The state of Colorado can move forward with its wildlife action plan after receiving approval from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The plan, developed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), is based on science-backed guidelines that focus on the state’s most vulnerable species and the habitats those plants and animals call home.
Get top headlines and KUNC reporting directly to your mailbox each week when you subscribe to In The NoCo.
Every state is required to create a state wildlife action plan every ten years to receive federal funding for conservation efforts. In Colorado, the state wildlife action plan coordinator, Kaci Miller, spent years developing the latest version.
“We spent about two years in the planning process, where we involved a lot of species experts and habitat experts, so we relied a lot on their expertise about these species that they spend a lot of time studying in their day-to-day work,” said Miller.
There were also public comment periods and collaboration with partnering organizations and agencies to best assess where wildlife stands in the state today.
In the ten years since the last plan, the state has seen some major changes, which have also shifted the focus of which animals and plants are identified as being of greatest concern.
“The world has changed quite a lot in the last 10 years. You know, in CPW’s world too, we've had changes in legislation, different funding, different staffing,” said Miller. “We also have a lot more data than we did 10 years ago for something like our birds. We use the integrated monitoring bird conservation region program, which has collected a ton of bird monitoring data over the last 20 years, and so the last 10 years of data really influenced our information that we use to figure out the species.”
Another change that Coloradans can experience firsthand is how the report is presented. The last wildlife plan was an 850-page PDF. The new plan uses digital resources and a story map to give users an interactive look at the species impacted by the plan. That experience is now available on CPW’s website.
The website highlights some of the most at-risk animals, like wolverines, black-footed ferrets and gray wolves, along with plants such as the Colorado Hookless Cactus. The data also includes reptiles, fish, invertebrates and more.
While the plan may appear to have no direct impact on visitors and locals in the state, Miller and CPW are hopeful that the interactive component will bring more awareness to conservation and encourage people to be good stewards of the outdoors.
“We really worked hard to create a shared purpose with our partners, and think about how we can keep this as a living document that results in real actions,” said Miller. “We see that the solutions to conserving these vulnerable species in their habitats really rely on people. So we're just looking forward to working more and more with everyone to make sure that the work can happen.”
