Todd Schmidt is the owner of Highmark Builders in Kremmling, Colo., and he spends a great deal of time behind the wheel back and forth to building sites and his home near Sweetwater. He is always watching for wildlife, and snaps the occasional photo of the large elk herds and other animals that he sees from the road in Grand County.

He was driving down the Trough Road that connects Highways 9 and 131 on Jan. 2 and said he could barely believe his eyes when a collared wolf ran across the road in front of him.

He said the wolf trotted off the road about 20 yards. He said the wolf climbed up a rock outcropping, sat, and nearly posed, looking directly at Schmidt. He said he shot the photo only about ½ mile from a home and less than 10 miles from Highway 9.

---

---

Schmidt said he doesn’t support the wolf reintroduction.

“We have pets, and our neighbors are ranchers,” he said. “We don’t want them here. People who voted for them would think differently if it was at their house.”

---

---

TRANSPARENCY IS IMPORTANT

Area ranchers haven’t reported depredations as of yet. Todd Schlegel, who ranches in the immediate area, said he would like to hear from Colorado Parks and Wildlife why area ranchers who make their living running livestock aren’t entitled at least to timely updates on the wolves’ locations. He said it’s impossible to mitigate conflict when whether or not the wolves are present is unknown.

The online narrative of ranchers wanting to “shoot, shovel, and shut up,” he said, is false. Schlegel and ranchers like him are aware of the consequences of harming a wolf and aren’t interested in doing so. Their goal, he said, is just to tend to their livestock and prevent losses in a business that is already difficult.

He said “rancher” has a negative connotation associated with it from false narratives and it’s time CPW recognizes that ranchers are not the threat.

“I believe (location updates) would lead to better relations between CPW and ranchers going forward and make us all calm down just a bit,” he said. “The way they introduced them in secret damaged our trust. Of course we know they are tracking them all the time right now. The lack of communication is what is causing so much distrust and anger directed CPW’s way.  If this has any chance of working it needs to be fixed.”

Rod Schlegel, Todd’s dad, ranches near Burns. The family came to the area in 1898, making them some of the later arriving homesteaders. He said he grew up hearing his dad and grandfather talking about the wolf conflicts that began after a particularly difficult winter in 1909 that pushed wolves into the area from the north. 

“We grew up hearing the stories about the wolves,” Rod said. “Now we have to see if we can live through this again.”

He said the ranchers are aggravated not knowing more about the wolf releases and now their locations. It is, he said, ranchers like him who provide habitat for the wolves and the elk they prey on.

“We deserve to know what they know and that will go a long way in curbing the future conflicts,” Todd Schlegel said. “Those are no doubt on the way and probably sooner than later.”

Colorado Parks and Wildlife asks that all wolf sightings be reporting using their web form available at https://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/Wolf-Sighting-Form.aspx. CPW has not yet responded to requests from The Fence post to confirm the identity of the wolf.