DOW wraps up moose reintroduction on Grand Mesa

Matt Hildner

Daily Press Writer

MONTROSE — Dr. Roger Shenkel got his last free ride Friday night.

The Grand Junction family physician, who helped hatch the idea for reintroducing moose on the Grand Mesa, joined Division of Wildlife staffers as they conducted the final release on the mesa last weekend.

Nearly two years after the DOW started its release program, agency officials believe the population -estimated at roughly 84 - is ready to carry on without any further transplants.

That means Shenkel will no longer get to watch the often elusive animals as they scramble out of the trailer to their new home.

“The party’s over for me. Now I’ve got to out and look for them,” he joked.

The DOW’s most recent catch and release brought 24 moose, including 20 cows, from the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in northern Utah. Half were released on the north side of the mesa near Collbran. The other half were released on the south side near Paonia.

The reintroduction program has placed an emphasis on bringing in cows and the agency believes there are now 50 of them along with 28 bulls and six calves of unknown sex.

The higher number of cows is meant to limit competition between bulls for territory.

“If the ratio is any closer than that, what happens is the bulls use up all their energy fighting other bulls so that’s rough on the population,” he said.

Lewandowski said the agency hopes that within five to 10 years, there will be between 250 and 350 moose on the mesa.

“The area could probably handle more but we want the population to stay in that area,” Lewandowski said.

The hunch that the area would be good for moose was not lost on Shenkel and his friend Bruce Bauerle, a professor of biology and ecology at Mesa State College.

Twenty years ago the two got to talking about the habitat atop the Mesa and believed the willow in the area could support the animals.

“It just looked like good moose habitat,” Shenkel said. “Bruce felt the same way.”

The DOW had already established a program to bring moose to the North Platte Valley in north-central Colorado in the late 1970s and also started a herd near Creede in the 1990s.

Roughly six years ago, after their professional careers had slowed down some, Shenkel and Bauerle approached the DOW about bringing moose to the mesa.

In 2002 the DOW got to work on the idea.

A habitat analysis conducted by the DOW estimated the area could sustain as many as 1,912 moose. It estimated that 464 could make it in the winter, provided they wintered down to 7,000 feet.

The agency also held public meetings in the area to reassure ranchers that moose would not compete for the same forage as livestock.

Shenkel praised the DOW for all of its work on the program along with the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management for making the program work.

“The transplant program has worked beautifully,” Shenkel said. “The Division has really followed through.”

Contact Matt Hildner via e-mail at matth@montrosepress.com