by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
The Daily Sentinel
In the children’s book, the big bad wolf threatens to “huff and puff and blow your house down.” Colorado’s wolves may still be huffing and puffing but the rest is uncertain. Of the 25 wolves the state introduced between 2023 and 2025, 11 are still valiantly clinging to life in the high country, dodging bullets, cars and electric fences. It’s a gallant effort to keep moving, keep eating and run an obstacle course among 6 million people.
The 25 wolves were trapped in remote areas of Oregon and British Columbia, forced into tiny cages and loaded onto noisy airplanes for two- to three-hour flights. Imagine the terror for a wild animal, including landing hundreds of miles away, then into loud trucks, hours on rough roads and release in front of cameras, applause and reporters — the scariest of all. They did what any of us would do — ran as fast and far as they could.
Front Range voters who supported wolf reintroduction specified releases on the Western Slope — not in their backyards, obviously. Nobody told the wolves, who migrate vast distances and don’t stay put. The first one to die, in fact, was killed after crossing the Continental Divide into Larimer County. Another crossed the Divide near Leadville, traversed South Park and Pueblo West, and south to Westcliffe before running through the San Luis Valley back to Gunnison.
Today, four wolfpacks are on the Western Slope: in Grand, Routt, Moffat, Eagle, Summit, Pitkin, Gunnison, San Miguel, Montrose, Delta, Mesa, Garfield, Rio Blanco, Ouray, San Juan, Hinsdale, Archuleta, Mineral and La Plata counties. But since 2024 they have also roamed Jackson, Clear Creek, Larimer, Boulder, Douglas, Jefferson, Pueblo, El Paso, Gilpin, Lake, Chaffee, Fremont, Park, Teller, Custer, Alamosa, Rio Grande, Saguache, Costilla and Huerfano counties.
