Colorado Expands Wolf Range Rider Program to Southwest

Good riders are really supporting a ranch in a holistic way. I like to think of them more as detectives or information gatherers or pattern recognizers. They’re not just helping to reduce conflict, but they’re, they’re providing a net benefit overall.

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The Wolf Restoration program and efforts in Colorado were brought about due to the passage of Proposition one 14, which was a citizen initiated ballot measure that passed in November of 2020. Over the course of the last two years, the winner of 2025 and the early winter of 2023, there’s been 25 wolves released into the state to this point. In addition to the wolves that were brought in by CPW over the last several years, we already had immigrating wolves in the state. And since that time, CPW on that expedited timeline has been working to not only restore the population of gray wolves, but also to meet our other legal requirements, which are the, the reduction of conflict between livestock producers and gray wolves, and also a compensation program that recognizes the losses that they’re incurring when there is damage from gray wolves. It was determined in the fall of 2024 that CPW really wanted to double down on some of the efforts we’d been doing, which were predominantly hard tool deployments, so things like flattery, scare devices, those pieces by also standing up a Range Rider program. So last year, 2025 from May to October was our first range riding season

Range. Riding itself is not a new tool, right? Herders and ranchers have been managing and monitoring landscapes in their livestock for millennia, and that’s really great for us because it means we’re not reinventing a wheel here. We’re collaborating with producers, range riders, herders from all over the west, and learning from their experience and knowledge, and then applying that to our local context here in Colorado. But we really can’t have healthy wolf populations without our livestock producers and our private landowners. And so much can change on allotment in a day in terms of what’s happening interaction wise between livestock and wildlife and agency staff and producers just can’t be with every cow calf pair, for example, 24 7. And so riders are really providing that much needed support that allows us to adapt effectively to changing conditions. And that includes potential wolf conflict.

Last year we had 11 riders hired that were predominantly focused in the northwest area where we had the majority of our wolf activity. Wolves will expand their range over time, in addition to future plan releases of wolves. That might be a possibility. We think it’s very important to start to develop an understanding of the landscape, a connection to the landowners and producers and what they’re doing in the Southwest. And so as we’re going through the RFP this year, we are looking to add additional riders.

This year we’re taking applicants through CP W’s. Vendor self-service platform. Applications are due by February 6th. Folks who feel comfortable being out and can be safe and can keep their stock and their dogs safe, our folks that we’re looking for, also folks who already have a connection and a relationship to the ag community in the areas we’re hiring for, that’s a huge benefit to us. Riders are incredibly skilled individuals. They have to know wildlife, track and sign. They have to know husbandry and like I said, how to track potential issues in livestock. And that means knowing those individual animals too, not just what to look for in cattle versus sheep, et cetera, right? And then they have to be incredibly commutative and into coordination and collaboration. So these folks are unique and skilled, and all of that learning’s going to happen this year, whether we have wolves or not.

And we really hope and feel that range riding is another piece that over the years we can build with, where we see this additive value across livestock producers, wolf advocates, the general public. We, we do believe that this is a tool that can lead us in that path. Like all things, it takes time, it takes learning, and we are committed to doing that in a way that’s thoughtful and engaged and progressive.

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