to central Wisconsin and was walking his toy dog near his new home his dog came running back to him howling,as he looked up he swears he saw a mt lion looking at them in the middle of the sand road. Everyone thought he was a nut case.DNR says we are nut cases.Time goes by a hunter kills wolf in Oshkosh area,also someonetook a picture of a wolf in a city park.Then in Suring area near Greenbay wolfs attack a group of horses in the farm yard.I guess vets had their hands full.The stud if news was right fought and needed the most work.A group of friends rent land for 09 deer seasons and talk me into going appox 40 miles from Oshkosh show me all these pictures of fine deer.After first day talking to another hunter i asked where are all these deer? The reply was the DNR etc set up traps to catch a mt lion thats in the area, a couple farms up the road.So i give your dad credit for speaking up.

There was a wolf hit by a car and killed on Hwy 40 near Craig a few years ago. Considering that there are wolves in Wyoming and that Clorado and Wyoming share a common boorder, it doesn't take much of an imagination to believe that there is nothing stopping them from wandering south.

As the packs increase their range, the younger wolves will strike off to form new packs. As long as there is prey to eat and adequate habitat, then they'll eventually filter into new areas. If they are not established yet, they soon will be.

Old age showing this morning. Disreagrd

Sorry, duplicte post. Disregard

Sorry, brain dead today. Disregard.

Woodsie
Where abouts on the way to Breck did he see one?
Just out of Divide CO on hwy 24 there is a "Wolf sanctuary" that have heard rumors about them letting some loose.
I have heard of 3 different accounts of wolves in Colorado and all 3 were absolute.
They are here, just not in as big of numbers as states north of us..

My cousin lives west of Canyon City. He has a stable with a few horses. About a year ago, he found a wolf on his property that was after a colt. He scared it off. It did come back a couple of times. It never got the colt.

if i were from colorado and happened upon a wolf there......
you folks have alot more greenies and elk to worry about than we do in wyoming and i can't begin to explain the feeling of watching the wild game disapear at the rate we have lost our moose and elk herds here in the wolf infected areas.
at last count there are 14,000 missing elk in the northern yellowstone region in 14 yrs.
save yourselves cuz the feds and the DOW
in colorado won't help.

So.........whats stopping you from shooting the darn things? The greenies? The Feds? How would they know anyways!

woodrows
who says i've stopped
i'm a terrible shot when it comes to
"super sized coyotes"
keep hitting them in the guts for some reason!

quote:

Originally posted by ravenr:
woodrows
who says i've stopped
i'm a terrible shot when it comes to
"super sized coyotes"
keep hitting them in the guts for some reason!

Myself and some friends were hunting elk in 1995 around lookout mt.You could hear them at night.

Probably!

quote:

MAC - "As the packs increase their range, the younger wolves will strike off to form new packs. As long as there is prey to eat and adequate habitat, then they'll eventually filter into new areas. If they are not established yet, they soon will be.

You've got that right!!

L.W.

In 02 heard them and seen 4 sets of tracks following elk tracks in fresh snow up in mt evans wilderness area.I have friends who said they have seen wolves up there.

SSS

There was a report of a wolf, or more likely a wolf hybrid, that killed a dog this week in the Colorado SPrings area this week.

Absolutely no wolves in Colorado...

You see the wolves get to the southern border of Wyoming and say "Oh, there are only supposed to be wolves in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana we need to turn back".

Similar to an unwanted bear in NJ that was darted by NJ DoW and trucked a mile over the line into PA and released. They had baited him with big pile of left over fruit pastries.

I suspect he woke up and told every bear he came across said "fellas have I got the deal for you...big pile a sweets and then I got to take a nap lets go back that was fun" of course they all said "Sorry, that's in NJ can't go"

So if one lives in a state that is alleged to not have a protected wolf pack what would keep you from supposing the canine to be a feral dog and terminating its existence?

quote:

Originally posted by capoward:
So if one lives in a state that is alleged to not have a protected wolf pack what would keep you from supposing the canine to be a feral dog and terminating its existence?

