Writing to Steamboat Springs City Council is EASY!
Their email address is citycouncil@steamboatsprings.net
Enter that as your destination email address, add a Subject such as “Please vote NO on Mad Rabbit”, then enter the text you want and hit send!
We’ve posted a few sample emails below, but we’d prefer if you use your own words and customize the emails if you use them. Here are some key points you may wish to include:
The Forest Service secretly altered the Adaptive Management Plan they had codeveloped with Colorado DNR/CPW.
CPW is the premier wildlife agency in the state, chartered to manage all the state’s wildlife. They are THE experts when it comes to Colorado’s wildlife.
It appears the Forest service was all for the plan until they received a favorable funding vote in December. Then they changed the plan. It appears the Forest Service was not operating in good faith.
People across the political spectrum are losing trust in government and our institutions. Norms are being violated. This is the case here. The Forest Service’s actions here only deepen the distrust.
The City Council is in an unprecedented situation, but it is up to City Council to do what’s right.
The City should insist that the Forest Service reinstate the original Adaptive Management Plan. Barring that, the City should decline to fund Mad Rabbit.
EXAMPLE EMAILS
Dear Steamboat Springs City Council,
I am writing you today to respectfully request that you not fund the Mad Rabbit Trails Project. I request this due to the Forest Service's unethical actions related to the Adaptive Management Plan codeveloped with Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
I was dismayed to learn that the Forest Service secretly altered the Adaptive Management Plan co-developed and agreed to with DNR and CPW. This innovative idea was poised to address key resource concerns valued by all people in Routt County, whether fans or skeptics of Mad Rabbit.
Furthermore, it was the plan submitted and presented to City Council, with the Forest Service praising key features of the plan – features they would later alter or delete once they believed they had secured funding.
This is terrible public policy. They misled not only the state, DNR, and CPW, but also the City Council and people of Steamboat Springs, Routt County, and beyond. They clearly are not acting in good faith.
I also have fears of what this means outside of Steamboat and Routt County. This controversy has already been covered statewide. If the Forest Service cannot be trusted in a public agreement they made, why would future environmental or conservation groups ever trust the Forest Service? Why would the state wildlife agencies across the west trust the Forest Service? By acting in bad faith, the Forest Service is risking a regionwide reluctance to use adaptive management plans to deal with controversial trail projects.
Finally, people across the political spectrum are losing trust in government and our institutions. This action by the Forest Service only deepens this mistrust. It's time for elected officials to stand up for honest open government.
For all these reasons, I respectfully ask the City Council of Steamboat Springs to not grant funding to the Forest Service for Mad Rabbit.
Sincerely,
Dear Steamboat Springs City Council,
I am writing you today requesting that you deny funding of the Mad Rabbit Trails Project unless the Forest Service reinstates the original Adaptive Management Plan codeveloped with Colorado DNR and CPW.
I have deep concerns regarding the changes the Forest Service made unilaterally to the plan, including the changes in phases, delaying restoration of unauthorized trails, removal of any elk impact monitoring, and removal of CPW as a collaborating agency for many important topics related to Mad Rabbit.
Colorado DNR/CPW are the experts on wildlife, and have the statewide charter to manage wildlife in Colorado. The plan codeveloped between DNR/CPW and the Forest Service should be reinstated. This issue goes wider than Steamboat Springs or Routt County. If the Forest Service is rewarded for their bad faith actions here, who would ever trust the Forest service again to develop an adaptive management plan for other controversial projects? This impacts not only Routt County, but the state of Colorado and the entire Rocky Mountains West, where there is increasing concern between conservation and recreation. Adaptive Management Plans are an innovative tool for resolving such conflicts, but rewarding the Forest Service for misleading the state (and the City Council) will poison the well for future plans.
Finally, the NEPA process itself calls out the important role cooperating agencies have in supplying specific expertise to the Forest Service. This was the case with respect to Colorado DNR/CPW who have a deep understanding about wildlife and habitat. The Forest Service broke this process when they unilaterally altered the Adaptive Management Plan.
For all these reasons, I respectfully request that the City Council hold off any funding of Mad Rabbit.
Respectfully,
Dear Steamboat Springs City Council,
I am writing you today to request that you decline any funding of Mad Rabbit due to the Forest Service's altering of the Adaptive Management Plan collaboratively developed with Colorado DNR and CPW.
I was shocked to read that the Forest Service secretly altered this plan. This plan appeared to be a new innovative idea of how to keep a project within the bounds of no significant impact by frequent monitoring and adjustments to any significant impacts detected. It was publicly touted by both, the Forest Service and DNR/CPW. In fact, the Forest Service enthusiastically promoted key features of the plan in front of council, features that they would later alter or delete. The “only one phase per year” rule? Deleted. Phases 1, 2, and 3? Reordered. Collaboration with CPW in the plan? Eliminated collaborating with CPW biologists, collaborating on special events, and collaborating on specific zone or phase changes.
When the Forest Service did this, secretly, they not only misled DNR and CPW, they also misled the City Council of Steamboat Springs, as well as the citizens of Routt County.
Through this one terrible act, they threw the concept of adaptive management planning with the Forest Service under the bus. If you can’t trust the Forest Service to honor their word, why would anyone risk 6 months of negotiation effort that might be jettisoned in secret once the Forest service has the chance?
Adaptive management had a chance to be a critical new tool on how the mountain west deals with recreation and conservation. Now it appears just to be a cynical trick to get a project passed and then discarded.
Due to all these issues, I respectfully request that the City Council NOT fund Mad Rabbit.
Regards,