By Shannon Lukens.
New wolf depredation incidents are being reported in northern Colorado. First, in Rio Blanco County, just south of Meeker, Colorado Parks and Wildlife has confirmed 18 head of 600-pound calves were attacked and killed by wolves. It happened over two weeks. Fence Post Ag News is reporting it is on the LK Ranch, owned by Lenny and Jackie Klinglesmith. The cattle were up in their summer pasture, when the wolf depredation incidents were discovered.
A second Colorado wolf depredation incident was in the past few days in Jackson County, near Pole Mountain, according to Adam VanValkenburg who is the president of the North Park Stockgrowers Association. One calf died and a second was severely injured.
Video of wolf pack in Jackson County
VanValkenburg and Klinglesmith were recently at a gathering of nearly two dozen Colorado livestock ranchers and educators in Montana, along with Routt County Rancher Jo Stanko and Routt County CSU Extension agent Todd Hagenbuch. They met with Montana ranchers who have been dealing with wolves for 20 years, to learn how best to manage the wolves in Colorado. VanValkenburg says the Montana ranchers say it is lethal management, whether through hunting or if a wolf is attacking or harassing livestock.
“The best answer from what I learned from Montana is that lethal management needs to be an option. It needs to be a tool in the tool box because it replaced the bad wolves with the good wolves. The good wolves had moved in two days after the bad wolves were removed. And the ranchers up there, if they had a good wolf pack that wasn’t killing cattle on the ranch, they left them alone. If they were bad wolves and had a bad wolf pack, they would remove them and a good pack would move in.”
He said Colorado Parks and Wildlife is working on the plan to implement the reintroduction of wolves which was a statewide voter-led initiative that passed in November of 2020. But wolves are already here, as reported in Jackson and Rio Blanco counties. He says the best thing to do now is to move forward since ranchers have to deal with it.
Jo Stanko says one thing that is important right now is to report any wolf sighting, anytime and anywhere, for preventative strategies.
“If you see one, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to stay there. But it’s nice to know where they’re going and what direction they’re going.”
Wolf sightings can be reported on the Colorado Parks & Wildlife website.
Wolves Attack Calves in Rio Blanco and Jackson Counties
Walgreens Corporate office has finally confirmed that the Walgreens in Craig is closing. Employees were told Nov. 16 will be the last day. The statement said they have made the difficult decision to close the Craig location and that factors taken into consideration included the dynamics of the local market and changing buying habits of their local customers. The Walgreens in Steamboat Springs is not affected.
Walgreens Corporate Statement:
“I can confirm the store will close. As we move forward on our strategy to expand Walgreens’ role as a leader in the delivery of healthcare, we are focused on creating the right network of stores in the right locations to best meet the needs of the communities we serve. We have made the difficult decision to close this location. There are a number of factors that we take into consideration including dynamics of the local market and changing buying habits of our customers.”
Fraser Engerman
Senior Director, External Relations
Applications are due today for the Craig Chamber of Commerce board of directors. Five volunteers are needed.
In football heading into the weekend… Moffat County is 5-1 with a crushing win over Coal Ridge. The Steamboat Sailors, Hayden Tigers, and Soroco Rams all lost their games.