Colorado wildlife have faced many threats over the last century and a half, not always successfully. Wolves and grizzlies were eradicated-because of public fears and competition with agriculture and ranching interests. Bison were hunted to extinction in the wild, primarily due to U.S. Army determination to conquer the American Indians. Beaver were nearly wiped out by trapping in order to meet people's demand for felt hats. Peregrine falcons and bald eagles declined because of pesticide poisoning. But today one single enemy looms as the greatest threat to wildlife in our state—loss of habitat.
In simplest terms, habitat is home. It's the place wild animals live and is comprised of four factors necessary for life: food, water, shelter, and space. If a given area can't provide the right combination of food, water, shelter or space for a species, that place becomes uninhabitable for that animal. As land in our state is developed for urban, agricultural, residential, industrial, and intensive recreational uses, it is largely lost as diverse wildlife habitat.
Some species can co-exist with humans and their activities, but many cannot. 
Some animals die as a direct result of habitat degradation; others migrate to new areas or simply fail to reproduce. Bighorn sheep, for example, once occupied many parts of Colorado. Although we think of them as a high altitude species, they once lived at lower altitudes in habitat offering the same kind of steep terrain for escape and security we find them in today. Human activity and development drove the bighorns higher into the mountains to less hospitable habitat. The sheep, in turn, were forced to encroach on the habitat of other animals.
Habitat destruction and degradation, through pollution, erosion, and direct development, are proceeding at an alarming rate. An average of 117,000 acres per year were lost to building construction, highways, grassland plowout and ski area development in Colorado from 1982-1987. In the ten years from 1975 to 1985, open agricultural land along the Front Range was converted to urban land uses at the rate of over 100 acres every day. We value the "wild" areas of our state, and wildlife are part of our quality of life in Colorado. But where will the animals go when people are using all the land?
As habitat decreases, the cost of wildlife management increases. "When we had lots of habitat, it didn't take sophisticated techniques to manage the state's wildlife," explained Division of Wildlife Director Perry Olson. "But as the amount of habitat goes down and natural resources become finite, management efforts must become more intensive, and costs go up." Even so, no amount of money can preserve viable, free-ranging wildlife populations once their habitat is gone.
Can we continue to encourage economic growth and urban development in Colorado and preserve our wildlife, too? We must answer this question and seek solutions to the problem of habitat loss. And we must do it soon.
