The Uncompahgre Habitat Partnership Program (UHPP) Committee was originally appointed in 1996. The UHPP has experienced a steady increase in big game/landowner conflicts due to a variety of reasons, occurring primarily on the exterior "fringes" of the Uncompahgre Plateau, on private lands and the public/private land "interface". Conflicts are due to the expanded and changing distribution of deer and elk within the program area, a long-term increase in elk numbers, activities and development associated with human population growth, habitat fragmentation, declining quantity and quality of big game winter habitat, and overall declining habitat diversity at the landscape level. These factors have resulted in an unpredicted and undesirable distribution of big game animals, impacting the forage base, agricultural crops, livestock operations, and fences on private and adjacent public lands.
