I first met Libbie Miller about 15 years ago, when I reconnected with her husband, Dan Miller, an old family friend. Coming from different parts of Colorado, we’d all wound up in Steamboat Springs, a rural area in the northwest part of the state. I only saw the Millers occasionally over the years, but when I started a wildlife + art + storytelling project, I knew I had to interview both of them because of their long work with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW).
Libbie and Dan were aware of my plan to write up some of their adventures around wildlife and then create artwork. Dan had a story to share about river otters during the 1970’s. While Libbie’s work involves a variety of different species, I asked if she could share any personal experiences of the wolves that were new to Colorado. She directed me to the CPW wolf information website pages and press releases, and shared some of her observations from monitoring these wolves that migrated naturally into our state.
Wolves are the hottest wildlife topic in Colorado by a mile. Everyone has an opinion, and they are often in opposition. Voters narrowly approved wolf reintroduction to Colorado west of the Continental Divide by the end of 2023. Currently, after some surprising legal decisions, wolves are back under federal protection. Now the reintroduction will move forward with CPW using the permitting requirements and process established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
When I was talking to Libbie in November 2021, much of the difficulties surrounding wolves in Colorado were still theoretical. The summer of 2021 was a happy time for wolf lovers in the state. A male and female had made their way into northern Colorado independently. They met, mated, and were raising the first litter of wolf pups born in Colorado in 80 years.
Libbie Miller monitoring wolves in North Park
Libbie was involved with the field work monitoring this new wolf pack in North Park. Long before the pups came on the scene, both adults had tracking collars. The female, F1084 had an old collar that used VHF technology, and the male, 2101 was wearing a GPS collar that provided data periodically for his past locations. These collars helped CPW locate the den. Libbie spent the spring and summer watching this new wolf pack and their behavior.
Although I’ve been a professional artist for decades, I am still a ‘junior reporter.’ I am learning as I go- both interviewing and writing. This talk with Libbie and Dan Miller was the first interview I’d conducted by myself, without the help of my journalist friend, Jennie Lay. It turns out I didn’t need great interviewing skills that day, because Libbie and Dan are both great storytellers with a lot to say, and I mostly just sat back and listened.
Wolves are such a controversial subject, I knew I needed a thorough background understanding before I started writing about them. I already had an interest in wolves, and had read books and articles in the past. But for a couple of months, I read every single reputable thing I could find. I read, and wrote, and drew onto a sheet of blank artist linoleum. While my article came together, I decided for the artwork, I wanted to make a portrait of the two alpha wolves of the new pack in North Park.
There weren’t many photos of these two wolves to base my drawing on. Libbie showed me the photos with the CPW press releases, and I found images of different wolves with the same coloring online to use as reference. The male is gray with a mix of pale fur and darker areas, and the female is black and starting to show some gray from age. When I had a solid sketch, I photographed it and sent it to Libbie. She came back with pointers like, the female is smaller in comparison to the male, and their paws need to be bigger. When I was happy with the drawing and ready to start carving, I felt Libbie’s approval gave it a little extra authenticity.
It was during the time I was carving the linocut that the wolf pack started getting into trouble. Beginning in December 2021, they were occasionally killing cattle and working dogs in North Park. This caused a huge uproar, fed by the fact that the official wolf reintroduction hadn’t begun yet, so the details of wolf deterrents and compensation for livestock owners hadn’t been put into place yet. Again, everyone had an opinion, and now the wolf detractors had some real fuel. As things limped along with investigations, discussions of compensation, hazing techniques being introduced, inflammatory news articles, frustrated ranchers, and even the official oversight of wolves switching from state to federal management, it felt like the wolves were placing themselves in a really dangerous position. I was worried that they would be killed before I had a chance to finish their portrait.
As time passed, the public seems to have reached a new understanding that there will be unavoidable wolf depredations now that wolves are on the landscape. It’s a catch-up game to get rural Colorado to the point where other parts of the west have been for years with big predators. We need a variety of hazing techniques and livestock protections in place on ranches where wolves are likely to be, with the compensation process established for animals killed by wolves. Currently, CPW is reimbursing livestock owners based on their policy for animals killed by mountain lions or bears. I hope these systems can keep wolves on the landscape and give people time to adjust.
The alpha wolves in North Park did manage to stay alive longer than it took me to complete their artwork. I make linocuts by carving the image into a piece of linoleum. The result looks like a big rubber stamp when it’s done. I roll thick, sticky ink over the raised surface, lay paper over the top and print it using an etching press. To print, the inked block with paper lays on the bed of the press and a hand crank slides the bed under a cylinder that applies pressure. Then, you ink the block again and start over.
Now it’s June 2022, and around this time last year CPW was announcing the birth of the new wolf pups. This summer, things seem to have gone wrong. The collar on the alpha female, F1084 stopped working last winter. Although she was seen at different times with her pack mates, according to a recent article in the Coloradan, she hasn’t been seen for several months. CPW put a GPS collar on one of the pups last February, but now, CWP has shared through Colorado Outdoors Magazine that neither of the collars on the pup or her father are working. No den site has been announced, denning behavior hasn’t been reported, and F1084 seems to be missing. There is still a chance that there is a hidden den, or that F1084 is around but didn’t give birth this year. But as time goes on, it feels to me like the portrait of F1084 and 2101 together is a memorial.
Next week, I will post the article I wrote with Libbie’s observations from last summer of the new Colorado pack, and background about wolves in general.
This post was updated on 6/18/22 with the new info and link to Colorado Outdoors Magazine.