Producers on Colorado’s Western Slope now have access to a $2.5 million funding pool to help them deploy conflict minimization tools as more wolves are dropped in the state this week. 

The grant funding is being distributed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Colorado and the Western Landowners Alliance. The funding applications opened on Jan. 10 and will remain open until 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7. Applications are available at U.S. Department of Agriculture service centers in northwest Colorado. 

The funding opportunity is meant to help ranchers offset costs associated with range riding, carcass management, fencing and other tools to reduce wolf-livestock conflicts. 

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“We hear from landowners and livestock producers and conflict reduction experts around the West that this is needed to support the economic viability of working land and reduce conflicts that can support both ranching and viability of wolves on the landscape,” said Matt Collins, the Working Wild Challenge manager with Western Landowners Alliance. 

Grant dollars will be available to ranchers in Moffat, Rio Blanco, Routt, Garfield, Eagle, Pitkin, Summit, Grand, Jackson and Gunnison counties. 

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“We really want these to go to folks who have a wolf presence or conflicts, and folks in high-priority counties where wolves already exist or will be reintroduced,” Collins said. 

The $2.5 million heading to Colorado ranchers is part of a $22 million federal grant awarded to the Western Landowners Alliance and the Heart of the Rockies Initiative. Funding will also go toward projects supporting producers dealing with predators in five western states: Colorado, Montana, Oregon, New Mexico and Arizona.  

The two nonprofits are working closely with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Colorado Department of Agriculture and Colorado’s Cattlemen’s Association to make sure the funding is complementary to their efforts with wolves and producers, while also providing new opportunities. 

“We want to decrease the burden on producers who are applying to this,” Collins said. “Not everybody understands what is available from different programs because it can all get a little confusing. This is really helpful for individual producers or a group of four producers who want to get a range rider or use fencing or carcass management versus (Colorado Department of Agriculture’s nonlethal wolf conflict reduction) funds that can support a stockmanship group.”

The program is also unique in that it allows producers to lead and implement the right tools for conflict reduction on their land. 

“Producers have the best knowledge on the ins and outs of their operation and what tools may or may not fit into their stewardship practices,” said Erin Karney Spaur, executive vice-president of Colorado Cattleman’s Association. “These producers are on the front lines, managing the brunt of impacts from predators and wolves in this state, and we need to make sure programs are streamlined, accessible, and tailored to meet the needs of those experiencing conflicts.”

Colorado producers with up-to-date records with the Farm Service Agency can apply for funds from the Natural Resources Conservation Service through Feb. 7. Project applications will be evaluated in the spring with reimbursements expected by the summer. The program will continue to run and distribute funds on an annual basis until 2028 or as long as there is available funding. 

In addition to supporting producers, the funds have also been used to support research on the effectiveness of tools like range riding, fencing and carcass management. The data on this research is still being collected, but the end goal is to be able to determine what the best practices are to prevent conflict between livestock and large predators like wolves, Collins said. 

Finding a ‘radical center’ for collaboration on wolves 

Western Landowners Alliance is just one nonprofit group working to support producers on the ground as they seek to reduce conflict with Colorado’s reintroduced population of wolves. The nonprofit’s Working Wild program was started around seven years ago to assist individuals having challenges with grizzly bears and wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. In Colorado, this program is providing support for producers in what it calls the “four C’s,” Collins said. 

“That is compensation, conflict prevention, lethal control and collaboration,” Collins said. 

As Colorado wraps up its first year of wolf reintroduction and enters the second, trust is critical to making all four of these pieces work, Collins added. 

For example, the success of the state’s compensation program, which reimburses producers for direct and indirect livestock losses resulting from wolves and their presence, hinges on “whether you can identify a kill and whether you trust the agency who is doing that depredation investigation to come onto your land and make that happen,” Collins said. 

While helping to fund range riders is one way the alliance is helping address that first challenge, it is also seeking to build trust and keep conversations flowing between producers and the state and federal agencies on the ground, “so compensation can work and people can access those resources,” Collins said. 

This speaks to the Western Landowners Alliance’s greater mission to be what Collins referred to as the “radical center” between all the stakeholders in the wolf reintroduction. 

“Sometimes the center is a little radical these days, trying to find common ground and work toward solutions on these hard issues,” Collins said. “There’s been a lot of challenges in the last year, and there’s been kind of challenges with trust among different groups. What we’re really looking to do is help folks keep talking and help find a middle ground in this. That’s important because when things get hard, sometimes people back into their corners and conversations stop.”