A draft management plan for elk and bison at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve has been released for public review/NPS

Elk and bison at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve Colorado should be managed to protect sensitive habitat in the park and to prevent overpopulation, according to a draft plan produced by park staff.

The document, open for public review through May 31, aims to give the park its first ungulate management plan, and anticipates the Park Service taking control of bison after it acquires the Medano Ranch that lies within park boundaries from The Nature Conservancy. From that ranch bison already wander into the park.

The park's preferred alternative seeks to prevent elk from "overconcentrating" in areas of Great Sand Dunes, and seeks to balance elk and bison populations in the park to prevent overgrazing. Already, the report notes, a higher percentage of elk retreat to winter habitat on and around wetlands inside the park than the habitat can handle. At the same time, bison from the Medano Ranch head to the same winter habitat.

As outlined in the preferred alternative, elk populations and movements would be controlled through lethal removal, non-lethal hazing, exclosures, and hunting in the preserve portion of Great Sand Dunes.

As for bison, the plan proposes that for the first 5-7 years after the Park Service acquires the Medano Ranch, the agency and TNC would partner to manage the bison herd. But after that period, the herd would be reduced from the estimated 1,700 individuals to just 25-50, a number "intended to reflect the extent of periodic bison presence thought to have historically occurred in the planning area based on GRSA’s location in the historic continental range of the species and comparing to other (Interior Department) managed bison herds."

However, the bison population could be allowed to increase to 80-260, a number in line with the "upper limit of the density range" the park landscape could handle, the report said. It could grow larger yet if the bison range is allowed to extend to a larger area of the park or onto adjacent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands, it added.

The bison population would be managed through transfer to willing recipients, such as tribes, or through slaughter, the report said.

While the thought of bringing wolves back to the park to help control elk and bison populations was considered, it was eliminated "because the home range size of a viable population of wolves would exceed the habitat available on Great Sand Dunes. Because of this it is expected that wolves would rapidly disperse to neighboring lands and the State of Colorado does not support reintroduction of wolves at this time."

You can read the details of the report, and comment on it, at this site.

A map of Great Sand Dunes Park and Preserve that reflects the location of the Medano Ranch/NPS