Skip to main content

Chronic Wasting Disease

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious neurological disease that affects members of the deer family, causing erratic behavior and weight loss that eventually results in death. CWD is classified as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), a…

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is the state agency that manages wildlife and oversees outdoor recreation in Colorado. The agency operates the state park system, administers hunting and fishing licenses, conducts research on chronic wasting disease and…

Elk Culling

Culling is a wildlife management practice involving the lethal reduction of a species. It has historically been used as a means to control ungulate (hoofed animal) populations in Colorado and throughout the United States. As recently as 2009, it has been…

Fishers Peak State Park

Established in 2019 as Colorado’s forty-second state park, Fishers Peak State Park covers 19,200 acres south of Trinidad near the New Mexico border. The mountainous area includes a cluster of hills and mesas that give way to the Colorado plains to the…

Land and Resource Management in Colorado

The ideologies of conservation and preservation have profoundly shaped Colorado’s physical landscapes and continue to shape Coloradans’ attitudes toward nature. Agencies such as Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and the United States Forest Service (USFS…

Mule Deer

Mule deer (Odocoilus hemionus) belong to the Cervidae family, hoofed mammals that have antlers, which also include elk (Cervus elaphus), moose (Alces alces), and caribou (Rangifer tarandus). There are numerous sub-classifications of deer, but the most…

Rocky Mountain Elk

Rocky Mountain Elk (Cervus canadensis nelsoni) are large mammals in the deer family that live in Colorado’s forests. Revered as a symbol of the American West, they have played an important role in Colorado’s ecology and natural history. Each year,…