December 1, 2000

Buffalo at the airport? You herd it here

DENVER (AP) -- City officials want to relocate a herd of buffalo to the grassy plains near Denver International Airport to give travelers a taste of the West when they visit.

"Look at the appeal of the buffalo herd on I-70," says Robert Albin, a local businessman and former chairman of the Greater Denver Chamber of Commerce, who is pushing the bison proposal. "It's almost a mystical link to our Western past."

Albin and other business leaders met with Mayor Wellington Webb this month to discuss the bison habitat, and Webb authorized the Denver Department of Parks and Recreation to study locating the animals near the airport between Pena Boulevard and Buckley Road.

The project will take as long as two years to implement and could cost as much as $3 million.

The largest cost will be to fence off 422 acres near the historic barn off Pena Boulevard.

The city has been trying to seed the area so the animals will have a natural grazing ground.

The herd, which will likely be established in 2002, will start with about 10 cow-calf groups and grow to as many as 30 cow-calf units with a bull, says project manager Wilma Taylor, a special assistant to the manager of aviation.

The city already has two mountain parks, Daniels and Genesee, with buffalo herds. Some of those animals may be transplanted to the airport.

Ranchers have also offered to donate animals for the new herd.

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