Colorado’s booming moose population a growing concern, wildlife officials say

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Colorado’s booming moose population a growing concern, wildlife officials say

Brad Manard feels relief each time he takes a tour group into Rocky Mountain National Park and his first stop, Sheep Lakes in Horseshoe Park, delivers a moose.

He’s more confident these days that if Sheep Lakes doesn’t deliver, his other favorite moose spots will.

“The first question people used to ask is, ‘Are we going to see elk?’ Now it’s, ‘Are we going to see a moose?'” said Manard, who owns RMNPhotographer Tours in Estes Park. “I tell them there’s a chance depending on the time of year. But in June last year, I was in the park every day through the 25th and saw moose every day.”

Will Deacy, the park’s large mammal ecologist, shares another side of the park visitors’ most sought-after wildlife. He said about 4% of the park is wetlands, many of which contain willows, and 95% of those willows on the west side of the park have been lost in the last 20 to 30 years.

“We know we have heavily degraded wetlands and a long history of too many elk on winter range on the east side of the park that is reducing willows,” he said. “We strongly suspect moose are exacerbating that, which is making restoration of our wetlands difficult.”

Somewhere in the middle, the park must find balance between how many moose it can sustain to match visitor enjoyment with vegetative growth.

Rocky Mountain National Park didn’t use to have a moose problem, but that has changed in a big way

Historical records of moose in or near Rocky Mountain National Park, which was created in 1915, indicate little evidence of the animals’ presence, according to the park. Historical accounts from the 1860s document one instance of a moose that was shot and killed near present-day Estes Park.

That began to change in 1978-1979 when the Colorado Division of Wildlife, now named Colorado Parks and Wildlife, introduced 12 moose each of those years into North Park, just west of the park, to increase wildlife viewing and hunting opportunities.

In 1980, the park saw its first moose, in the Kawuneeche Valley on the park’s west side, a place outside of which moose were rarely seen for the next 30 years.

That has markedly changed over the past 12 years.

“There are now many more moose sightings on the east side of the park and moose are in every drainage in the park,” park spokesperson Kyle Patterson said.

While the viewing has increased, so has the damage to biodiverse rich wetlands, namely its tall willows.

It’s a numbers game, and the numbers don’t add up

Remember, wetlands cover 4% of the park, with willows not present in all wetlands.

Moose love willows, which in summer make up 91% of a moose’s diet. A large moose can consume about 45 pounds or more of willow in a day, according to the park.

Willows make up 15% of an elk’s diet, which amounts to about 3 pounds of willows a day.

Moose are difficult to count, but preliminary results from park surveys estimated the moose population grew 5% annually in 2019 and 2020, the last time the park surveyed the animals, resulting in around 145 moose.

However, the survey only covered about 65% of the park and did not include all areas of known moose habitat such as the Wild Basin and Paradise Park areas, resulting in the park acknowledging the parkwide moose population is underestimated.

This summer, the park will renew it’s aerial moose population survey with a new estimate expected this fall.

The number of elk in the park in winter is estimated around 100, with several hundred more in nearby Estes Park and surrounding area. Those numbers increase in summer through fall.

Hundreds of elk around the park and Estes Park migrate in winter to Loveland and the surrounding area.

Since Colorado Parks and Wildlife brought 24 moose from Utah and Wyoming into North Park in the late 1970s, the statewide population has ballooned to around 3,500 animals, and growing, according to the state wildlife agency. That is more moose than Wyoming and on par with Utah.

The current estimated moose population in North Park, where the original moose transplants took place, is around 670. The estimated moose population in the nearby Laramie River area is around 200.

Andy Holland, Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s statewide big game manager, said the agency is intentionally working to keep moose populations just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park stable. He said the agency does this mainly through hunting with herd management plans assigned to areas in an attempt to balance the herd size with its habitat while accommodating the public’s demand for wildlife recreational opportunities.

Hunters had a 77% success rate, killing 473 moose statewide, in 2023.

“It’s important to use hunting, especially harvesting cows (females), so we don’t damage the willows and aspen,” Holland said. “Moose will go gangbusters, rapidly increasing. We want to keep them at objective numbers so they don’t exhaust the resource and ******. Nobody wants that.”

Restoring the park’s wetland habitat is a complex task

Restoring the park’s willow-beaver wetland ecosystem isn’t just a moose issue.

“The perfect ecosystem has a bunch of connected parts,” Deacy explained. “Restoration can’t mess with with just one part. There are three to four major parts to it.”

Deacy said restoring a healthy hydrology that promotes high water tables and creates a habitat for willows to proliferate is critical.

That means populations of moose, elk and to a lesser extent deer (collectively called ungulates) need to be managed at levels that can sustain growth of tall willows. That task is made more difficult because hunting of those ungulates is not allowed in the park, and there are few predators — mountain lions, ****** bears, coyotes and only recently a wolf — there.

Because of that, moose adults and calves have high survival rates.

Healthy wetland and willows make an ideal habitat for beavers, whose job it is to create dams that store and filter water, to return to the park in larger numbers.

“The cheat code is if we can restore the processes for the beavers, that will improve the hydrology and tall willow growth,” Deacy said. “A really healthy ecosystem is 100% consistent with excellent wildlife viewing.”

The park began its

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in 2017 and will continue until it has enough data to create a moose management plan.

In 2020, the park and other entities began the

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to restore the willow-beaver wetland ecosystem.

The park’s

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is a 20-year endeavor to address the impacts of an overabundance of elk on park resources, including willow and aspen.

“We’re not sure how long it will take, but it’s on the decades scale,” Deacy said of restoring the park’s willow-beaver wetland ecosystem.

‘I hope we don’t forget that for visitors to the park, moose viewing is huge.’

Manard said he photographed his first moose around 1982 in the Kawuneeche Valley. The first time he saw one on the east side of the park was at Sprague Lake in 2013.

His company now leads more than 200 tours in the park every summer, he said.

Manard said he sees both sides of the park’s growing moose population dilemma. He hopes the park will ultimately find the right number of moose to sustain his business and restore the park’s wetlands and willows for the park’s 4 million annual visitors.

“Moose are important to the economy of Estes Park, Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park,” he said. “They are wonderful to educate visitors about moose and their habitat. I also understand the park studying moose and finding a good balance of the number of moose the park can sustain. I hope we don’t forget that for visitors to the park, moose viewing is huge.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan:

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