As introduced wolves head east, outrage and excitement escalate   

Sneak Peek of the Week

The wildlife world is lighting up as wolves kill cattle, one prepares to have pups and two are found dead

For a while there, news from the wolf reintroduction front seemed pretty quiet.

The 10 wolves reintroduced to Colorado in December seemed to be sorting things out, getting acquainted with their new environs. Ranchers weren’t reporting any lost livestock. And then in a flurry over the past three weeks, wolves in circles where people care about them were getting as much coverage as Taylor Swift’s rainy new album “The Tortured Poets Department.”

First there was the female wolf dragged into a bar in Wyoming on Feb. 29 and photographed next to its alleged captor, Cody Roberts, who was smiling and holding a frosty one. That sparked demand for steeper penalties and reform when people found out Roberts’ act is punishable in Wyoming by only a $250 citation for illegal possession of live wildlife. Animal rights activists are calling on authorities to slap Roberts with felony charges. We’ll see what happens.

Then between April 2 and 16 in Grand and Jackson counties, wolves seemed to have finally discovered cattle when four wolves killed six cows and injured a seventh, prompting ranchers to demand Colorado Parks and Wildlife kill the wolves and give them a definition of chronic depredation so they can defend their livestock.

Over several days this week, the wolf-curious watched and waited as the ranchers lobbed more and more letters to the agency demanding action. No one knew if CPW would answer their demands, because in January CPW director Jeff Davis told lawmakers “our goal is to review all states that have wolves and what they put into their chronic depredation definition and figure out criteria.” But late Tuesday evening, Davis sent his longest missive on the wolf situation to date and it contained a whopper. Not only would CPW not define chronic depredation yet, but it would not destroy one of the wolves killing cattle because it’s the mate of a wolf officials suspect is denning in Grand County about to have pups.

News of two confirmed dead wolves in Colorado came next. One was a collared member of the Oregon pack introduced in December. The other’s DNA placed it with a pack from the Great Lakes in Minnesota. The Colorado wolf died of natural causes, but the Great Lakes wolf had been caught in a leghold trap an unnamed rancher had set to catch depredating coyotes.

You might be saying it’s about time this Colorado wolf story is getting legs.

But ranchers and wolf advocates see it differently. Mark Hackleman, vice president of the North Park Stockgrowers Association, said his group is “certainly disappointed in CPW’s decision to not seek removal of depredating wolves” but that Davis’ letter was “the most anyone had heard on the subject of wolves since the draft management plan was released in 2020.” His group is also “certainly glad Davis took the time to expand on the state’s position on the management aspects,” he said.

On the possible pups, he said, “Well, isn’t that exciting?” before adding, “Obviously, it was going to happen. We’ve already hatched a litter in North Park.”

Meanwhile, WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit wildlife advocacy group, applauded Davis’ decision to “let these wolves live” and celebrated the announcement that the wolves are denning “and hopefully going to have pups.”

CPW released its latest wolf gray wolf activity map Wednesday, which shows wolf activity spreading farther east across the state. For more on this developing story keep your eyes tuned to The Colorado Sun.

Breaking Trail

What’s one way to get kids interested in the outdoors? Pay them.

The Roaring Fork Valley with its pristine rivers, mountain bike trails, prayer flags fluttering atop Highland Bowl and the Maroon Bells scraping cumulonimbus clouds, may not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of kids needing to be paid to interact with nature.

But that’s where a Aspen nonprofit has decided kids need cash to learn to backpack, rock climb and mountain bike, plus communicate with a boss, fill out tax paperwork and perform CPR, skills that connect them with nature and prepare them for a life that includes stewardship of a planet in dire need of it.

The Aspen Community Foundation’s Youth In Nature program, led by Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers, is putting $1,500 in the hands of high school students from Aspen to Parachute if they’ll dedicate one or two days a month for 12 months to this effort.

Ben Sherman, Roaring Fork’s education director, said the paid internship connects students with new people, places and outdoor professionals, and that no previous outdoor experience is required. The students don’t even have to do much more than attend the monthly sessions consisting of things a lot of us would love to try.

If they’re accepted into the competitive program that offers slots to 10 or so kids per year, they get exposure to activities like canyoneering, hiking and hut trips in locations like the Salt River Preserve on the Colorado River, watersports-friendly Rifle Gap and one of the 10th Mountain Division huts, Sherman said, “so they can try on a lot of different outdoor-related hats.”

Why immerse kids in the outdoors when they’re arguably already immersed in the outdoors? Because of the 20,000 children ages birth to 18 living in the Aspen to Parachute region, it is estimated that about 20%-25% are in environments with chronic family stress and adverse experiences. And nature is widely known to de-stress humans.

Why expose them to things like The Farm Collaborative, where they learn about sustainable farming techniques, the Maroon Bells, where they study geology with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, and the Colorado National Monument, where they built a rock staircase in between canyoneering?

Because outdoor skills can lead to a future in the outdoor industry.

Why pay kids to do things that sound like so much fun?

“We want to show these students that we value their time not only by providing a great environment and really exciting and interesting opportunities, but by offering a little bit of financial incentives to students who might otherwise not be able to commit because they have to work,” Sherman said.

It’s not much money, but Aspen’s paradigm shift could get more kids interested in stewarding the outdoors when that stewardship is sorely needed.

The Guide

Triathlete Siri Lindley is fighting for better access to medical trials

Years before she was diagnosed with a rare and especially aggressive form of leukemia, Siri Lindley turned to the triathlon because, after seeing one race, she determined that’s what she needed to feel alive.

Before you call that crazy — which is perfectly acceptable, because now, 30 years later, Lindley does, too — consider that sports had always been there for Lindley. Sports were the only way she knew how to prove to herself she was worthy and that she could do great things on her own.

Lindley said she was desperate “to find a love for myself and a respect for myself.”

Sport kept her alive through her Great Depression, she says, and now she needed it again. She also needed a medical trial put together by doctors from UCHealth, an unusual treatment that they hoped would give Lindley more than a 10% chance at life.

Today she lobbies in Washington, D.C., with UCHealth to improve access to medical trials because she knows how lucky she was to receive the treatment. Many aren’t, especially if they are poor or live in rural communities and can’t travel. They hope to change that. Not all medical trials work, but this one appears really promising, to the point where the usually ineffective way they treat Lindley’s Leukemia may be replaced by the treatment that saved her life.

Read more about Lindley tomorrow in this story by freelancer Dan England.

Wolves couldn’t keep CPW from rescuing young lions

The two yearling lions may have been oblivious to the trouble they were in or how stranded they were on the spillway at Vallecito Dam in La Plata County on April 19, but drowning seems likely had dam manager Mike Canterbury not seen them and initiated a rescue.

When CPW wildlife officer Ty Smith responded, the cats looked out of place, so vulnerable and small inside the massive concrete structure. News reports say Smith wasn’t sure if he’d need to dart the cats to retrieve them, but he wanted to try a different method first. He climbed onto a retaining wall and dangled a rope in front of one of the yearlings. The cat hung on as Smith pulled it to the top off the spillway where it bolted.

The second lion wasn’t as game, so Smith had to nab it with a catchpole and lift it out of the spillway. That one ran off, too, as a video of the entire operation showed. Maybe that’s a little positive PR for an agency that might be feeling the need for it at the moment.

That’s it for this week’s Outsider, curated by Tracy. Check back next Thursday when Jason Blevins saunters in from vacation.

— t

Corrections & Clarifications

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