Gray wolves flown in from Oregon to the high country of Colorado in December are already killing livestock. But the death of a wolf by apparently natural causes got a quicker response from government agencies than did the multiple appeals from ranchers for some sort of relief.

Colorado’s departments of agriculture and parks and wildlife announced recently they are giving money to the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association to support their on-the-ground, nonlethal predator deterrents. The agencies are providing another $28,000 for measures that include a nighttime range rider to prevent wolf conflicts. This funding builds on $20,000 the agencies gave the stockgrowers’ group in Grand County, northwest of Denver, at the end of April.

“We were not prepared for the negative impacts that are happening, but the producers are having ongoing discussions about solutions” with state agencies, said Tim Ritschard, the MPSA’s president.

Colorado officials caught 10 wolves in Oregon and brought them back to the Centennial State as part of a repopulation plan called for in a 2020 state ballot initiative, which narrowly passed. A federal judge denied ranchers’ request to delay the distribution until state officials more adequately addressed their concerns about looming wolf-livestock conflicts.

Related:Oregon is sending gray wolves to Colorado

Within a few months of their arrival, cattle and calves started dying from confirmed wolf attacks. According to KMGH-TV in Denver, those included:

Ag producers had met with state Parks and Wildlife officials in early April to discuss the wolves. But after the string of depredations, it apparently took letters from multiple cattle and wool growers’ groups, a county sheriff and a county board of commissioners – as well as local media coverage -- to get the state to respond.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that one of the gray wolves imported from Oregon had died around April 18, apparently from a mountain lion attack or another natural cause, according to Northwest Colorado-based Steamboat Radio. Because the wolf is federally protected in parts of the West, including in Colorado, the carcass was sent off for a necropsy.

The Middle Park ranchers asked state officials to apply the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s standard for lethal removal of wolves that repeatedly kill livestock. But in a letter April 23, CPW Director Jeff Davis said no, explaining the pair of wolves believed responsible for the depredations may be denning in the area.

Related:Colo. legislators ponder measures for ranchers

“Removing the male breeder at this point would be irresponsible management and potentially cause the den to fail,” he wrote, “possibly resulting in the death of the presumed pups.”

So taxpayers will keep having to pay the ranchers a fair market value for dead cattle, and employ night riders to yell at the wolves.