It鈥檚 been 12 years since Steamboat Springs voters directed local lodging taxes toward trail construction and half that many years since the Forest Service proposed additional singletrack around the Continental Divide on Rabbit Ears Pass above town.
The Routt National Forest this month issued its connecting Rabbit Ears to the north with the Mad Creek draining to the south. The final decision wraps over where best to build trails funded with local tax dollars. The project gathered more than 1,400 comments during the Forest Service environmental review, which began in 2017.
The initial plan for new Mad Rabbit trails drew criticism from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which was concerned that increased traffic would trouble already stressed elk herds and new trails would fragment critical elk habitat. CPW objected to the original plan but withdrew its objection in November after the Forest Service agreed to a unique adaptive management plan. That management plan was anchored in an initial wildlife study and annual monitoring to make sure that phased construction of trails was not hurting wildlife.
But that elk monitoring study 鈥� priced at $33,000 to launch and an annual cost of $6,500 in the draft plan 鈥� is not part of the final decision.
鈥淭he final decision shows the Forest Service unilaterally altering the adaptive management plan in a way that imposes serious and deleterious impacts on the wildlife of Colorado,鈥� said Larry Desjardin, whose group spent several years urging the Forest Service to increase protections for wildlife in the Mad Rabbit project. 鈥淭hat wildlife study was meant to serve as a baseline for the elk population.
Without it, there is no way to implement the adaptive management plan. The Forest Service lied to the state of Colorado. They lied to CPW. They lied to the city of Steamboat Springs. They have betrayed the public trust and have poisoned the well for any future adaptive management plans in Colorado.鈥�
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