Colorado agrees to 2 wolf compensation claims that will nearly bust its budget

Yahoo

05-03-2025

DENVER — The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission unanimously approved the largest wolf compensation claim in state history Wednesday, awarding nearly $290,000 to a Grand County rancher.
The 11-member commission approved more than $340,000 in compensation claims at its meeting Wednesday in Denver: $287,407 to Farrell Livestock and $56,008 to Bruchez and Sons. Both ranch in Grand County.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which conducted the compensation claim process with the ranchers, recommended the commission approve the claims.
Conway Farrell told the Coloradoan after the claim was approved that he was relieved but said the compensation doesn't make it whole.
"We could get a half million dollars out of this deal and it wouldn't touch the losses we actually had to sustain our operation," said Farrell, who attended the meeting. "We need the money to stay in business. This is money we usually would have had last fall to go through another year of ranching."
Farrell said ranchers are working with the state wildlife agency to refine the compensation process. Last year was the first year the state's current wolf recovery compensation program was in place.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis said the agency is working with Colorado State University to standardize livestock data that it will share with ranchers to "work out the bugs" from the first phase of the claims process.
"This (wolf restoration) is new," Davis told commissioners. "Everyone feels a lot of anxiety, fear, anger around the wolf restoration effort. We feel that, too, internally. We are working through it together."
Commissioners said they heard from the public a request for a transparency regarding wolf compensation, especially regarding the Farrell claim.
Travis Black, Colorado Parks and Wildlife's Northwest Regional manager, worked with Grand County ranchers to rectify their claims.
Black broke down Farrell's approximate compensation approved at Wednesday's meeting this way:
$178,000 for reduced weight on 1,470 head of calves compared to three years previous to 2024
$90,000 for a nearly 3% conception rate reduction compared to three years previous to 2024
$15,000 for confirmed wolf depredations of 15 livestock
$3,500 for missing sheep
Wednesday's vote to approve the more than $340,000 in wolf compensation claims will nearly consume the state's $350,000 budget for wolf compensation to ranchers in 2024.
And there remain other outstanding compensation claims. It was noted at Wednesday's meeting there is another claim of approximately $112,000 for missing cattle from the Farrell Ranch. Another Grand County rancher has a $100,000 claim, as previously reported by the Coloradoan.
Those claims are expected to be heard by the commission at meetings this summer.
A bill created a wolf compensation fund using the state's general fund, species conservation trust fund, Colorado nongame conservation and wildlife restoration cash funds and wildlife cash fund, excluding money egnerated from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.
The Coloradoan sought to ask Davis during a break in Wednesday's meeting if the current wolf compensation program was sustainable. Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson Travis Duncan said any questions would need to be emailed to him and that he would address them with Davis.
Duncan said in an emailed response, which he attributed to himself and not the director, that a number of unique factors contributed to the larger claim approved Wednesday that were not predicted at the time of fiscal estimates, which were based prior to the release of wolves in Colorado and extrapolated from other states.
Duncan added the agency this year expanded and improved its conflict minimization program for Colorado livestock producers, which could impact the number and amount of claims submitted in the future.
The narrow voter passage of Proposition 114 in 2020 required the reintroduction of wolves and that livestock producers be compensated for their losses due to the predator.
The state wolf recovery plan established the process for how ranchers would be compensated. That included 'fair market value' for livestock injured and killed by wolves up to $15,000 per animal.
It also included ranchers experiencing a confirmed wolf depredation the option of recouping losses, including missing livestock and reduced weight loss and conception rates due to the stress wolves place on livestock.
Davis told commissioners Colorado is to his knowledge the only western state that pays for weight loss and conception rates reductions due to the presence of wolves.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff and commissioners noted they had received many public comments questioning the legitimacy of the state's wolf compensation program, some believing compensation to be too favorable to ranchers.
Dallas May, commission chair who ranches in southeast Colorado, said despite the criticism of the compensation plan that he believed Farrell's claim could have been higher. He said that is due to Farrell's cattle being specially bred for high altitude. He added there is a likelihood of a cow not bearing a calf failing in future years to calf again.
"I know there's been a lot of criticism, but I think people have to understand what this does to an operation," he said at the meeting. "I can tell you that one event upon a ranch affects the entire ranch. It has a huge impact on those people affected."
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado pays rancher record wolf compensation claim amount