A training led by the Colorado Department of Agriculture is scheduled Dec. 8 in Lewis-Arriola to provide education and resources for preventing wolf attacks on livestock.
The event, from 5-7 p.m. at the Lewis-Arriola Community Center, comes amid ongoing debate over wolf reintroduction, particularly in rural Western Slope communities such as Montezuma County.
The event will include an update on Colorado’s wolf reintroduction program and offer resources to prevent or reduce wolf-livestock conflicts, according to a flyer.
After the narrow approval of Proposition 114 in November 2020, Colorado Parks and Wildlife began reintroducing gray wolves in December 2023, starting with 10 wolves from Oregon.
Since then, the state has encountered challenges. Ten of 25 wolves released in Colorado have died, killed by vehicles, predators or shootings, both legal and illegal.
Wolf depredation of livestock remains a key concern for opponents of the program.
The agency says the issue is “addressed on a case-by-case basis using a combination of appropriate management tools, including education, nonlethal conflict minimization techniques, damage payments and lethal take of wolves if determined necessary by (CPW).”
The Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners passed a resolution in March 2021 titled “Making Montezuma County A Sanctuary From Wolf Reintroduction.”
When the topic came up during a BOCC meeting in August, commissioners voiced their disapproval of the reintroduction program.
“If I was CPW, I'd find better things to do,” said Commissioner Kent Lindsay. “Let's put it that way. That's my opinion, sorry.”
During an interview in early November, Montezuma County Young Republicans leader Delta Suckla referred to the measure as an example of Colorado’s rural-urban divide.
“They’re not dropping wolves in downtown Denver. They’re dropping them here on the Western Slope – right in some of our communities.”
“They don’t live this day-to-day life of actually seeing how this is affecting farmers and ranchers,” she said, describing urban and often Front Range Coloradans who voted to pass the ballot measure.
A flyer for the Dec. 8 event lists the following topics to be addressed:
- Wolf Update: new wolves and past experiences from 2025.
- Investigation and necropsy.
- Site assessments.
- Potential funding sources compensation program.
- Carcass management.
- Range riding: lessons from the 2025 season and looking forward.
- Non-lethal tools: what’s available in Montezuma County’
- Livestock protection dogs: new contacts and options for 2026.
- Drone use and ongoing research.
CPW and Colorado State University Extension are also listed as organizers for the event.
Those interested can register for the event at the link provided here.
