The Denver Mountain Parks system contains more than 14,000 acres (5,700 ha) of parklands in the mountains and foothills of Jefferson, Clear Creek, Douglas, and Grand counties in Colorado, west and south of Denver. The Denver Mountain Park properties encompass a variety of habitats, including prairie, mountain meadow, riparian forests, montane (ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir) and subalpine (Engelmann spruce) forests, and alpine tundra. Bison herds were established in wildlife preserves at Genesee Park in 1914 and later in as part of an effort to recover this species extirpated from Colorado.