Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for
Date of this Version
1973
Citation
Published in Proceedings of Great Plains Wildlife Damage Control Workshop, December 10, 11, and 12, 1973, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas. Edited by F. Robert Henderson.
Abstract
Wildlife damage control in Colorado may be more varied and difficult than in some other states. Colorado has a widely diversified agricultural, industrial and recreational business base and a great range of human density from the Denver Metropolitan area containing approximately half of the state population to the semi-desert and mountain areas where the population density is extremely low.
Approximately 40 percent of the land is federally owned, much of this in large tracts in the western two-thirds of the state. Privately owned land in this western area is primarily distributed along the more accessible valleys of major drainages. It is in this same area that huge increased in land prices have occurred, due to intense competition from land development and recreational interests for accessible scenic areas. The current search for energy sources has led to additional economic pressure where fossil fuels are known to occur. In many areas, agriculture can no longer meet this intense competition and land use is shifting to other interests.
Terrain types vary from semi-desert to grassland to dense forest and alpine tundra, with elevations from 3,400 feet in Prowers County near the Kansas border to 14,431 feet at Mount Elbert, Lake County, in central Colorado. The Continental Divide winds through the central mountain area from Wyoming to New Mexico. Four large rivers; the Platte, Arkansas, Rio Grande and Colorado begin in these mountains.