CPW staff say targeted removal and expanded nonlethal response followed Pitkin County depredations; commission declines to direct action

Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff told the Parks and Wildlife Commission on July 7 that the agency carried out a targeted lethal removal of a yearling member of the Copper Creek pack on May 29 after four livestock depredations in mid‑ to late May met CPW's chronic‑depredation standard.

Director Jeff Davis told the commission the agency determined chronic depredation had been met after depredation events on May 17, May 23, May 24 and May 25 and that "we were able to gather information ... to satisfy the legal requirements and the factual and evidentiary standards of the administrative directive, make the lethal removal decision, and implement that lethal removal by May 29, just 5 days after the chronic depredation definition was met." He added that the administrative directive calls for a stepwise approach so lethal removal is "targeted to the minimum removals necessary to change the pack behavior."

CPW staff emphasized that lethal removals are constrained by federal and state law; the gray wolf remains federally protected and management flexibility in Colorado flows from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 10(j) experimental‑population rule. Davis warned that repeated, broad use of removal authority could jeopardize those 10(j) flexibilities.

Staff from CPW's Northwest Region, including Deputy Regional Manager Garrett Watson and Area Wildlife Manager Matt Yamashita, told commissioners the pack in Pitkin County had…