There are three new wolf packs in three counties, according to a presentation slated for Thursday’s Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting.

The presentation does not identify how many pups were born in each pack.

The One Ear Pack is located in Jackson County and is likely the result of a pairing of wolves that have been in the area for several years. Rancher Don Gittleson, who has lost livestock to those wolves, said he had not heard from CPW about naming the pack, but believes the female is an Oregon wolf and that the mate may be one of two wolves, one from Oregon or another from Wyoming.

The King Mountain Pack is in Routt County, and the Three Creeks Pack is in Rio Blanco County.

Some of the pups are likely the result of mating between the female of the Copper Creek pack and a British Columbia wolf. The Copper Creek pack is in Pitkin County, having been relocated there by CPW in contravention of the wolf management plan, which states that wolves should not be relocated from one county to another, as it merely moves the problem elsewhere.

That’s precisely what happened with the Copper Creek pack, which began attacking and killing livestock on three ranches over Memorial Day weekend. CPW staff killed one of the yearling wolves on May 29, in hopes that it would change the behavior of the rest of the pack.

Since then, however, ranchers have told the commission that it hasn’t made a difference, that they’re still seeing wolves chasing their livestock.

CPW Director Jeff Davis decided to move the Copper Creek pack to Pitkin County. He reportedly told the Agriculture and Water Resources Review Committee last month that he questions that decision every day.

The presentation ends with what CPW plans to do, moving forward into 2026: working on agreements for sources, and “initiating conversations with local communities.”

The lack of communication between CPW officials and local ranchers and elected officials continues to plague the agency.

Actions to address communication issues with the residents of the counties where wolves are released also didn’t make it into the second annual wolf report, which will be presented to the commission on Thursday.

The report covers the “biological year” from April 1, 2024, to March 31, 2025.

The report acknowledges, for the first time, that CPW was aware that introducing wolves from British Columbia would not necessarily prevent attacks on livestock, despite its earlier claim that those wolves had no history of livestock killing while in Canada.

In a January news release that announced the relocation of the British Columbia wolves, CPW said, “Gray wolves from this area of B.C. do not overlap with areas where livestock are present, so there are no concerns about reintroducing wolves that are from packs that are involved in situations of repeated livestock depredations.”

That’s in contrast to what happened with the Oregon wolves, since several came from packs with a history of livestock depredations.

The wolf management plan states, “No wolf should be translocated that has a known history of chronic depredation, and sourcing from geographic areas with chronic depredation events should not occur.”

In 2023, the year the Oregon wolves were brought to Colorado, the state of Oregon reported more than 100 investigations of livestock depredations by wolves involving the deaths or injuries of 160 cows, calves, sheep and lambs, and dogs.

Three months later, some of the British Columbia wolves, which had been relocated to Pitkin County, started killing livestock.

The report also outlined where CPW had range riders, up until March 31, which included Grand, Garfield and Jackson counties. It did not show any range riders in Pitkin County, despite CPW placing 15 wolves from British Columbia and the five wolves from the Copper Creek pack in that county.

The report also noted CPW, along with the Colorado Department of Agriculture, would have up to 12 range riders available to address predator conflicts in 15 counties: Jackson, Grand, Routt, Eagle, Garfield, Pitkin, Summit, Rio Blanco, and Moffat, with potential future expansions planned for Gunnison, Lake, Delta, Chaffee, Park, and Mesa counties. That’s fewer than one range rider per county, including the Grand, Jackson, and Pitkin counties, where there have been dozens of livestock killed or injured by wolves.

Range riders would work up to 22 days per month throughout the five-month on-range season, from April to October, with some riders starting early to assist producers with calving and/or lambing observations.

The report also showed, by CPW’s estimates, how much they’ve paid out in damage claims: $44,143.08 for dead cattle, working dogs and sheep, and $348,881.53 for lower birth rates and market weights, allowed under the wolf compensation program.

That doesn’t include denied claims or those still pending: the agenda on Thursday shows a recommendation to deny a payment of $100,045.57 to Grand County rancher Conway Farrell, and to deny a payment of $34,829 to the Coberly Creek Ranch in Routt County. CPW’s website shows 12 claims still pending for 2024.

The state’s wolf compensation fund only receives $350,000 per year, so claims in 2024 far outpaced what the agency could pay, and it had to rely on other funding sources to cover those extra costs.

The CPW website acknowledges 12 incidents involving wolves in 2025 through the end of May: six in Pitkin County, resulting in the loss of seven cows and calves; one each in Gunnison and Eagle counties; and two in Jackson County, one of which involved an attack on a dog.