Wildlife Slowly Deteriorating in Rocky Mountains

By R. Scott Rappold for the Gazette
The Rocky Mountains were once home to some of America's most diverse wildlife, but human population growth could be squeezing many species out of existence.
That's one of the key findings of the 2009 State of the Rockies Report Card, an annual report published by Colorado College students and researchers on the social, economic and environmental health of the Rocky Mountain region. The report will be the subject of a three-day public symposium starting Sunday.
"We think of wildlife as pretty abundant in the Rockies," said Liz Kolbe, program coordinator for the State of the Rockies. "But as people have spread west, (wildlife species) have been extirpated from most of their habitat, so we're pretty lucky to still have them where we do."
This year's report focused on wildlife and rivers, as well as demographic changes affecting the eight Rocky Mountain states - Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.
In the past 150 years, elk have lost 74 percent of their range, and cougars have lost 36 percent. At the same time, coyote range has increased 40 percent. Animal-vehicle collisions increased 50 percent from 1990 to 2004.
The authors point to growing cities, more roads and increased energy production in the Rocky Mountain states. Only 6.8 percent of residents hunt, down from a high of 17.7 percent 36 years ago.