Colorado Bookcliffs Bison Range Assessment

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is seeking a contractor to conduct an assessment of the Colorado Bookcliffs bison range. The project aims to estimate the potential wild bison carrying capacity within Game Management Units (GMUs) 21 and 30, quantify existing grazing pressure, assess current rangeland condition, and evaluate the influence of drought and climate conditions on forage availability. The contractor will be required to compile and review existing datasets, conduct field-based vegetation production measurements, and provide transparent, defensible, and reproducible analyses to support wild bison management planning. Key aspects of the project include: • Estimating carrying capacity from spatial and tabular datasets • Conducting field data collection and ground truthing • Comparing field-collected vegetation production data with GIS-derived estimates • Assessing overall habitat and rangeland condition within the management zone • Providing recommendations for the implications of having wild bison on the landscape, given current conditions