CDA Range Riders Add Value for Producers

August 22, 2025

August 22, 2025 – The days and nights for the range riders within the Colorado Department of Agriculture are as varied as the landscapes they traverse via horseback, on foot and on ATV. There's no such thing as a typical day at the office. The range riders also keep notes about where pastures are located, where livestock is, and where trails, roads and gates are located. Sometimes, though, they have to depend upon training and experience to accomplish what livestock producers need, and that's being present and often putting themselves between livestock and wolves.

"It is important to get to know the area in the daylight so we're safe out there at night," CDA Northwest Region Nonlethal Mitigation Specialist Shelby Neiberger said.

Neiberger is one of two CDA range riders and she has earned her experience on some challenging landscapes where her ranch background and her familiarity with the country was vitally important.

Sometimes, though, the range riders are called to areas where producers are experiencing wolf pressure, presence or depredations and that leads them to unfamiliar country. OnX, an app that shows private and public property map data and boundaries, is an important tool that compliments the CPW mapping program. Always mindful of private property boundaries, the range riders have standing permission with many landowners to enter their property in the course of their work. It's something, Ray Aberle, deputy assistant director, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said, that reinforces the importance of the relationship between CPW, CDA and landowners.

SITE ASSESSMENTS

Participating in site assessments is also incredibly helpful for producers, CDA, and CPW as it becomes a base so when range riders are needed in those areas, that is established. He said each producer's operation is different, making different tools more appropriate for nearly each, making the site assessments prior to conflict all the more important.

CDA Southwest Region Nonlethal Mitigation Specialist Jesse Lasater, who comes from a sheep-raising family who long grazed allotments, said he places a high priority in providing value and assistance to livestock producers. He has certainly found himself among wolves, actively hazing them away from livestock, but said he had the opportunity to locate cattle grazing where they shouldn't have been.

"We kept meeting people on the trail who were coming down and saying there were cattle around a lake and campsites," he said. "It was way off where they should have been, so we contacted the producer."

As it turned out, the cattle had been pushed by predator pressure, but the producer was busy in another area.

"It turned out to be an all-day project," he said. "There were about 21 head of cattle that had come through a fence, and we were able to take those cattle back to the main herd. It was a 12-hour day and 18-mile ride over rough terrain."

Lasater said it was positive for him to be able to provide the assistance and allowed the producer to avoid traveling to the area himself. Being able to locate cattle carcasses is also of significant value to producers.

"The benefit for producers, though some people may say finding carcasses is a negative, but for the producer it's a good thing because it helps them get confirmation if it was actually a wolf kill and help with compensation down the road," he said.

In one case recently, the two found a carcass and as CDA employees, they don't investigate but contact the owner and CPW.

"In the meantime, if we can, we can hold tight on the carcass and make sure it's not disturbed or, like in the case last week, it was nearing the end of the day and getting dark," he said. "We were pretty far up there on horseback and no one was going to there before dark, so Shelby and I were able to capture extensive video and photographic evidence to preserve what was there at that time, in case something came in overnight and disturbed it, until CPW was able to arrive and confirm that it was a wolf kill."

Neiberger said the producers have been receptive to her and Lasater's work, and their conversations have been positive.

"We both have ag backgrounds, and we do know cattle," she said. "There are other benefits outside of wolves that the producers get from us. We can confirm the cattle have water and salt, take note of other predators in the area because there are options for compensation for losses from mountain lions and bears as well. I think through this and us putting up game cameras as well, they've learned even more about their land than maybe they even knew before."

She said there is a wealth of information captured on the game cameras, including a larger picture of what the wolves eat, including small animals and birds. When the riders are sent to an area, rather than given coordinates of the wolves' locations, they are sent to an allotment and utilize their tracking abilities to place themselves and their game cameras in the optimal locations to capture the best information about activity in the area. The images, though, whether captured on private or public land, are not released publicly to protect the privacy of the landowners and producers.