Just a little thing called the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which considers most wolves in the continental U.S. to be endangered species. So, if you just popped one and got caught, it would not be a pretty day in court. Probably lose your hunting rights for life plus 10 years.

I know MAC, my comment was rhetorical.

I do wonder though what the legal status of a wolf feral-dog cross is, would it be legally considered an endangered wolf or a feral dog and just how much money is it going to cost someone in legal fees to find out which it is.

quote:

spending several weeks in northern Utah before wandering toward Vail, Colo., according to Kevin Bunnell,

Lawmaker: Wolves aren't welcome


A young wolf watches elk hunters pass along a dirt road in Grand Teton National Park on a recent morning near Moran. While wolf numbers have declined two consecutive years inside Yellowstone National Park, their numbers are growing beyond the park's borders. (Jim Laybourn/Star-Tribune correspondent)

SALT LAKE CITY -- Gray wolves are a rare sight in Utah, and a state lawmaker wants to make sure it stays that way.

State Sen. Allen Christensen has proposed a bill that would require state wildlife officials to capture or kill all wild wolves that wander into Utah -- even those in areas where they're protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.

Christensen, a Republican from North Ogden, said he worries that wolves from neighboring states could eventually decimate Utah's elk and deer populations and hurt the livestock industry.

If enacted, the bill is probably unconstitutional, violating the supremacy clause where federal law supersedes state law, according to the state's Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel.

Utah already has a management plan that allows wolves into the state, compensates livestock owners for losses and allows for them to be killed or relocated if they drive down game populations.

Christensen's bill would take state policy further, though, with the hopes of eliminating any chance wolves could get a foothold anywhere in Utah.

Wolves were wiped out of Utah a century ago for good reason, he said.

"Their lifestyle isn't compatible with ours. People say that's a haughty attitude. I'm sorry, we're here to stay," Christensen said.

There are about 1,600 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, most of them descended from 66 animals introduced to the region in the mid-1990s by the federal government. They have been taken off the endangered species list in Montana and Idaho -- which recently allowed public hunts -- and the northeast corner of Utah.

There are currently no known wolf packs in Utah although a few loners occasionally wander into the state. A radio-collared wolf was captured in a coyote trap in north-central Utah in 2002. That prompted state officials to start a lengthy process to develop a management plan for others that might wander in.

The state plan, approved in 2005, focuses on conserving wolves that arrive but dealing with those that cause serious problems with livestock and local game populations.

A mail-in survey of Utah residents before the plan found that most had favorable attitudes toward wolves, especially residents in urban areas.

Few, though, have had any close encounters lately.

One wolf with a GPS collar traveled through the state last winter, spending several weeks in northern Utah before wandering toward Vail, Colo., according to Kevin Bunnell, mammals program coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

"They're capable of these huge movements," he said.

Probable tracks of another were spotted earlier this winter but there's no sign of wolf pairs or packs settling in to stay, Bunnell said.

It's against federal law to kill wolves in areas where they're classified as endangered, including most of Utah. That wouldn't change even if Christensen's bill goes through, said Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"Wolf protection would not be affected at all," he said. "Federal law trumps state law just as state law trumps county law."

But Christensen said he's willing to take his proposal as far as possible, including using it to assert state's rights and fight it out in court.

"It'll take a while to work its way through all the obstacles," Christensen said.

He said he hopes private funding -- including from sportsmen and livestock groups -- could be used to fight any challenge to the law.

Biologists check report of wolf pack in Colo.
Story Discussion
DENVER -- Biologists working with the owners of a western Colorado ranch are trying to determine if wolves have settled there.

Biologists consulting for the High Lonesome Ranch north of DeBeque, about 200 miles west of Denver, said they have seen signs of wolves. They have sent animal droppings for DNA tests to the University of California-Los Angeles.

Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton said Monday that state officials are talking to owners of the High Lonesome Ranch, which offers hunting and fishing excursions, about the reports of wolves.

