A cattlemen group on Saturday asked Colorado Parks and Wildlife to issue a “chronic depredation” permit for the Copper Creek wolf pack that has been killing livestock in Pitkin County over the past two months.

The request from The Holy Cross Cattlemen’s Association comes just two days before the CPW commission was expected to discuss what to do about the Copper Creek pack in a special meeting scheduled for Monday.

That meeting lasted for about two hours, in which the commission was updated about the situation with the wolves, but the commissioners made no decisions nor did they note the request from the Holy Cross Cattlemen.

Wildlife staff had killed one of the wolves, identified as #2405, in early June after determining it was responsible for killing livestock on three ranches in Pitkin County over Memorial Day weekend. At that time, the state agency said removing the wolf would change the behavior of the rest of the pack, hoping the other four wolves —the mother and three yearlings — would leave the cattle in the area alone.

That wasn’t the case.

The July 5 letter pointed out the history of the Copper Creek pack, which began with two wolves from Oregon, one of which came from a group had killed livestock.

In April 2024, the pair, released in Grand County, produced a litter of pups. Attacks on livestock by one or both of the mating pair followed. The attacks reached their zenith in July 2024, when 15 confirmed depredations took place on the ranch of Conway Farrell. In one night alone, wolves killed eight of his sheep, and 13 more went missing.

CPW confirmed all of that, the letter said.

Shortly after the July 28 attack, Farrell saw four wolf pups gnawing on the carcasses of the dead sheep.

“This evidence shows the wolf pups learned to depredate on livestock from their parents during this July 28, 2024, depredation,” the letter from the cattlemen said.

Two days before the attack, the state agency rejected a request from the Middle Park Stockgrowers, another group, for a chronic depredation permit.

On Sept. 9, the state agency rounded up the pack and took them to a sanctuary. The male of the mating pair died shortly thereafter, likely from a gunshot wound.

Farrell and another rancher submitted more than $580,000 in claims for the killing of their livestock and the effect of wolves on birth and market rates for their cattle. That’s well above the state’s budget for wolf compensation, which is $350,000 per year.

In December, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association requested that the state wildlife agency keep the pack in its sanctuary and not release them back into the wild.

The group cited the state wolf plan in that request, pointing out that the plan states wolves with a history of confirmed depredations on livestock would not be translocated to another part of the state, “as this is viewed as translocating the problem along with the wolves.”

In late January, CPW released, contrary to cattlemen group’s wishes, the remaining five wolves from the Copper Creek pack in Pitkin County, along with 15 wolves brought to Colorado from British Columbia.

In less than two months, the wolves started killing livestock in Pitkin County.

The pack’s first depredation occurred on March 3, according to the letter.

Between May 17 and May 25, the state confirmed four depredation events.

On May 29, wildlife staff killed wolf #2405, although several other wolves from the Copper Creek pack were seen during the attacks.

Despite Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s claim that removing #2405 would “change” the behavior of the rest of the pack, the latter has continued to kill livestock in Pitkin County. That included cattle killed on June 2, June 3 and June 9.

CPW did not confirm those attacks because there wasn’t enough left of the livestock to make that determination, although the rancher observed both wolf tracks and scat around the area where the livestock were killed.

Wolves continue to attack livestock in Pitkin County, where CPW has hired range riders.

Ranchers Mike and Amanda Cerveny released a video of two wolves circling cattle, attempting to separate a calf from its mother, which is now a nightly occurrence, the letter stated.

“We see no end in sight,” the letter stated. “This depredating pack now has new pups, and if last year taught us anything, it is that these pups will learn to depredate from their veteran pack members. If these problem wolves are not addressed, they will continue to depredate; we will continue to lose more livestock; and CPW will be faced with an increasingly entrenched conflict, as pups learn to depredate on livestock and pack grows over time.”

The letter from Holy Cross Cattlemen’s Association pointed out that, under the commission’s rules, a chronic depredation permit “authorizes the holder to injure or kill a wolf in the permit area, regardless of whether they are in the act of attacking livestock or working dogs.”

That standard requires the permit applicant to show at least one wolf depredation within 30 days of requesting the permit, and that the applicant must utilize conflict minimization techniques before obtaining the permit.

Holy Cross producers have implemented those non-lethal deterrents and removed all “known attractants” (such as carcasses), according to the group. 

“The pack’s failure to change its behavior should not be surprising,” the letter stated. “This situation demands further action — anything less undermines the very framework CPW has established. CPW should either move the entire Copper Creek pack to a sanctuary or provide producers the tools to protect their livestock by issuing this Chronic Depredation Permit.”