Lasater said CDA invited livestock associations and livestock producers to participate in the hiring process to select range riders who they see have livestock experience and the other attributes that make them not only suited for the work, but able to communicate with the producers. There are also range riders contracted by CPW who are deployed on the landscape.

ADDED VALUE

Aberle said the range riders have added value for the landowners and have been integral in helping avoid conflict, even when that means they're deployed elsewhere to properties with which they're unfamiliar.

"I want to commend CDA and Shelby and Jesse in particular," Aberle said. "They've been wonderfully flexible and great assets on the landscape in addition to the CPW contracted riders, too."

CDA Nonlethal Conflict Reduction Program Manager Dustin Shiflett, said the range riders have helped to alleviate some of the pressure on producers due to wolves and he said producers have been cooperative and grateful.

Aberle said there is seasonality to range riding, and he does anticipate challenges this fall as fall gathering and winter range gives way to the sounds and scents of calving season, typically located closer to headquarters where producers are able to be present.

"In the fall we start to look at gathering stock and bringing them back to homeplaces or out to winter range, as is the case with our sheep producers more into that sage country," he said. "If they're going to be winter fed, they might even be moving over to the flat part of the country. We do expect with what we've learned from other states that as we get toward gathering there can be a bit of a spike in conflict during that time."

To prepare, he said CPW is in the process of adding another contracted range rider for an area where there is potential for conflict until later in the fall when livestock is more visible. He said the tools used to mitigate losses change with the seasons as well.

In preparation for the fall, Shiflett said CDA is working proactively with CPW, Wildlife Services, and Colorado State University Extension to provide outreach and education in some of the counties with limited experience with wolves to prepare for the next release.

"That's the proactive approach and we're going into that outreach and education season in early November, December and January," Shiflett said. "We want to let everyone know in those counties that we reach about the suite of tools that CPW has and that CDA has as well."

He said the work is made possible by the producers who continue to come back to the table with the state agencies and try to find solutions on the landscape.

"I can't say enough about their resiliency," he said. "It's been great to work with the producers in the state of Colorado."

Lasater said as important as thermal binoculars, cell phones, pickups, ATVs, horses, and the ability to be present on the landscape is, the communication between agencies, riders, landowners and livestock producers is irreplaceable.

Neiberger said it's important and helpful for producers to reach out to the range riders when there is potential for conflict or they suspect something out of the ordinary. The riders are all sent to locations with the guidance of CPW as well.

Aberle said as the program moves forward, CPW has sought producer feedback through surveys and assessments from those involved and impacted by the range rider program. He said returning those surveys to CPW is genuinely helpful and he encourages the producers who were given the surveys to return them.

"We're excited about that research and producer input to direct where we go with the range rider program to keep improving it," he said.

He said it's important to recognize that though the range rider program itself is new, the concept of range riding has long been a part of Colorado's agricultural history.

"Our sheep industry, through their herders, has been doing this work for a lot of years and they deserve credit for the way they've been on the landscape and engaged with their livestock and helping us mitigate other predator issues previous to wolves," Aberle said. "I don't want them to be missed in the conversation. There's a huge value they add and how cooperative they've been in those moments when we've had sheep and wolves how working with and through the herders and range riders has worked out, especially in Moffat and Rio Blanco counties there's been a lot of coordination."

Aberle said he is grateful for the producers who have invested time, effort, and resources into creating environments through carcass management and other non-lethal deterrents because their investment has been significant across the board.

"One of messages that isn't always brought out there is how collaborative our landowners are," he said. "They continue to show up. Yes, there is frustration. There are reflection moments. There's tough conversations, but by and large, their willingness to stay engaged in this and to work with us is a huge credit to that community. I don't want to say, knowing the people I know in that community, that it's what you expect of them in really challenging times, but the quality of people is a win. They will hold your feet to the fire, no doubt about it, but it makes things better, quite honestly."

Source: Rachel Gabel