WELCOME TO THE SEPTEMBER 2026 KEEP ROUTT WILD NEWSLETTER!

Hello, Keep Routt Wild followers!

In this month’s newsletter we’re bringing you the latest updates on three conservation topics of interest in Routt County.

First, we report on the unprecedented surge of bears into mountain towns.

Second, we give an update on the proposed oil and gas leases in Routt National Forest.

Third, we are reporting on the latest news regarding Stagecoach Mountain Ranch.

Read about these three news items below, along with our standard section of “What We’ve been Reading and Watching”, summarizing conservation news from the region.

For those who are unfamiliar with Keep Routt Wild, we are a community organization dedicated to the preservation of wildlife and wild places in Routt County. We do this through education, engagement, and practicing conservation through informed science, To find out more about Keep Routt Wild, go to our website, or follow our nearly daily postings on Facebook. If you were forwarded this email and want to sign up for our monthly newsletter, you may sign up here.

We are a 501(c)3 non-profit, and we humbly ask you to consider a donation to Keep Routt Wild here. Thank you.

Image: Colorado Parks and Wildlife

You’ve seen them. Bears. Maybe alone, perhaps a sow with cubs roaming the neighborhoods of Steamboat and other Routt County towns at all times of day and night. It’s not just Routt County; Colorado is experiencing a record number of bears braving human towns and cities with a singular focus in search for calories as the drought has limited natural food supplies.

With that has come record human/bear conflicts. There now have been seven bear attacks in Colorado this year, the latest being an Estes Park woman in her 80s who woke to find a bear in her kitchen. That follows an earlier attack in Jefferson County just the week before where a bear knocked over a man fishing and bit his legs. At the Farmers Market this weekend, we spoke to an Oak Creek man who discovered that a bear had pushed through a panel on a locked exterior door to gain access to his home. This past week we heard a report that CPW Steamboat Springs sees about one to two bears in homes in a normal season, but now sees that many per day. With the start of hyperphagia, where bears can consume up to 20,000 calories per day in preparation for winter, bears are throwing caution to the wind in search of elusive calories.

Our hearts break for these iconic critters. Ironically, the monsoon rains have alleviated some of the shortages at higher elevations, but many bears have already habituated themselves to search human sources for food. Without incentives to change their ways, they will continue to do so.

In response to these desperate actions by bears, many people are proposing supplemental feeding of bears and even offering them human food sources. We love our ursine companions, but this is misguided. We should be doing the opposite- being extra vigilant to make sure bears do not have access to human food sources- in trash, bird and pet feeders, cars, and unlocked homes.

In light of this unprecedented situation 10 statewide groups, including CPW, Keep Bears Wild Steamboat, and Keep Routt Wild have developed an editorial that details the history of how we got here, the problems with supplemental feeding, and what you can do to help. We invite you to read it here.

More than ever, we all need to practice bear-aware behavior. Let’s keep our bears wild and alive, and our residents safe.

Above is an image, courtesy of Rocky Mountain Wild, that overlays the proposed oil and gas leasing sites with designated Colorado Roadless Areas (dark green) and elk production (calving) areas (pink). The entire area is in CPW-indicated elk summer range.

We reported earlier that the Forest Service is considering leasing “10 parcels of Routt National Forest to the BLM for a potential future oil and gas lease sale and subsequent exploration and development.” The parcels total 13,850 acres, and the project details and public comment can be found here. We noted that there were 355 comments in the Reading Room at the time, with a vast majority being opposed to the project.

While leasing to the BLM may seem circuitous, this is an artifact that the BLM owns the subsurface mineral rights, including oil and gas. There’s a myriad of complications to this proposal, including whether, once leased to the BLM, the Forest Service could even enforce any of its protective surface land stipulations on the BLM, who is given freer reign under HR-1 and new BLM rules.

The parcels are in some of the most beautiful and biodiverse areas of Routt National Forest. They are home to sage grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, sandhill cranes, and the birthing areas for the second largest elk herd in the world- the Bears Ears Elk Herd.

As we reported in our July newsletter, we decided to show off what special locations these are by partnering with EcoFlight to deliver narrated tours of the area for the media and our federal delegation. Three days later U.S. Representative Neguse and U.S. Senators Bennet and Hickenlooper wrote a joint letter to the Forest Service opposing the lease.

We have no doubt the BLM will proceed with the leases if the Forest Service approves. Therefore, the gating function of whether the oil and gas leases go forward rests entirely at the doorstep of the Forest Service. The decision maker is identified as District Ranger Michael Woodbridge. We respectfully ask that he deny the proposed leases.

We are very concerned that instead of denying or pausing the proposed leases, the Forest Service will fast track them. District Ranger Woodbridge stated recently at the Routt Recreation and Conservation Roundtable that he is treating this as an “administrative item” instead of an environmental evaluation measuring the impact of his decision to consent to leasing on habitat, recreation, and other forest values. When asked if recently-announced BLM policies that enable the BLM to ignore stipulations included ignoring the Colorado Roadless Rule, Woodbridge replied that he didn’t know.

