Moose dies after jumping from Steamboat parking structure

“A witness said that people were crowding it, trying to take pictures of it and everything,” CPW district wildlife manager David Rehak Suma said. “Then, sure enough, the moose jumped off the roof there on the north side and fell to its death.”

Read the entire article here.

We’re beyond words expressing our sorrow over this pointless tragedy. However, Steamboat Springs Councilor Joella West was not. She penned this Letter to the Editor which summed up our feelings, “When you panic them so that they jump off a second story onto the concrete below, they die, frightened and in pain. When you go home and tell your friends what you did on vacation, make sure to include that.”

Steamboat Springs City Council President Robin Crossan also remarked about the tragedy at Tuesday’s City Council session. Her remarks may be viewed here.

Keep Routt Wild reached out to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, asking if there were any repercussions for those involved for causing the death of the animal. CPW reported that by the time an officer arrived at the scene, the moose was down and people involved had dispersed. CPW seeks information about the incident. If anyone can identify the people involved, have videos or any other evidence, they are asked to report it through Operation Game Thief at 1-877-COLO-OGT or via email at game.thief@state.co.us . Alternatively, information can be brought directly to CPW Steamboat Springs offices at 925 Weiss Drive, Steamboat Springs.

Alarm sounded for noxious weed “whitetop”

“I feel like I’m witnessing a slow-motion ecological pandemic on our landscape … whitetop has invaded our ecosystem and unfortunately our ecosystem has no way to deal with it,” Cedar Beauregard, secretary for the community organization Keep Routt Wild, recently wrote in a letter to the Routt County Commissioners. “At whitetop’s current rate of spread, I see a point in our future where everything turns white each spring and grass meadows are the exception, not the norm.”

Whitetop is an invasive weed that spreads rapidly and displaces native plants that provide habitat, food, and shelter for wildlife. Read more about it at this Steamboat Pilot article here.

Keep Routt Wild has kicked off an informational page on noxious weeds on our website, which you can view here.

CPW makes big cuts in Northwest Colorado hunting tags in response to severe winter

Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) and the Parks and Wildlife Commission made unprecedented big-game hunting license reductions and shortened some season dates due to severe weather conditions this past winter season. In a press release, CPW stated,” The Severe Winter Zone is an area known for some of the largest elk herds in the nation, and severe winter conditions have resulted in high elk calf and above-average cow mortality. Survival rates are the lowest CPW has ever documented and below what CPW previously thought possible in elk.”
We thank the CPW Commission for taking this difficult, but necessary, step. Keep Routt Wild had joined 10 other groups, all part of the Colorado Wildlife Conservation Project, in calling for substantial hunting license reductions in light of the historic winterkill experienced by ungulates in northwest Colorado.
This will be a long recovery, requiring many years until the populations recover. This situation makes the protection of local ungulate habitat even more critical. proposal has serious impacts.

Governor Polis vetoes 10(j) wolf bill

Senate Bill 256, sponsored by Senator’s Will and Roberts as well as Representatives Lukens and Soper, and co-sponsored by every western slope legislator in the state, would have precluded wolf release until the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) issued a 10(j) rule, designating Colorado wolves as a “nonessential experimental population” and subsequently allowing management by the state of Colorado.

We were disappointed to learn that Governor Polis vetoed the bill, stating the legislation could have led to “unnecessary delays and revisions to the 10J draft rule.” We note that Colorado’s wolf reintroduction plan specifically calls out for 10(j) status and that every wolf reintroduction to date in other states has been under a 10(j) rule.

That said, it is what it is. We are hopeful that the USFWS will issue a 10(j) rule before the end of the year and that wolves are eventually released with 10(j) status.

Monthly Mad Rabbit Trails Project Update

Each month we report on the status of the Mad Rabbit Trails Project. Similar to last month, we have no new news to report by way of formal action by the Forest Service in response to recent public comment.

That said, the recent severe winter and ungulate mortality has only heightened our concerns that this is an ill-conceived project that threatens local wildlife. We’ve previously observed that the project fragments elk summer range and proposes 21 miles trails in CPW-indicated elk calving areas with no seasonal closures at all. Spring and summer range play a critical role in increasing ungulate fat stores so they can survive big winters like one we just had and will be essential for these herds to recover.

In light of the current severe winter crisis impacting the E-2 Bears Ears herd, to further reduce and fragment critical elk habitat as proposed by Mad Rabbit runs counter to CPW’s efforts to recover the impacted herds and counter to best available wildlife science.

Be Bear-aware and save a bear’s life!

We are blessed in Routt County to live in black bear habitat. However, bears are not equally blessed to live near us. Every year local bears are euthanized as they become habituated to humans and inhabit human surroundings.

You can help by securing your trash and other food sources. Visit our bear-aware page here to learn about best practices for living with bears. 

Let’s keep our bears wild and alive, and our residents safe. Thank you!

What we’ve been reading and watching

(Click on any title to read the article.)

County Commissioners support proposal process to expand Sarvis Creek Wilderness

““Wilderness protection has a lot to do with its economic value,” noted Rich Levy, chair of the Routt County Sierra Club chapter. “It’s shown everywhere that towns that have more wilderness have better economic standing than those without it.”

Mountains In Wilderness Don’t Need Hardware

“Now, portions of [the Wilderness Act] may be jeopardized by a recently introduced bill in Congress that could revise elements of the Wilderness Act and allow rock climbers to install fixed anchors into mountain walls in designated Wilderness areas. 

In a hearing on the bill, the Forest Service stated that “creating new definitions for allowable uses in wilderness areas, as (the PARC Act) would do, has the practical effect of amending the Wilderness Act. [It] could have serious and harmful consequences for the management of wilderness areas across the nation.”

Bear accused of 4th Amendment Violation

“A Connecticut case raises the issue of whether a government agency violated the Fourth Amendment by attaching a camera to a bear known to frequent the plaintiffs' property.”

Quote of the Day