Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is a member organization that seeks to ensure North America's outdoor heritage of hunting and fishing in a natural setting, through education and work on behalf of wild public lands, waters, and wildlife. Our mission is to provide access and opportunities for quality fair-chase hunting and fishing opportunities; habitat restoration and stewardship; and conservation education.  We support the North American Model of Wildlife Management and hunter ethics.

We support SB25-053, the Protect Wild Bison bill with the amendments proposed by the DNR. Among other things, these amendments provide CPW the authority to establish license prices, fines, and penalties for the harvesting, illegal possession and poaching of wildlife. This would allow the opportunity for regulated hunting if and when it became useful as a management tool.  In the few states that have regulated hunting of wild bison they are a highly sought-after big game animal.  We would welcome that opportunity should conditions in Colorado ever merit that possibility.  We strongly support these amendments to bring bison management in line with the management of other ungulate species. 

Bison were the iconic wild herbivore in much of the North American Continent at the time of European settlement.  They were a major source of food and materials for Native American for at least the past 14,000 years as well as a major part of their cultural heritage.  The current classification in Colorado as livestock leaves wild bison which may occasionally drift into the state from neighboring states no protection.

This bill has no provisions for re-introduction of wild bison into Colorado.  That would require a separate bill from the Colorado General Assembly.  It simply establishes a dual classification such that wild bison arriving in Colorado would be under the management of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

We recognize that this would put additional obligations on Colorado Parks and Wildlife to develop a bison management plan that would address the concerns of the many interested and affected parties.  Yet we feel that this would be worthwhile whether or not there should ever be a sustainable bison population in Colorado or just a transient one.

- The Colorado Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers