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We’ve been doing quite a bit of detective work. We verified that the Forest Service provided the unaltered Adaptive Management Plan (collaboratively developed with DNR/CPW) to the City Council for their November 19th NEPA discussion, and it was inserted into their agenda packet. As the video shows, District Ranger Michael Woodbridge told City Council, “With this Adaptive Management Plan now part of this Decision, CPW and DNR said ‘we withdraw our objection.’” (Emphasis ours) Instead of keeping the plan they mutually developed with DNR/CPW, the Forest Service would secretly insert their own altered plan into the Decision Notice after they received a favorable funding resolution from the City Council in December. It gets worse. The Forest Service has embarked on a series of secret meetings with elected officials to explain their position. Do you know who deserves an explanation in a democracy? The public, who was equally deceived by the Forest Service. We invite you to go to this video from the April 28 Routt County Commissioners’ work session at time mark 50:50 and see the Commissioners discuss Woodbridge’s request to meet with them secretly or individually, a request they apparently declined. We now have learned that the Forest Service is meeting with City Council members serially on this subject, one or two at a time, in order to avoid triggering a “public meeting.” This is a worrisome development for all those who value open government. First of all, this technique has been used in the past in Colorado to manipulate the open meetings law to communicate in private on actions without a public hearing. Equally important, the public has a right to know why the Forest Service secretly and unilaterally altered the AMP and their agreement with the State of Colorado once they got their funding resolution. It's not over. As it turns out, the favorable funding vote from the City Council in December (passing 5-2) was for a resolution. But it’s not the final funding ordinance. That was scheduled for May 20, but the City Council has now delayed the vote until sometime in June due to this controversy. The Yampa Valley Bugle has a good story about the discussion of the Council on this situation. Link here. You can help! Write to City Council! We have a web page dedicated to this topic. Go to it here:
https://www.keeprouttwild.com/adaptive-management-plan The above link has all the resources for you to easily write a letter to City Council asking that they NOT authorize funding for Mad Rabbit unless and until the Forest Service has reinstated the original AMP codeveloped with DNR/CPW. Even if you previously wrote to Council to investigate this scandal, asking them to take this action is a different request. City Council listens to public input, and your voice is important! We’re in an interesting time in American history. Americans across the political spectrum are losing trust in our democratic institutions. These actions by the Forest Service, if not changed, further erode that trust. The Forest Service should do the right thing here and reinstate the plan they negotiated with DNR/CPW and subsequently submitted to City Council. Lacking that, the City Council should make funding contingent on the Forest Service doing so, and be willing to walk away. There are plenty of other worthwhile opportunities for this investment within the city limits. The Forest Service says the plan is final, but $1.6 million dollars of funding may well cause them to reconsider. As the video shows, the Forest Service was all for this plan when they thought it could help them get funding from City Council. Why not now? We have a legal opinion from our counsel that the Forest Service could simply amend the Decision Notice to incorporate the original plan with its protections for wildlife. A strong democracy also depends on citizens like you to stand up to this nonsense. Please go to this link and write City Council.
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