Colorado wildlife officials are relocating two reintroduced wolves and their pups after a series of livestock depredations — a setback for the historic and controversial reintroduction program launched late last year.

The pack of wolves, called the Copper Creek pack, will be captured from the wild in Grand County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Tuesday night. The agency did not disclose where the pack will be moved to, citing the need to protect the wolves and CPW staff.

“The decision to capture and relocate the Copper Creek pack was made with the careful consideration of multiple factors and feedback from many different stakeholders,” CPW Director Jeff Davis said in a statement. ”Our options in this unique case were very limited, and this action is by no means a precedent for how CPW will resolve wolf-livestock conflict moving forward.

“The ultimate goal of the operation is to relocate the pack to another location while we assess our best options for them to continue to contribute to the successful restoration of wolves in Colorado.”

The relocation announcement comes less than 10 days after the wildlife agency announced proof of at least three pups born this spring and shared a video showing the pups playing in a puddle. The pups are the first born to wolves released in December as part of a voter-mandated reintroduction of the predator species extirpated from Colorado nearly a century ago.

Agency leaders will provide more information about the relocation after the targeted wolves are captured, according to the statement.

The agency’s statement about the relocation raises more questions than it answers, said Michael Saul, director of the Rockies and Plains Program at Defenders of Wildlife, which advocated for the reintroduction. Saul wanted to know whether CPW will keep the pack together during the capture and relocation effort, where they will be taken and where they will be released back into the wild — if at all.

“This reintroduction is in its tenuous, early stages and I just don’t understand how it makes sense to give up on the one reproducing pack we have,” he said.

The Copper Creek pack’s wolves, including the known pups, are among at least a dozen of the animals now roaming Colorado’s mountains. Eight other adults were released in December after their capture and relocation from Oregon, and a pair of Wyoming-based wolves naturally migrated into the state earlier. One of the relocated wolves was found dead in the spring.

Colorado voters in 2020 narrowly voted in favor of the reintroduction program, fueled primarily by voters along the urban Front Range. Many ranchers have opposed the effort and have said the return of wolves threatens their livelihoods and ways of life.

Colorado is the first state to reintroduce the apex predator.

Since the reintroduction, wolves have killed or injured at least nine sheep and 15 head of cattle, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s list of confirmed depredations. Most of those depredations were caused by the paired wolves in Middle Park, which formed the Copper Creek pack, said Reid DeWalt, CPW’s assistant director for the agency’s Aquatic, Terrestrial and Natural Resources branch, on Friday during a Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting.

“We have had a few other depredations from the other wolves, but nothing to the level we’ve seen in Middle Park,” he said.

Ranchers in Middle Park repeatedly have asked the agency to take action to stop the wolf depredations, but the agency until now has declined to intervene beyond providing more nonlethal deterrent resources. The Middle Park Stockgrowers in the spring requested a permit that would allow ranchers to kill depredating wolves, but the permit was denied.

DeWalt offered an update on the wolf reintroduction effort during the commission meeting but did not mention the possibility of relocating the wolves. Davis, CPW’s director, also did not mention the relocation during his update to the commission.

The agency still plans to release more wolves this winter, DeWalt said Friday. CPW has not yet found a state or government willing to supply wolves after a Washington tribe reversed its agreement to provide the canines.

But DeWalt said staff members were confident they’d be able to find another source. The agency plans to release the next batch of wolves in the same northern zone they used late last year so that they’ll increase the wolf population in the area, DeWalt said.

The agency has hired five predator damage conflict specialists. Their job is to focus primarily on wolf issues, but they will also work on predations with bears and mountain lions, DeWalt said.

The five specialists and other CPW staff attended a two-week training in Oregon and Idaho to learn about wolf management and how to deter depredations, he said.

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Originally Published: August 27, 2024 at 8:11 p.m.

The Denver Broncos just made it through the toughest day on the NFL calendar, whittling the 90-man roster down to the final 53 players. Coaches and GMs dread this day, as do the 40-plus players who find themselves on the roster bubble.

With the final roster cuts announced, the Broncos unveiled their initial 53-man roster. It’s worth noting that the Broncos had three undrafted rookies make the final roster out of camp, marking the 20th year in the past 21 that at least one has.

Last year, four undrafted rookies made it. The college free-agent tradition continues to run strong and deep in the Mile High City.

Let’s examine the final roster.

Bo Nix, Jarrett Stidham, and Zach Wilson.

Analysis: True to his word, Broncos head coach Sean Payton kept all three quarterbacks, including Wilson, whose solid preseason display couldn’t be denied.

Javonte Williams, Jaleel McLaughlin, Audric Estime, and Blake Watson.

Analysis: The Broncos moved on from Samaje Perine and waived Tyler Badie, though I’d expect the latter to end up on the practice squad if he goes unclaimed on the waiver wire.

Courtland Sutton, Josh Reynolds, Marvin Mims Jr., Troy Franklin, and Devaughn Vele.

