ECMC adopts CPW’s 2026 high‑priority habitat map updates
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Summary
The Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission adopted Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s proposed 2026 high‑priority habitat (HPH) map updates after a staff presentation and supportive testimony from conservation groups and industry. Commissioners described the rulemaking as non‑contentious and approved the maps and accompanying statement of basis and purpose.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife presented the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission with its proposed 2026 updates to the state’s high‑priority habitat (HPH) maps and the commissioners voted to adopt the maps and the statement of basis and purpose.
Karen Volterra, CPW’s statewide energy lead, told the commission the 2026 update includes statewide raptor‑nest data, grouse and prairie‑chicken lek and production habitat changes, aquatic‑habitat adjustments and species‑activity mapping (SAM) updates concentrated in the Southeast Region. Volterra said the agency made several process changes before notice — including a pre‑notice stakeholder review, more one‑on‑one operator outreach, a public Google feedback form and new GIS map products available on the Colorado Data Explorer and ECMC GIS site. “We’ve added a review period prior to the notice of rulemaking that was requested by stakeholders in previous years,” she said.
CPW described the biggest mapping shifts as a roughly 35% rise in identified greater prairie‑chicken leks and related production‑area acreage and an approximately 20% decline in lesser prairie‑chicken leks where historic lek activity has not been observed in the last 10 years. Volterra said aerial and helicopter surveys also yielded additional golden‑eagle nest identifications in previously inaccessible northwest areas; CPW added about 3,800 acres of eagle‑related mapping this year. On aquatic maps, CPW reported a modest net change — for example, a small decrease in sport‑fish waters (about 2,237 acres) and an increase of roughly 600 acres in native‑species habitat tied to new survey information and flow‑regime changes.
Industry and conservation groups both addressed the commission. Mimi Larson, appearing for the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and API Colorado, thanked CPW and ECMC staff and said her clients “take no issue with the high priority habitat maps proposed for adoption this morning” and urged the commission to adopt the maps and statement of basis and purpose without amendment. A representative for Audubon Rockies, the National Audubon Society, the Colorado Wildlife Federation and Western Resource Advocate expressed support for CPW’s proposed updates and called the process consistent with statutory intent.
Commissioner Ackerman led deliberations and moved to adopt CPW’s draft maps and the statement of basis and purpose; the motion carried by voice vote. Chair Robbins described the proceeding as non‑contentious and the commission recessed briefly after the vote.
What happens next: The adopted maps will be finalized per the notice and adopted statement of basis and purpose and become the basis for ECMC and, where adopted, local permitting and consultation activities that reference HPH layers.
Sources: presentation and Q&A at the ECMC April 8, 2026 hearing; comments from CPW and stakeholders.
