We’re relaunching the Keep Routt Wild Newsletter

Welcome back to the Keep Routt Wild Newsletter! We’ve been very active on Facebook, but understand many of you prefer email communication, so we are relaunching our monthly newsletter.

Let us use this opportunity to introduce ourselves again. 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. We are hikers, bikers, hunters, anglers, skiers, ranchers, and local business owners – we are Routt County.

We are also Routt County’s newest conservation group, having incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit in early 2018. Our board of directors is populated by experienced conservationists and environmental experts with deep roots to Steamboat Springs and Routt County. Our website is very popular, while our Facebook page now exceeds 3300 followers, and over 2000 of those voting age adults in the Yampa Valley. We are proud to be a voice for wildlife and wild places in Routt County, and are humbled by the enthusiastic reception we have received from our diverse community.

In this newsletter we will give an update on the Mad Rabbit trails proposal, and highlight a number of activities we’ve been involved in.  We are always interested in feedback, so give us your feedback and ideas at keeprouttwild@gmail.com

Enjoy your holiday season, and let’s keep Routt wild!

Mad Rabbit trails update

Keep Routt Wild was formed in late 2018 in opposition to the Mad Rabbit trails proposal, a massive network of trails stretching from Mad Creek to Rabbit Ears Pass that poses severe impacts to wildlife and wildlife habitat. Last summer, the US Forest Service (USFS) proposed a new layout that eliminated some of the most problematic trails in the Mad Creek and Gunn Creek area. We welcomed that development and proposed a compromise that you can read here.

We endorsed some trails and objected to others that pose a threat to wildlife and our more wild and pristine areas. An example of the latter are downhill mountain bike trails proposed through elk calving areas. We also asked the USFS to modify their elk calving seasonal closures from June 15 to June 30, to match the best available science and to protect the calves when they are most vulnerable.  We pointed to the scientific research that showed a 5% calf mortality for each disturbance from a recreational user. We’ve been hopeful that our proposal would be adopted and set an example to others of how the needs of recreation and wildlife can be simultaneously met.

We’ve been told that the official EA (environmental assessment) will be released for comment in early 2021, either January or February. Unfortunately, we have evidence that the USFS may be going forward with the worst of the proposed trails, including a high-density trail network in the Ferndale area that is both a Colorado Roadless Area and an elk calving area. If so, we will object to these in all available venues. Besides the proposal itself, there are also deficiencies in how the USFS has pursued the environmental review and public engagement process for Mad Rabbit that need to be addressed. These include compliance with NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act) and the Colorado Roadless Rule. We’ve retained the law firm of Kaplan Kirsch Rockwell to represent us and are confident that the USFS will comply with these important federal regulations.

We will keep you updated on Mad Rabbit developments, including when the next comment period is open. We’re fighting for wildlife and wild places in Routt County and will not be deterred.

Colorado Gives Day 12.8.20

This coming Tuesday, December 8, is Colorado Gives Day. We ask you to consider giving a donation to Keep Routt Wild to allow us to continue our important work of preserving wildlife and wild places in the Yampa Valley. Your tax-deductible donation is one of the most cost-effective donations you can make to promote conservation. We have no paid staff and target our spending where it most effectively furthers our cause. We have a talented Board of Directors with strong conservation experience and deep ties to Routt County that guides our efforts. Most of our spending is on community education and legal expenses. Your donation can help us ensure that our land agencies follow the law and take wildlife and wild places into consideration across Routt County’s landscape.

There are two ways to donate. You can donate to Keep Routt Wild on the Yampa Valley Gives website here as part of Colorado Gives Day. Alternatively, you can make a donation directly to Keep Routt Wild through our website. That link includes a method for an online donation as well as instructions for mailing a check.

Thank you. Your donation will help protect the Yampa Valley for future generations.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us.”

-  President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt

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.