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Colorado’s next wolves from British Columbia are on the way to Colorado. Some reports suggest that the first of the transplants may already be in the state. 

that the operations to capture and bring up to 15 more wolves from Canada started on Friday and would last up to two weeks. 

The next day, reports surfaced that a plane carrying wolves leaving Prince George, British Columbia, landed at the Eagle County Regional Airport in Gypsum. 

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Parks and Wildlife would neither confirm nor deny that the next wolves to be reintroduced are already in Colorado nor that the flight had anything to do with wolf restoration. 

“Due to the complexity of the operation, and to ensure the safety of our staff and the animals, CPW will not be sharing wolf release details while the operation is underway,” said Bridget O’Rourke, the agency’s statewide public information officer, in a statement.

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Reports of the possible arrival of wolves surfaced Sunday on the Colorado Wolf Tracker Facebook page, which had been tracking possible wolf flights during the past week. The plane that landed in Eagle County on Sunday afternoon was identified as a plane from LightHawk Conservation Flying’s fleet. LightHawk is a Grand Junction-based nonprofit that during Parks and Wildlife’s last wolf translocation efforts in December 2023. According to a , the plane flew directly from British Columbia to Gypsum.

The tracker showed the plane returning to Prince George from the Eagle County airport on Monday around 3:30 p.m.

Witnesses on the ground, including Randy Wambolt and Steamboat Radio, reported that the plane landed and drove into a hangar or private area. Shortly after, Parks and Wildlife trucks were reported to have driven into the airport and left sometime later. One truck was pulling a trailer and two others had large crates in their bed — similar to the ones used to transport wolves during the 2023 releases. 

According to those on-site, the trucks left the area and headed west on Interstate 70. 

What do capture and relocation efforts look like for Colorado’s wolves?  

In its Saturday news release, Parks and Wildlife stated that once captured in British Columbia, the wolves would be examined and treated for any detected diseases and infections on the site of their capture. From there, the wolves are to be collared and transported via crates to Colorado on an aircraft. 

The release reports that “wolves will be released at select sites in Colorado as soon as possible once they arrive in the state to minimize stress on the animals.”

All 10 wolves brought from Oregon in 2023 were released in Colorado the day after their capture. This operation included three separate flights of nine wolves, with the final wolf transported via car. The full operation lasted five days, running from the first capture on Dec. 17 to the final release on Dec. 22.  

Ahead of the releases, Parks and Wildlife identified that it was considering potential release sites in  Eagle, and counties for these next 15 wolves. It held community meetings in each of these counties in December and January to discuss what these releases could mean.

Per its and state statute, these releases can only take place on state or private land west of the Continental Divide. There are two release zones — northern and southern — that leave 60-mile buffers from other state borders and tribal lands within the state. Release sites are evaluated based on habitat suitability — including populations of prey like elk — as well as risk for human and livestock conflict.   

The plan also states that the agency will not relocate any wolves with major injuries — such as broken canines, fractured or missing limbs, mange or lice infections and more — nor from “currently chronically depredating pack(s).”

The latter will not be a concern with the wolves coming from British Columbia, according to Parks and Wildlife.   

The province has an estimated 5,300 to 11,600 gray wolves. According to the agency, these wolves have no overlap with areas where livestock are present.

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“There are no concerns about reintroducing wolves that are from packs that are involved in situations of repeated livestock depredations,” it stated. 

While the plan requires this to reduce the risk of livestock depredations, two of the wolves released from Oregon in 2023 were reportedly from depredating packs. 

The operation is expected to continue for up to two weeks as Parks and Wildlife seeks up to 15 wolves. Following the conclusion, the agency is expected to release information including the sex, weight and approximate age of the wolves released. 

In addition to these new wolves, Parks and Wildlife is expected to release the five wolves from the Copper Creek pack, which has been held in captivity since September. This includes the female mother wolf and four pups, who are around nine months old. 

Creating a sustainable population of wolves

The 2025 releases represent the agency’s next step toward building a sustainable population of gray wolves as mandated by voters in 2020. The agency will continue releasing 10 to 15 wolves annually for three to five years.  

The wolves from British Columbia and the Copper Creek wolves in captivity will join the nine wolves Parks and Wildlife is monitoring in Colorado. This number includes one wolf pup from the Copper Creek pack that has remained in the wild, the six surviving reintroduced wolves on the landscape, and two that came to the state naturally. 

Parks and Wildlife’s announcement that it had started the British Columbia operation came two days after its commission denied a citizen petition to pause the reintroduction effort. The petition — signed by 26 agriculture and livestock organizations — asked the agency to wait on releasing more wolves until additional programs were funded and implemented to minimize conflict between the wild carnivores and livestock. 

However, the commissioners ruled that the agency’s recent work to expand its conflict minimization programs — including rolling out a range rider program with the Colorado Department of Agriculture, hiring additional specialized staff and defining chronic depredation — rendered the petition unnecessary. Further, the agency claims that having more wolves will help it to more effectively manage wolves and reduce conflict risk.

“Adding wolves from British Columbia to the existing population in Colorado will increase the likelihood of pairing, breeding and pack formation,” states the agency in its recent release. “Established wolf packs defend territories, which will allow (Parks and Wildlife) to monitor patterns within a territory and will improve the agency’s ability to collaborate with producers on active behavior and coexistence strategies to best protect livestock.”

Following the petition’s denial and announcement that the British Columbia effort was underway, Western Slope lawmakers released a statement on Saturday. House Speaker Julie McCluskie, Sens. Dylan Roberts and Marc Catlin, and Reps. Elizabeth Velasco and Meghan Lukens signed the statement.

In it, the lawmakers reiterate the challenges and disappointments of reintroduction thus far, stating that they will continue to amplify ranchers’ voices as the effort persists. 

“We hope that this next round of releases and the impacts it will bring over the following calving and production season will go better than it did last year,” the statement reads. “Should problems arise or commitments fail to be honored, we are prepared to exercise our power as a co-equal branch of government to do everything we can to protect our constituents, amplify valid concerns, and ensure that coexistence is equitable.”