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Keep Routt Wild

Keep Routt Wild October 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to the October 2025 Keep Routt Wild Newsletter!

Hello, Keep Routt Wild followers!

Our newsletter this month covers several items:

·      Be Bear-Aware and Save a Bear’s Life

·      Mad Rabbit Trails Project Update

·      Stagecoach Mountain Ranch

·      Yampa Valley Gives

We will also include our usual section “What we are reading and watching” that includes interesting reading on local wildlife and conservation issues.

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. To find out more about Keep Routt Wild, go to our website, or follow our nearly daily postings on Facebook. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit, and you can donate to Keep Routt Wild here.


Be Bear-Aware and Save a Bear’s Life!

A tranquilized bear is caught on a tarp, but later euthanized. Image from Keep Routt Wild

 

Every year bears are euthanized near Steamboat Springs due to residents and businesses not securing their trash or leaving other sources of food out. This is particularly true this time of year when bears enter a state of hyperphagia, when they consume upwards of 20,000 calories per day in preparation for their winter hibernation. Human food sources such as trash, pet food, and bird feeders offer easy calories for a bear. Pursuing their food sources, bears often lose their natural fear of people, posing a safety risk to residents and visitors. Unfortunately, relocation has a poor track record and bears are often euthanized, as was the bear in the image above.

You can help! Please secure your trash, pet food, bird feeders and other food sources that can tempt a bear. Let’s keep our bears wild and alive, and our residents safe.

 

Mad Rabbit Trails Project Update

The very first trail work of the Mad Rabbit Trails Project started this summer on Trail 19 in the approximate location of Bruce’s Trail on Rabbit Ears Pass.

The image above shows a close-up of Trail 19. The heavy lines in magenta show the approved Mad Rabbit trails, while the red lines with Xs show unsanctioned trails designated to be removed.

With snow in the forecast and the federal government shutdown continuing, we doubt much more construction will occur this year. As frequent readers are aware, the Forest Service earlier this year secretly altered an Adaptive Management Plan collaboratively designed with Colorado DNR (Division of Natural Resources) and CPW (Colorado Parks and Wildlife), causing the state to reinstate their objection to the project.


Nevertheless, the Adaptive Management Plan that is in place calls for collaboration with CPW and requires public reports on the status and impacts of the project. We’re unaware of any public collaboration to date. We intend to monitor the project as it becomes active next year.

Stagecoach Mountain Ranch

Image courtesy of Stagecoach Mountain Ranch / Discovery Land Corporation

The Routt County Planning Department has accepted the applications submitted by Discovery Land Co. for the development of Stagecoach Mountain Ranch, thus initiating a formal review for the proposed 6,100 acre private ski area near Stagecoach Reservoir.

 

“In addition to a private ski area, Discovery’s Stagecoach Mountain Ranch development plan proposes 613 luxury homes and 137 workforce housing units,” according to the Steamboat Pilot. Public hearings are expected to begin in early 2026. The County has a landing page for the project that you can access here.

 

The project is controversial, with supporters pointing to the increased tax base and economic activity, while others raising concerns regarding its impacts on workforce housing, infrastructure, and its social exclusivity, often citing concerns similar to those in the book Billionaire Wilderness.

 

Recently, the Steamboat Springs City Council discussed the project and drafted a letter to the Routt County Board of County Commissioners detailing a number of issues from the City’s perspective.

 

Keep Routt Wild has taken no position on the proposal at this time, but is evaluating the project and engaging in discussions with the developer and others to learn more. While much of the debate surrounds economic and social issues, our focus will be entirely on wildlife and other resource impacts, reflecting our charter. We are actively investigating the wildlife impacts and proposed mitigation of the development. Our interest in SMR goes beyond this individual project, as this will be one of the first major projects under the County’s new UDC (Unified Development Code) that addresses wildlife mitigation. Therefore, this project will set a precedent of how wildlife mitigation is treated in Routt County for years to come.

Yampa Valley Gives: November 1 through December 9

Yampa Valley is home to over 100 nonprofits who work to enrich the lives of all residents and make this community a wonderful place. Yampa Valley Gives brings the excitement and generosity of Colorado Gives Day to benefit local nonprofit organizations and make it easier to give where you live.

It is also the major fundraising event each year for Keep Routt Wild. Donations given anytime from November 1 up to December 9 (Colorado Gives Day) are also boosted by a percentage of a large incentive fund, meaning that your gift goes even further.

Please consider a gift to Keep Routt Wild this year, starting November 1st. We rely on volunteers and have no paid staff, so your donation goes directly to our mission of preserving wildlife and wild places in Routt County for future generations. It’s one of the most powerful “bang-per-buck” conservation investments you can make. You can make a donation here.

What we’ve been reading and watching

(Click on any title to read the article.)

Heart of a Tribe: After 27 years of advocacy and leadership, the Ute Mountain Ute chairman is ready to rest

“Sitting on his horse watching his fellow ranchers ride onto Pine Crest Ranch to gather their cattle, Manuel Heart, chairman of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe until Nov. 7, was exactly where he wanted to be.” Read the whole thing.

 

Steamboat Springs City Council weighs in on Stagecoach Mountain Ranch development

“Despite a lack of formal authority to push back against the Stagecoach Mountain Ranch development, the Steamboat Springs City Council is weighing in on the project in advance of Routt County’s Oct. 22 deadline for the city’s comments. While the sprawling 6,100-acre development lies outside the city’s land-use jurisdiction — limiting City Council’s role to questions and comments — councilors agreed at their regular meeting on Tuesday that Steamboat Springs cannot afford to overlook the indirect and cumulative effects the project may have on the community.”

Colorado Parks and Wildlife takes first steps toward managing bison as wildlife

“The law — which originated as a priority bill in the American Indian Affairs Interim Study Committee this year — allows bison to be classified as either wildlife or livestock, requiring Parks and Wildlife to develop a plan for those that fall under the former. This dual classification mirrors several other Western states including Utah, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.”

US Fish and Wildlife Services tells Colorado: No more wolves from Canada, Alaska

“In an Oct. 10 letter, Brian Nesvik, director of USFWS, told Gov. Jared Polis and Jeff Davis, director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), that Colorado is not allowed to bring in gray wolves from Canada or Alaska. Any wolves brought to Colorado as part of the wolf reintroduction program must come from one of the lower 48 states, the agency said.

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DONATE TO KEEP ROUTT WILD

If you would like to support Keep Routt Wild and its efforts to save Routt County’s wildlife and wild spaces, please donate at the link below.

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For more information about Keep Routt Wild, please visit our website, Facebook page, and Instagram feed. Our Facebook page has nearly daily updates on news related to local wildlife and conservation. You can sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of our home page at our website.

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Keep Routt Wild, 1815 Central Park Drive, Suite 110 PMB 156, Steamboat Springs, CO 80487, United States

Keep Routt Wild

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