There have been reports for 10 years of wolves taking up residence in western Colorado, but no evidence, said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Ed Bangs, head of the Northern Rockies wolf restoration program.

Bangs said state and federal wildlife officials recently checked, but couldn't verify, reports of four or five wolves together in western Colorado.

"We take observations at face value," Bangs said. "We've got a system that will figure out for sure" if wolves are in the area.

Trapping and poisoning wiped out wolves in Colorado by the 1930s.

At least two wolves from the Yellowstone National Park area have wandered hundreds of miles into Colorado since 2004. One of the wolves was found dead along Interstate 70 west of Denver. The other, which was radio-collared, died in northwest Colorado last year; federal officials are investigating.

Wendy Keefover-Ring of WildEarth Guardians said environmentalists are "cautiously celebrating" reports of wolves on the ranch.

"It's not that unfeasible for wolves to walk down from Montana or Yellowstone," Keefover-Ring said. "You just need two wolves to breed."

Michael Soule, a founder of the Society for Conservation Biology, said he and other biologists are certain wolves are on the High Lonesome Ranch, which is roughly 1 million acres. He said Cristina Eisenberg, a biologist conducting studies on the ranch, has reported seeing at least one of the animals.

Samples of scat collected on the ranch raise the possibility that there were wolf pups, said Soule, a founder of the Wildlands Network, which advocates conserving large tracts of land to provide wildlife corridors.

WildEarth Guardians and other groups have pushed for restoring wolves to Colorado. They have called for the kind of program that released wolves in Yellowstone and central Idaho in the mid-1990s to restore the predator.

"It's been impossible to get politicians to do anything," Keefover-Ring said.

Environmental groups have advocated releasing wolves in Rocky Mountain National Park in northern Colorado. The National Park Service rejected that plan as a way to reduce the elk herd that is overgrazing the park and instead is using sharpshooters to help cut the number of elk.

Got to hoist the BullShit Flag on this

quote:

High Lonesome Ranch, which is roughly 1 million acres

I don't believe there are any ranches in the entire state that are 1 million acres. The biggest Ranch I've ever heard of is the Forbes-Trinchera and it was a little over 150,000 acres.

I agree, there are none in Wyoming either, maybe close with government leases.

