Welcome to the January 2021 Keep Routt Wild Newsletter!

In this newsletter we will give an update on the Mad Rabbit Trails Project and share some interesting articles regarding conservation in Colorado. 

As a reminder, Keep Routt Wild is a community organization dedicated to preserving wildlife and wild places in Routt County. Our mission is to promote policies and practices for the benefit of conserving the Yampa Valley for future generations of outdoor enthusiasts by balancing the opportunities for recreational development with the habitat needs of wildlife.

To find out more about Keep Routt Wild, go to our website, or follow our nearly daily postings on Facebook. There we play dual roles, as a celebrant of local wildlife and as a conservation watchdog.

Mad Rabbit trails update

As we reported last month, we’ve been told that the official Mad Rabbit EA (environmental assessment) would be released in early 2021, either January or February, possibly along with a modified trail layout. January is quickly disappearing as a possibility and we are skeptical that the Forest Service can complete a robust EA over the next month. There remain numerous environmental and process issues with the most current proposal, and we’ve notified the Forest Service of these.
You can read our compromise proposal we submitted to the Forest Service in August of 2019 here.  There we articulated the key changes to make the proposal more protective of wildlife and wild areas. We are hopeful that the Forest Service will adopt our proposal as an example to others of how the needs of recreation and wildlife can be simultaneously met. However, we are prepared for action if they don’t.  

We are keeping a close eye on Mad Rabbit developments. If the Forest Service announces anything regarding Mad Rabbit, we will let you know right away through this newsletter and our Facebook page. We’re fighting for wildlife and wild places in Routt County and will not be deterred.

What we’ve been reading

We’ve come across several interesting articles regarding conservation issues in the Rocky Mountain west. Many of these are focused on the growing impacts of recreation on wildlife and habitat. Here are few we wish to highlight. 

Resort Town Blues details the declining elk in Eagle County. Why? “Increased recreation, Andree says. Increased mountain biking and hiking and dog walking in the spring, summer and fall and increased skiing and fat biking and snowshoeing in the winter. Coupled with diminishing habitat, this could mean the end to the herd.”  It also mentions the CPW studies occurring near Steamboat Springs. It’s worth a read. 

Seeking Ground Less Traveled: Elk Responses to Recreation is an article published in Science Findings by the US Forest Service. It’s a great lay summary of the science behind elk avoidance of hikers, bikers, horses, and ATVs. “The study results confirmed what the scientists suspected-–elk are quite sensitive to the presence of humans. The animals clearly shifted long distances away from recreationists and moved farther out of view as human activities moved along the trails. They avoided not only recreationists but also the trails associated with their activities.”

Are Trails in Colorado Harming Wildlife? Is a thought-provoking 5280 article written by Steamboat’s own Kelly Bastone. “Some Coloradans, especially those of us who have lived here for a while, have come to expect that we can recreate wherever we like, whenever we like. But issues such as the state’s skyrocketing human population, development, and global climate change simply won’t let us sustain that sense of entitlement any longer—not if we truly want to keep our staggeringly rich and abundant wildlife.” 

Discover an interesting article? Send it to us at keeprouttwild@gmail.com

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"And I dream of the vast deserts, the forests, and all of the wilderness of our continent, wild places that we should protect as a precious heritage for our children and for our children's children. We must never forget that it is our duty to protect this environment."

-Nelson Mandela

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.

For more information please visit our website, Facebook page and Instagram feed. Our Facebook page has nearly daily updates on news related to wildlife and conservation.