reintroduce wolverines<\/a>\u00a0to Colorado, which has likewise stirred controversy.<\/p>\nHowever, Bison seem welcome in Colorado.<\/p>\n
And, for now, they\u2019re essentially considered visitors, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) spokeswoman Kara Van Hoose told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt (bison crossing Utah-Colorado state line) happens occasionally. So, we don\u2019t have an established free-ranging population in Colorado,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The wildlife designation, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2026, allows the agency to investigate and cite cases of alleged bison poaching in Colorado, she said.<\/p>\n
Without that designation, CPW had no recourse against people killing wild bison in Colorado.<\/p>\n
![\"Bison](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/book-cliffs-bison-214-09-2-11.14.25.jpg\")
Bison from Utah\u2019s Book Cliffs herd have been migrating across the state line into Colorado, where they\u2019re not officially recognized as wildlife. (Courtesy Utah Division of Wildlife Resources)Utah Allows Bison Hunts<\/p>\n
Utah has about 1,300 wild bison in three locations, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR).<\/p>\n
Those include the Antelope Island, Henry Mountains And Book Cliffs\u00a0herds.<\/p>\n
The Book Cliffs area is a wildlife haven. Big game hunting tags there are highly coveted, and extremely difficult to draw. Book Cliffs mule deer hunting is\u00a0considered some\u00a0of the best in the West.<\/p>\n
A few bison hunting tags are also issued there, UDWR spokeswoman Faith Heaton Jolley told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
The agency has proposed a new management plan for the Book Cliffs herd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new proposed plan would increase the bison population objective and split it between three subunits \u2013 Bitter Creek, Little Creek and South \u2013 for a total of 650 wintering adult bison, rather than 450,\u201d according to UDWR.<\/p>\n
The distribution of bison in the Bitter Creek area has increased, and habitat has improved there, according to the agency.<\/p>\n
Brucellosis Worries?<\/p>\n
In Montana, there\u2019s controversy over the movement of bison out of Yellowstone National Park.<\/p>\n
Ranchers there worry that bison might spread brucellosis to their cattle. Brucellosis causes animals such as bison, cattle and elk to spontaneously abort their calves.<\/p>\n
So, ranchers place high importance on their cattle being certified brucellosis free.<\/p>\n
That shouldn\u2019t be a concern with the Book Cliffs bison crossing between Utah and Colorado, Jolley said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur\u00a0biologist and vet just confirmed that brucellosis has never been detected in the Book Cliffs bison herd,\u201d she texted in response to a question from Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
Colorado cattle are certified brucellosis-free, and stock growers want to keep it that way, Meeker, Colorado-area rancher Howard Cooper told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main thing is to make sure they (the bison) are brucellosis-free, because of the economic damage to a cattle herd that brucellosis can cause if it moves through that herd,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are assured that the buffalo coming over from Utah into Colorado are brucellosis free, then I have no problem with it. But they have to prove that to us,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n
The Ute Tribe introduced bison in the Hill Creek area of the Uintah and Ouray reservation in 1986, according to UDWR.<\/p>\n
In 2008, the tribe and UDWR released bison in the Book Cliffs area, adjacent to tribal lands.<\/p>\n
The tribe and the agency each conduct independent, yearly brucellosis tests on the herd, according to UDWR.<\/p>\n
A Genetically Pure Herd<\/p>\n
The Book Cliffs bison herd is worth protecting on both sides of the state line because those bison \u201care known to be extremely genetically pure,\u201d Colorado resident Alli Henderson, the regional director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
She said she was pleased to hear that the bison will be put under professional wildlife management in Colorado and protected from illegal killing.<\/p>\n
As an historical species in the area, the bison should be regarded as native wildlife, she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Colorado should champion the fact that we like to protect our native wildlife,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The list of wildlife being reestablished in Colorado continues to grow, with bison being the latest. Bison from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-295444","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}