Ranger Wolf: Predators pushed as park stewards
By Matthew Brown
Associated Press Writer
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — With ballooning elk
and deer populations eating up greenery and altering
ecosystems at national parks across the
country, a group of researchers is suggesting an
unusual solution: introduce small packs of gray
wolves to curb the expanding herds.
They acknowledge that it’s a tricky endeavor:
the hungry predators breed prolifically, roam
hundreds of square miles and have a taste for
cows and sheep.
But the researchers have got a solution for
that, too: Neuter the wolves, fence them in, fit
them with shock collars and — just in case —
add a tracking device so they can be hunted and
killed if they get too far afield.
“If there’s lots of food, they’re happy,” said Dan
Licht, National Park Service biologist for the
Northern Plains region. “An intensively managed
dozen, ten (wolves) — we think that is
doable with today’s technology,”
Licht led a team of five researchers who authored
a paper in the February issue of the journal
BioScience proposing to put wolves back atop
the food chain at sites across the country. The
predators would become park “stewards,” responsible
for keeping game numbers down in
areas as small as 15 square miles.
A single pack can go through an elk every
three to four days. But when they wander, it’s
often not long before wolves start getting into
livestock.
From New York’s Adirondack Mountains to
California’s Sierra Nevada, the extermination of
wolves last century allowed big game herds to
balloon — tipping nature’s scales and caused
overgrazing in many parks and protected areas.
For years after wolves were gone, excess elk
from parks including North Dakota’s Theodore
Roosevelt National Park were captured and
shipped out, to establish new herds in Kentucky,
South Dakota and Pennsylvania.
Those shipments have since been restricted
because of worries about spreading animal sicknesses
like chronic wasting disease. In their absence,
Theodore Roosevelt park officials will use
volunteer shooters to help trim its 900 elk herd
by more than half over the next several years.
In Rocky Mountain National Park — where
elk have wiped out aspen and willow groves,
prime habitat for beavers and birds — officials
last year enlisted paid and volunteer shooters to
kill 33 elk. The Park Service rejected proposals to
use wolves for the job.
Gray wolves were wiped out by the 1930s except
in Alaska, Canada and the Western Great
Lakes. They went on the endangered species list
in 1975 and were reintroduced to parts of Yellowstone
National Park and Idaho in the mid-
1990s.
They multiplied exponentially, and now number
an estimated 1,650 animals in Wyoming,
Montana and Idaho.
In Yellowstone, scientists have tracked an
ecosystem rebound since the predator-prey balance
was restored.
But the $30 million Northern Rockies wolf
restoration program also has stirred rancor.
Many ranchers, embittered by frequent wolf attacks
on their livestock, say the government let
wolf numbers get out of control.
Hunters, too, have complained about declining
numbers of big game. Federal biologists say
that is just part of a return to more natural conditions.
But gaining public acceptance for similar, if
smaller-scale, programs at multiple sites across
the country would bring enormous political complications.
“Wolves fix very few problems compared to
the ones they create,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service biologist Ed Bangs, who leads the Northern
Rockies wolf restoration program.
That program has withstood criticism in part
by taking a hard line against wolves attacking
livestock. Since 1995, more than 1,200 wolves
have been shot in the region by government
wildlife agents or ranchers in defending their
property.
Their high numbers have allowed wolves to
thrive despite the government killings. With a
single wolf pack, there would be far less flexibility.
“When you have great densities of people, lots
of agriculture, you’re not going to keep wolves
alive,” Bangs said. “If you’re talking even 100
square miles, or 200 square miles, you’re talking
about a territory that’s too small for even one
wolf pack.”
In Utah, where Idaho wolves haves shown up
on occasion in recent years, one state lawmaker
has said he wants them removed by the federal
government.
In Oregon, another state now home to dispersing
Idaho wolves, state officials have shown
more tolerance and are ready to let up to eight
packs get established.
However, other than the Rocky Mountain National
Park proposal, Licht said he knew of none
under consideration to cart in wolves and task
them with ecological restoration. Give the idea a
few years to germinate, he said.
“It is indeed consistent with Park Service policy,
which to restore native species and natural
processes,” he said. “Right now we’re starting the
dialogue.”

I read on this site of some who imply, if not outright say, that they have killed wolves. But, I wonder how many fellas have killed wolves and just kept quiet about it. That, seems to me would be the smart thing. Of course, not advocating anyone break the law.

As for expanding deer and elk herds, why not modify the game regulations? In affected areas allow increase in the take, extend seasons, provide inducements to landowners to allow access. If culling is needed why not allow hunters to do it? There are other ways to deal with the issue other than introduce wolves into these areas- a dumb idea in light of what has happened elsewhere where they have been reintroduced.

There also seems to be a contradiction here. Generally, it has been asserted that deer herds are in decline in the west- but, it indicates above that populations (at least in some areas)
are expanding and damaging their habitat. Which is it?

The High Lonesome Ranch's website claims it has about 300 square miles (192,000 acres!). Not quite a million acres but still a big piece of land!

Most of the ranchers who I know add "deeded land" and the leased land (state, BLM, etc.) that they run livestock on as their ranch size. I don't know if the High Lonesome is all privately held or is a mixture of public and private. Still, a big property in a lovely location! If they don't have wolves and grizzly bear yet, they will in time. Most wolves and bears realize that they were reintroduced in the lower 48 under the "interstate commerce clause" of the Constitution so they try to comply...

Best,
jpj3

This was in the Denver Post yesterday.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_14385321

Yes I'm sure the Lawyer that owns High Lonesome will be all for the wolves until they figure out where he keeps his 400 head of pet cows and they find its easier to decimate that herd than chase wild deer and elk around!
He should put some sheep out there too in case the wolves get tired of chewing on beef..............