Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) released its draft East Slope Mountain Lion Management Plan. The public is encouraged to review and provide input on the draft plan at EngageCPW by June 14, 2024.
Earlier this year, CPW held eight public meetings to present information on mountain lions in Colorado, share details on the East Slope Mountain Lion Management Plan, and hear from the public about their perspectives on mountain lions around their community. The perspectives heard at these meetings were considered when formulating the draft plan.
CPW’s mountain lion management plans employ advances in research to conserve mountain lions around the state. The draft plan and public input form is now available at Engage CPW.
Public input on the draft plan will be gathered and reviewed by CPW staff as part of the planning process prior to developing a final draft plan. The final draft plan will be presented to the Parks and Wildlife Commission (PWC) to consider for approval later this year. Any public comments after June 14 should be directed to the Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Once approved by the PWC, the Final East Slope Mountain Lion Management Plan will provide the framework for CPW to maintain a stable mountain lion population on the East Slope of Colorado.
Why is CPW proposing an East Slope Lion Management Plan?
In 2020, CPW created its West Slope Mountain Lion Management Plan in recognition that larger, regional management scales are most closely aligned with the wide-ranging movements of lions across Colorado’s landscapes and allow for managers to draw more accurate inferences from population composition and mortality data. With the West Slope plan underway, CPW is currently formulating a corresponding plan for the eastern half of the state. The East Slope Lion Plan’s objective is to maintain stable mountain lion populations in the region by defining and implementing clear annual thresholds for adult female harvest and total human-caused mortality (e.g., harvest and roadkill or agricultural conflicts).
What is a management plan?
For CPW, a management plan provides a science-based framework to coordinate strategies for maintaining healthy, resilient wildlife populations alongside demand for outdoor recreation opportunities. With development and urbanization increasing in the state, management is necessary to maintain the stability of Colorado’s mountain lion populations relative to what the landscape and social tolerance can support.
CPW’s mountain lion management plans employ advances in research, including insights from recent long-term projects in Colorado, to maintain lion populations and provide multiple opportunities for the public to appreciate this species.
Learn more about mountain lions and mountain lion management in Colorado on CPW’s website.
Joey Livingston is a public information officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife in Denver. Joey has lived in Colorado for 9 years and loves the outdoors. If you have a question, please email him at joseph.livingston@state.co.us
5 Responses
Here we go again! Another sham to control hunting by non hunters who think they know more than the widlife biologists. Polis and his anti hunter buddies will disrupt more, look at the wolf reinterduction, how many livestock have been attacked so far?
Nonsense. Stop hiding and put a name behind your childish posts.
Another no-integrity post by someone who didn’t even have the integrity to put his name to it.
It have been proven time and time again that the most effective way to control wildlife is thru good hunting controls. When the eastern states have over populations they have relied on hunting to reduce the populations to acceptable levels. They have even resulted in special hunting with qualified hunters using special methods (usually archery) to reduce in town populations to reduce disease and population to acceptable level. We rely on hunting to feed my family true organic meat, Hopefully sane and rational people will out number those who don’t understand the dynamics of regulated hunting for good environmental control of our wildlife.
Did you not read the article? Western states have been relying on hunting to control populations for as longer than they’ve been states, and Colorado hunters have taken some 400 to 500 mountain lions every year for at least the past decade.
(That and because anything is done in eastern states, is not an argument it should be done in the west.)