Analysis: This position featured a few painful decisions, including the release of Tim Patrick. The Broncos also cut Lil’Jordan Humphrey and Brandon Johnson, both of whom have been with the team for a while. David Sills V was also waived, but I could see him returning on the practice squad.

Adam Trautman, Greg Dulcich, Lucas Krull, and Nate Adkins.

Analysis: This position shook out exactly as expected, but if I were Adkins, I’d be a little edgy the next day or two as waiver claims around the NFL resolve.

Garett Bolles, Ben Powers, Luke Wattenberg, Quinn Meinerz, Mike McGlinchey, Matt Peart, Alex Palczweski, Alex Forsyth, and Frank Crum.

Analysis: The biggest surprise here is that the Broncos kept the undrafted tackle Crum, who was absolutely atrocious during the preseason. The team obviously sees something here that we don’t, but if O-line coach Zach Strief can reach Crum, his size would make for a formidable tackle, much like McGlinchey.

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Zach Allen, John Franklin-Myers, D.J. Jones, Malcolm Roach, Jordan Jackson, and Eyioma Uwazurike.

Analysis: It was good to see Jackson’s really strong preseason pay off for him. And after missing last year due to a gambling suspension, the 11th-hour return of Uwazurike saw him make the roster, for now.

Alex Singleton, Cody Barton, Justin Strnad, and Levelle Bailey.

Analysis: In one of the bigger surprises of the day, the Broncos waived Jonas Griffith. He was made expendable by the undrafted rookie, Bailey.

Baron Browning, Jonathon Cooper, Nik Bonitto, and Jonah Elliss.

Analysis: This is another position that shook out as expected. The Broncos have some young talent here. As a group, they need to figure out how to translate that potential into production on the field.

Patrick Surtain II, Ja’Quan McMillian, Riley Moss, Levi Wallace, Kris Abrams-Draine, and Tremon Smith.

Analysis: The only big surprise here was that Damarri Mathis, the young veteran, was placed on injured reserve after suffering an ankle injury in Sunday’s preseason finale.

P.J. Locke, Brandon Jones, Devon Key, JL Skinner, and Keidron Smith.

Analysis: Props to Smith for making the cut. He couldn’t be denied after a very strong summer, punctuated by having his fingers on three Broncos takeaways in the preseason, including a pair of interceptions.

Wil Lutz (K), Riley Dixon (P), and Mitchell Fraboni (LS).

Analysis: Dixon emerged victorious in the punter competition, vanquishing Trenton Gill.

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An estimated 2,500 Denver residents and qualifying businesses will have an extra ballot question to vote on in November that their neighbors will not.

The City Council on Monday agreed to put the future of the Denver Downtown Development Authority — and thus potential funding for more than half a billion dollars in infrastructure and other projects in the city’s downtown core — in the hands of those qualified electors.

Mayor Mike Johnston announced his ambitions to greatly expand the little-known taxing authority at a press conference outside Union Station in May. At the time, he described the tsunami of new public investment that expansion could bring as a means to snap the downtown “doom loop” of falling commercial activity and rising crime that emerged at the outset of the COVID pandemic.

The city’s core is experiencing what is believed to be record levels of office vacancy, according to real estate firm JLL.

The authority, abbreviated DDDA, derives its income from collecting a portion of sales and property taxes from participating property owners within its boundaries. It uses that money to pay for approved development work that is identified “with an eye towards stimulating economic growth and alleviating deterioration of conditions,” Dawnna Wilder, a project manager with the city’s Department of Finance, told council members at a committee hearing earlier this month.

The district was launched in 2008 to pay off an estimated $400 million in public debt that was taken on to pay for infrastructure around the station when that facility was undergoing its major overhaul.

The ballot question that council members referred to voters on Monday would authorize the city to take on up to $570 million in new debt on behalf of the DDDA to pay for both public facilities and projects and possibly improvements to private property as well. The measure would set a repayment cap of $847 million on that debt, factoring in a 5% interest rate and other costs, Wilder said in that committee hearing earlier this month.

The debt would not be on the city’s books. It would belong to the DDDA. The authority is authorized to collect shares of tax revenue through 2038. Approval of the measure would not increase taxes on participating properties, city leaders emphasized.

Only property owners, residents and tenant businesses in the district’s existing boundaries will vote on that question in November. Those boundaries cover Union Station and several blocks immediately surrounding it and the city block that was formerly home to the Regional Transportation District’s Market Street Station, city maps show. The City Clerk and Recorder’s Office is handling outreach to qualified electors.

The council will come to bear on other key elements of Johnston’s plan in the months ahead.

Council members are expected to vote in October on whether or not to expand the district’s boundaries to include the entirety of the city’s Central Business District and even reach across Broadway into the North Capitol Hill neighborhood.

The council will also vote on a new development plan that will specify how any newly raised debt or other funding can be used, Wilder said.

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Originally Published: August 27, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.