As biologists and wildlife advocates, we are told that the three tenets of sound wildlife management are habitat, habitat and habitat.
As historians, we begin to wonder, just how important is habitat?
A foolish question in a way because good habitat is, of course, vital, but a glance at the recent history of wildlife in Colorado provokes the question.
With the settlement of the mountains and valleys of Colorado came the settler’s livestock and their livestock’s diseases. Disease, coupled with the need for sustenance, put great demands on Colorado’s big game animals.
In 1876 came statehood and the beginnings of the Colorado Fish and Game Department. In 1885, bighorn hunting was closed and remained closed until 1953. Pronghorn hunting closed from 1914 through 1945. In Southwest Colorado, elk hunting was closed from 1903 through 1937, and deer was closed from 1914 through 1918. Meanwhile, cattle, sheep and other livestock grew to record numbers, heavily grazing many areas. The 1880s through the 1970s saw spectacles like 250,000 lambs being shipped out of the San Juan basin each fall.
The habitat also took heavy hits during the epic droughts of the 1930s and the 1950s.
And yet, bighorn recovered to huntable numbers during this period. Mule deer became abundant, with Colorado harvesting 147,000 in 1963. Elk also increased to the point where 20,858 were taken in the 1969 season. No state had ever produced so much game. How could this recovery occur in the face of such degraded habitats? Look at the rest of the story: Every stockman defended his livestock against predators, the same predators that also preyed upon wildlife.
In 1934, the U.S. Biological Survey joined with stockmen and the Department of Game and Fish to uniformly pursue predators, and in 1934, the Colorado Legislature placed bounties on coyotes, mountain lions and bobcats.
Isn’t the habitat actually “better” now than in those halcyon years? Logging is much reduced, roads have been reseeded and closed, burns have been prescribed and grazing is a fraction of what it used to be.
Why then are we seeing a decline in many prey species in Colorado? What’s missing?
That something is balance. Ecosystems become out of balance when predator and scavenger species dominate the decline of prey species.
Therefore, it is imperative that wildlife managers engage in ongoing studies and research to better understand current predator/prey relationships and numbers.
Dick Ray
Pagosa Springs
