Welcome to the May 2021 Keep Routt Wild Newsletter!

In this newsletter we will give you the latest on the Mad Rabbit trails project, report on the tragic bear attack near Durango, and give a heads up on seasonal closures coming May 15.

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 dualroles, as a celebrant of local wildlife and as a conservation watchdog. You can support Keep Routt Wild by donating online or by check here.

Mad Rabbit and 2A funding update.

Last month Keep Routt Wild notified the Steamboat Springs City Council that Steamboat’s 2A Trails Committee had included nine different Mad Rabbit trails among their recommendations for city funding, despite the fact that none of those trails were included in the original list from the Steamboat Trail Alliance (STA) proposal approved for funding by the voters. In our newsletter, we regrettably used the headline “Mad Rabbit: Scandal at City Hall.” This led some people to believe we implicated City Council or city staff in some misdeed. We did not intend to imply any misdeeds had been conducted by City Council. Instead, our intent was to encourage City Council to inquire on the action that the 2A committee has taken, nothing more. In retrospect, the title of the lead story was inappropriate, as was the term “shenanigans,” and we apologize for any misunderstanding. We believe we are aligned with City Council and the voters in ensuring ballot propositions are properly implemented. 

The facts, however, remain as we described them. We remain committed to the principal that Referendum 2A funds may only be spent on the list of 46 projects enumerated in the STA proposal. That understanding was echoed in city staff memo to Council for the June 4, 2019 meeting, where funding of NEPA for Mad Rabbit was discussed and approved. It states “Use of the accommodation tax funds must follow the 1986 ballot language regarding the funds and the 2A Trails Ballot question further restricted use of the 2A Trails dollars to the projects listed in the Trails Alliance proposal.”

The following month, July 2019, the US Forest Service announced the latest iteration of Mad Rabbit, along with a list of 10 trails that were listed in the STA proposal. That document is on the USFS Mad Rabbit website here.  We agree with the Forest Service that those 10 trails are included in the STA proposal, and no others. Nevertheless, in August 2019, the 2A Trails Committee voted to approve nine additional Mad Rabbit trails for funding, using a novel “functional equivalency” test.  For example, the STA proposal never included trails around the Meadows Campground or Dumont Lake. Yet, the 2A Committee declared these multi-use trails as functionally equivalent to a hiking-only trail miles away near the Ferndale area. We don’t find these, or the others trails that underwent this test, to be “functionally equivalent.” This is not to say these trails may not be worthy projects; they simply are not eligible be funded from the city accommodations tax because they were never included in the STA proposal. To date, this vote only impacted the funding of NEPA and planning operations for these trails; construction funding would require an additional City Council vote.

 For this reason, we joined over 30 individuals and organizations asking the City Council to intervene. As we pointed out in the letter, funding trails not in accordance with the STA proposal deviates from both the letter and the spirit of Referendum 2A. City Council will be reviewing this issue May 18. We thank them for putting this item on the agenda.

We Need Your Help and Your Voice…

You can make your voice heard by writing the Steamboat Springs City Council at the email address below. Many people voted for Referendum 2A with the understanding and desire to see the expansion of the Core Trail and other trails within the Steamboat City limits. The approach the 2A committee is recommending not only directs funding away from those projects but has expanded the scope of consideration to trails never on the STA list. Many of these trails are poised to have a detrimental impact on our valley’s roadless areas and wildlife. Please join our effort in letting City Council know how you would like to see the city spend 2A funds.  Feel free to copy USFS District Ranger Michael Woodbridge and CPW Area Wildlife Manager Kris Middledorf in your message. In our small community, your voice can really make a difference.

City Council: citycouncil@steamboatsprings.net

USFS District Ranger: michael.woodbridge@usda.gov

USFS Recreation Specialist: brendan.kelly@usda.gov

CPW Area Wildlife Manager: kris.middledorf@state.co.us

Links for the above issue

Citizen letter to Steamboat Springs City Council

White Paper: 2A Steamboat Trails Alliance proposal and Mad Rabbit

Full Size Map and Table

Below is the preliminary proposed map of Mad Rabbit from July 2019, along with a USFS table specifying which trails are included within STA. We color coded the trails. A green dot shows the 10 trails that were included in the STA proposal. The red 🚫 symbol near the trail number denotes the nine trails not in the STA proposal but currently chosen by the 2A Trails Committee to be eligible for funding:

Woman killed in a bear attack while walking her dogs near Durango.

This is tragic news. We don’t know the full details of this sad event, but this is a reminder that bears are wild and powerful creatures. Please use caution if you see a bear, and please secure trash and other food sources around your home so these encounters are less frequent. We applaud the city’s decision to transition to bear-resistant trash containers, but they don’t do any good if they aren’t used properly. See the photo, below, of a small bear hanging out in a Steamboat Springs trash container when the bear bar was left up. Also, remove your birdfeeders and pet food from areas where bears can access them.

When we say, “Keep our bears wild and alive, and our residents safe,” it is more than a platitude. There can be real consequences.

Link to the story is here.

Image courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife – Steamboat Springs

Seasonal trail closures begin May 15

This is a reminder that some trails will be closed from May 15 to June 15 (or June 30) due to traversing elk calving areas. Please respect these closures. During this season, elk calves are particularly vulnerable to human disturbance. Studies have shown an approximately 5% elk calf mortality rate each time an elk is disturbed, most likely due to predation when the calf changes location. A subsequent study has shown that human trail use can disturb elk up to 1500 meters away.  Together, these studies show the deadly consequences of recreational trail use during calving season. Please recreate elsewhere during this sensitive period out of respect for our local wildlife, which have fewer opportunities to survive than we have to play.

Consider a Donation to Keep Routt Wild 

We continue to fight for wildlife and wild places in Routt County. We have no paid staff, but envision significant costs going forward if we need to object to Mad Rabbit. Simply put, we deliver extraordinary value for your conservation dollar. Please consider a tax-deductible donation to Keep Routt Wild so we can protect the Yampa Valley for future generations.

Click here to donate to Keep Routt Wild

CPW is seeking volunteers to survey Zirkel sheep herd

CPW is seeking volunteers to help in their survey of the bighorn sheep herd in the Zirkels. The survey is expected to occur sometime the first week of August. If you are interested and able, please contact Eric Vannatta at eric.vannatta@state.co.us for more information. Tell him you heard of the opportunity through Keep Routt Wild.

What we’ve been reading and watching

With the passage of Initiative 114, Colorado Parks and Wildlife is directed to reintroduce gray wolves by the end of 2023. To that end, CPW is providing a series of education sessions dedicated to the gray wolf reintroduction program. Here is the link to the first one, featuring Dr. Diane Boyd and Dr. Jon Horne who’ve studied and worked with wolves in Montana and Idaho respectively. It was an interesting fact-filled presentation, and we highly recommend it to anyone interested in this contentious subject.

Don’t mess with a Yampa Valley sandhill crane.  The sandhill cranes are back in the valley.  This video shows a sandhill crane defending her nest from a raccoon. Turn on the audio to get the full experience of the crane-cam.

The Routt Recreation Roundtable continues to move forward on a conservation/recreation master plan. Read the Steamboat Pilot article about the latest meeting here. There were a great set of presentations from several attendees, and Dr. Michael Wisdom highlighted the session with his presentation of “Recreation and Wildlife: Integrated Approaches for Monitoring and Management.” All the presentation can be viewed here.

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm."

– 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.