The Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) has been involved in land use planning activities since the mid-1970's. Through the adoption of House Bill 1041, local governments (cities & counties) have requested the expertise of the CDOW to map important wildlife habitats throughout the State. These maps of important wildlife habitat are developed first by mapping 20-30 select species known to occur in a given geographic area (usually on a county basis). It would be extremely difficult to accurately map all species known to occur in a given area so the premise is that habitat mapped for the select species also represents the important wildlife habitat for the remainder of the species thought to occur in the area.
Several criteria are used for creating a list of select species. Economically important species, such as big game, are mapped. Indicator species, those with restricted distributions or highly specific habitat requirements, are mapped because they serve as barometers of change. Federal or State threatened or endangered species are mapped to meet legal requirements. Finally, rare, imperiled, and species of concern are mapped in the hopes that pro-active conservation efforts might prevent their potential listing. Availability of adequate information to accurately map the occurrence of species is also a consideration.
Once the list of select species are mapped for a given geographic area,
their activity areas (i.e. winter range, calving area, nesting area, etc.)
are ranked based on their biological importance to the species and their
potential for impact from development or human disturbance. When
ranking is complete, the CDOW Geographic Information System then creates
a new composite map of Significant Wildlife Habitat which can then be used
for land use planning activities. The map of Significant Wildlife
Habitat is used by local planners as a triggering mechanism for referral
of applications to and involvement of the local District Wildlife Managers.
These individuals can review the land use application, assess potential
impacts, and offer mitigation strategies for consideration by the developer
and land use decision makers.
Historically, CDOW was incapable of
mapping certain critical habitat types directly. This was especially
true of wetland/riparian habitat. As a result, species such as beaver,
waterfowl, great blue heron, and others were selected for mapping because
they utilized these important habitats and thus these areas could be mapped
indirectly. Even with the development of satellite imagery riparian
vegetation was difficult to distinguish due both to the resolution of the
imagery (90m x 90m with early MSS data and 30m x 30m with current TM data)
and due to the disjoint nature of these areas in the arid West.
Recently, however, with the effort undertaken by the CDOW, larger and more complete blocks of riparian vegetation
(Status Map) are being delineated. As a
result, once a countywide block of riparian habitat is delineated, it is
included in the composite maps for land use planning purposes. It
does not necessarily take the place of indicator species mapping but rather
is complementary to those efforts. Because of the importance of riparian
habitat to wildlife, it is automatically ranked in the "Very High" potential
impact category and protected accordingly.