As a fifth-generation rancher, and current president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, I endorse the Gazette’s recent editorial, “Don’t jeopardize Canadian wolves.” Coloradans should know what is really going on. The citizens of British Columbia should also know this.

Only through an open records request to the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife (CPW) have we learned why many state and tribal governments have refused to send wolves to Colorado. For example, the Wind River Inter-Tribal Council cited growing public opposition in Colorado and the extremely close vote that started the program. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation rescinded their agreement to provide wolves after learning that CPW failed to consult with the Southern Ute Indian Tribe about the proposed wolf introduction project.

Idaho cited the strong disagreements over how wolves should be managed that have “fostered mistrust and social conflict among our rural communities, hunters, trappers, other outdoor recreation users, agricultural interests, wolf advocates, conservation organizations, and governmental entities.”

As the director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game put it, the result has been “a strain on many of the very relationships that are critical to future conservation efforts.”

Idaho also pointed to the high costs of the program including litigation and, “Less measurable … costs associated with unaccounted-for livestock loss and increased production costs, and loss to rural economies due to decreased elk populations and hunting activity.”

We are already feeling that strain in Colorado in our interactions with CPW staff. Where once there was mutual respect and a shared sense of responsibility of caring for all Colorado lands and wildlife, we now find it hard to follow CPW staff’s inconsistent and ever-changing advice for attempting to reduce wolf conflict with livestock. From what we can tell, there is a disconnect between on-the-ground staff and CPW’s leadership in Denver.

Colorado has already spent a huge amount of money on this program and costs will continue to escalate because more must be done before more wolves are introduced — training for producers, funding for non-lethal measures, and improved communication.

In addition to the lost livestock some of our ranchers have suffered, there is the less talked about cost of the extra stress we are enduring — we now must worry if our animals will come home, or if we will find dead animals viciously ripped apart by wolves. I doubt anyone considered the human costs involved when voting for the wolf reintroduction program.

One of CPW’s suggested methods of discouraging wolf attacks is for ranchers to patrol their lands day and night.

How can anyone do this when ranching is already a 24-7 commitment? A promising program puts range riders on the ground at ranches to patrol at all hours to keep wolves away from livestock. To be effective, that program must be in place wherever wolves may be found. That will take more funding.

Let’s take a step back and work together as we always have, to find a better solution. Colorado needs to figure out why its program is stumbling — was there not enough scientific research done before implementation? Are politicians rather than wildlife management experts calling the shots? Population levels of deer and elk are at a 30-year low; wolves will further deplete their numbers.

If deer and elk are scarce, wolves will be drawn to livestock for food. Can CPW create a program capable of protecting livestock AND the wolves?

Until these questions are answered, and needed programs in place, we plead with the people of British Columbia — please do not send your wolves to Colorado and allow this fiasco to continue.

Tim Ritschard, a fifth-generation rancher in Grand County, Colorado, is president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association.