CPW approves dual classification for bison: what it means for future restoration

STERLING, Colo. — Bison can no longer be shot on site in Colorado.

This comes after the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission approved dual classifications for bison this week, creating a distinction between domestic bison and wild bison, which are classified as big game.

Under the new regulations, fenced bison will remain livestock under the Colorado Department of Agriculture, while wild bison entering the state will be managed as big-game wildlife by CPW.

Although Colorado currently has no confirmed wild bison herds, the updated harvesting rules address the few bison that are migrating into the state from Utah’s Book Cliffs herd.

Because of hunting and the fur trade, the North American bison population plummeted from an estimated 30 to 60 million to near extinction by 1890, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

The National Park Service notes that, along with intense drought and the introduction of horses, which made bison hunting more efficient and increased competition for food and water, a major stressor on the bison population was also the mass killings of bison to subdue the Plains Indians. 

“I'm hoping we slow this process down until tribes are involved,” said Dallas Gudgell, a member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of Montana, during the CPW commission meeting. “I do believe tribes need to have — if and when, in years from now, you have 500 bison in your state roaming around — that tribes get priority for their usual, accustomed aboriginal food source for their hunting and fishing and usual accustomed areas.”

Wild bison in Colorado will be legally protected starting Jan. 1, 2026. 

Updates to existing regulations are required for when wild bison once again roam the state, which could take years. The changes will set guidelines to manage wild bison populations and mitigate risks related to disease transmission or property damage, explained Hilary Hernandez, CPW’s regulations manager. 

CPW is also working to implement special bison management permits — where director-approved management licenses can be used on a case-by-case basis. This means that only in specific situations, special licenses will be approved individually to help manage the bison population. The department is also developing a system for interested hunters to join an approved roster of hunters, who could be needed to help manage a free-ranging bison herd. The application form will be available on CPW’s website in January 2026. Hunters will be selected through a random drawing. Those chosen will be notified directly by CPW.

During the meeting, Rainer Gerbatsch of Arvada, Colorado, said it’s great that the state fully recognizes bison as a native species, but recognition alone does not equal restoration. True restoration requires reviving the ecological processes that sustain diversity and resilience, he said.

“Studies on the Great Plains show that the free roaming buffalo double plant diversity, enrich soils, and rebuild wildlife communities,” Gerbatsch said. “This is Colorado's chance to manage not for what can be taken, but for what can live.”

CPW commissioner Murphy Robinson assured that there’s not going to be immediate hunting of bison.

“The rule says that when it's time that there might be the ability to hunt. It literally speaks to and it says that it may not happen for many years,” Robinson said. “I'm looking forward to the day that I can be out on the landscape and see bison just roaming and being out there as a part of our landscape again.”