Colorado Parks and Wildlife is building a list of prospective bison hunters ー a first for the agency as the iconic animal comes under new state management. 

Starting this year after the passage of Senate Bill 25-053, bison will be managed as big game wildlife in addition to their historic classification as livestock in the centuries following their near extinction amid westward expansion. The big game classification puts bison under the same legally protected class of elk, deer, moose and other species that are illegal to hunt without a license.

Senate Bill 25-053, also called the Protect Wild Bison Act, came as bison from a restored herd in Utah have long been known to be crossing into the Book Cliffs area of western Colorado. Cases of poaching have been reported ー what the Protect Wild Bison Act aims to prevent. 

Any licensed hunting would also be preventative, a recent news release explained. The release invited hunters to sign up for “the bison roster,” described as “a list that may be used if special management licenses are needed to manage free-roaming wild bison that travel into Colorado.”

The news release continued: “While CPW is not proposing regular bison hunting seasons, the agency may issue special management licenses on a case-by-case basis for time-sensitive management needs, such as preventing property or agricultural damage.”

In a previous Gazette interview, CPW’s Big Game Manager Andy Holland mentioned disease surveillance as another “very specific instance” where “management licenses” could be issued. 

“Honestly, these are director-approved hunts we hope we don’t have to use,” he said. “We’re just trying to be prepared in case something like that is needed.” 

The prospect alone garnered pushback at a CPW Commission meeting in the fall, where commissioners approved regulations. 

One in attendance, David Hand, asked for “a complete moratorium on hunting and any lethal take on bison until we have established a viable, free-roaming population in Colorado.” He echoed other advocates who see the Protect Wild Bison Act as “not just responsible wildlife management,” as Hand put it. “It marks the beginning of a genuine restoration of our bison population.” 

The Protect Wild Bison Act came out of a proposal by the American Indian Affairs Interim Study Committee. The legislative council sought the legislation as “a step toward making amends for the attempted genocide of American Indians through the eradication of their food source, the bison.”

Hunting has been a sensitive point of discussion. 

“Buffalo cannot be reduced to the price of a hunting tag,” said Rainer Gerbatsch, another advocate at the previous CPW Commission meeting.

Another spoke of Lakota activist Rosalie Little Thunder: “Rosalie believed the continuation of the slaughter, even when disguised as management, was a tragic and senseless continuation of past historical violence against the herds.”

Dallas Gudgell, who has pushed for bison restoration nationwide as a member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, called for “a slowdown until tribal collaboration and consultation is in place.” He called for more tribal priority: “If and when in years from now you got bison in your state roaming around, that tribes get priority for their usual, custom, aboriginal food source.”

Holland said collaboration would continue through the year as CPW worked toward a Books Cliffs Herd Management Plan. 

While engaging other stakeholders and land managers, he said the plan would seek to learn more about bison numbers crossing into Colorado from Utah and “what an extension of the Book Cliffs herd could be” based on foraging conditions and other complex land use considerations. 

Perhaps hunting seasons could be proposed at some point, Holland said. 

“There will absolutely be bison coming into Colorado, that’s what we’re preparing for,” he said. “How long that will take is probably anybody’s guess.”