The Colorado Roadless Rule is a bedrock of protection for 4.2 million acres of Forest Service land in Colorado. Eight of the 10 parcels include Colorado Roadless Areas. It seems astonishing that the Forest Service would consider leasing to another entity without knowing whether they will comply with this federal rule.

Furthermore, treating this as merely an administrative decision is an attempt to skirt important forest management issues at the doorstep of the Forest Service, as the custodian of these sensitive public lands. The Forest Service’s environmental analysis avoids confrontation of the impacts of leasing by labeling them as either (1) not caused by the Forest Service’s consent; (2) previously considered via analyses conducted in the 1990s; or (3) presenting resource concerns that should be deferred to the project-specific stage as the land is leased.

Really?

The Forest Service is chartered with the protection of these resources and the District Ranger, as the decision maker, can approve or withhold its consent to surface leasing on all or any parts of this area. At the bare minimum, the Forest Service should withhold consent to leasing on the eight parcels that include Colorado Roadless Areas.  

While the project page states that the estimated decision date is next June, Mr. Woodbridge stated he expects to issue the decision this month, September, fast-tracking the project. He also stated that he expects an expedited objection process.

Once more, we respectfully ask that Mr. Woodbridge do the right thing for our public lands, and the wildlife and community members who use them, by withholding Forest Service consent to these leases.

We continue to bring you the latest news about SMR (Stagecoach Mountain Ranch) as the 6100-acre project goes through the County planning process. As a reminder, KRW has not taken a position on the development, but has been laser-focused on the wildlife and habitat impacts and compliance with the new County UDC (Unified Development Code). We invite you to view our SMR informational web page here. We particularly invite you to read our submitted comments, and our presentation from the SMR Community Forum, which can be found on the web page.

Since we reported last, the County Planning Department has issued a second correction letter to Discovery Land Corporation. You can read it here. It is 11 pages long and comprises 127 questions and comments about SMR’s application. A Steamboat Pilot article summarized much of the content. There are a range of issues, including whether a new electrical substation and potentially a new electric transmission line would be required. Other issues include water, irrigation, wastewater, construction traffic, emergency access, trails, parks, open space, wildlife, and stormwater management. The Pilot article stated, “With the second corrections letter issued, Discovery Land Company officials will now have to respond to all points of contention, after which Routt County Planning staff will undertake a third round of review, according to Goldich. Public hearings are most likely still months away at the earliest, he said.”

What we’ve been reading and watching

(Click on any title to read the article.)

A Bear that got into Casey's Pond in July was Euthanized

Steamboat Police Chief Mark Beckett: “I think the important thing is we need to support CPW. We’re having unprecedented levels of contact with bears. The majority of those are still preventable, and I think your messaging you’ve been putting out there about Bear Safe is the way to go. We are responding multiple times a day right now to bears in houses and bears in structures. People need to be vigilant, and they need to remember to lock their doors, lock their windows. They’re very aggressive right now. People need to be smart.”

Colorado voters will be asked to redirect sporting goods sales tax revenue to conservation and wildfire restoration

“State election officials this week approved signatures to land Proposition 137 on the November ballot. Previously called Proposition 308, the new ballot measure could divert $175 million to $180 million a year in already collected sales taxes on sporting goods equipment toward conservation, wildfire mitigation, watershed restoration and improved outdoor recreation opportunities.”

Ballot proposal seeking to enshrine Colorado’s right to hunt and fish clears hurdle  

“As written, it proposes adding language to the state’s constitution establishing a “right of the people of Colorado to hunt, fish and take fish and wildlife including by traditional methods.” It also includes provisions that hunting and fishing “shall be the primary and preferred means of responsibly managing fish and wildlife populations,” and clarifying that it does not limit the authority of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission and state legislature to regulate hunting, fishing and wildlife, so long as “any such regulation must be reasonable and necessary” for scientific management, public safety or preserving hunting and fishing opportunities …. Opponents of the measure argue that not only are there already statutory protections for hunting and fishing opportunities, but, if passed, it would also reduce Parks and Wildlife’s flexibility to manage wildlife and lead to more lawsuits.”

National report recognizes Routt County for wildlife habitat planning

“The National Association of Counties released a report last month on county planning for wildlife habitat connectivity, which featured Routt County as one of only five counties in the United States as notable case studies. …The report notes how Routt County has integrated wildlife protection and connectivity into both its 2022 Master Plan and its 2024 Unified Development Code — two critical documents that have largely underpinned the back-and-forth development review and multiple correction letters in Discovery Land Company’s Stagecoach Mountain Ranch application.”

Counties warn CPW that new comment limits sideline local governments

“The September meeting of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission will feature newly revised public‑comment rules — changes introduced by chair Jay Tutchton of Bent County, who announced them without first discussing the revisions publicly with the rest of the commission. … Priority, in terms of receiving additional time and being moved to the start of the public comment period, will no longer be afforded to elected officials.”

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