Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Friday that it has reached an agreement with conservation officials in British Columbia to recruit up to 15 wolves for the next phase of the controversial and groundbreaking restoration program.

The wolves will be captured and released between December 2024 and March 2025 in the state’s “northern release zone,” an area along the Interstate 70 corridor between Glenwood Springs and Vail.

If all goes well, the new animals from Canada will mark the second year of the state’s voter-mandated wolf recovery and management plan, which calls for the release of 10 to 15 wolves over three to five years. Colorado Parks and Wildlife reintroduced an initial group of 10 wolves spotted in Oregon near Kremmling in December 2023.

“That’s so we can get a base population, so there’s enough of a population to form packs,” Jeff Davis, director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told CPR News. “It sounds counterintuitive, but having enough animals to form packs will help build a sustainable population and minimize the impact on livestock.”

Davis said the nine known adult wolves currently living in Colorado travel hundreds of miles without entering territory claimed by other wolf families. Once the predators form packs and live within tighter boundaries, the state can learn their movement patterns to minimize potential problems with sheep or cattle.

Ranchers are disappointed that the state is moving ahead with plans to reintroduce additional wolves this winter. Tim Ritschard, executive director of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association, said he would prefer to see the state pause the reintroduction program for a year while efforts to protect livestock from wolves are improved.

“There are still a lot of unknowns. They’re more concerned with releasing wolves into the wild than sorting things out with landowners and producers,” Ritschard said.

However, the announcement comes after Colorado abandoned efforts to stop the Copper Creek Pack, the state’s only known wolf family, from eating livestock in Grand County.

Earlier this month, Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced that it had captured the pack’s matriarch and her four pups. The agency is currently holding the animals in a secure location before releasing them elsewhere in the state.

Wildlife officials also captured the patriarch of the group, but said the animal was significantly underweight and had injuries to a hind leg that were unrelated to the capture. It died a few days later and will soon be autopsied by a third party.

Three of the 10 wolves released last year have died. The list includes the male wolf from the Copper Creek Pack. Another wolf died this spring after an apparent fight with a mountain lion. Colorado Parks and Wildlife is now investigating the death of a third wolf that was found dead in Grand County earlier this month.

Davis stressed that no one should think these deaths mean restoration efforts are a failure.

“With all of these restoration efforts, we always expect some level of mortality,” Davis said.

After the first round of releases, many nearby ranchers were frustrated by the lack of advance notice. Davis said the state will work closely with local elected officials and ranchers who live near future release sites.

Colorado will cover all costs of capturing and relocating the wolves.