After five years of work and 75 hours of group meeting time, the Routt Recreation and Conservation Roundtable this week released a strategy report that provides recommendations and insights for recreation and conservation land managers working within Routt County.

The report is intended to help guide planning and policy for land managers across agencies and organizations, and the report’s goals, visions and priorities are scheduled to be reviewed every five years, said Senior Project Director Matthew Mulica with the 50-year-old nonprofit Keystone Policy Center in Summit County.

“Now it is time for plan implementation, and we are hitting the ground running,” Mulica said. Presentations on the report are planned this spring to local municipal and nonprofit groups, and the report is posted online at RouttRCR.org.

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Kris Middledorf, Colorado Parks and Wildlife area wildlife manager based in Steamboat Springs, said roundtable members represent a diverse cross-section of the community who have collaborated to develop strategies to inform the community and land managers about the importance of conserving area natural resources and developing responsible and sustainable outdoor recreation opportunities.

“The Conservation and Recreation Strategy developed by the RRCR exemplifies how important our relationships are with each other in our community and how we want to build a sustainable future for current and future generations,” Middledorf said.

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The three main pillars of the strategy report are conservation, destination management and recreation. The report includes 12 guiding principles. Principal No. 6 urges that land managers “use sound physical, biological and social science to inform the planning and management of outdoor recreation.”

Principal No. 7 encourages land managers to “ensure sustainable and diverse funding sources to protect the environment and support outdoor recreation, including development and maintenance of recreational amenities and enforcement of new and existing rules and regulations.”

“With demand for outdoor access and trails ever increasing, thoughtful coordination amongst decisionmakers and stakeholders in land management has become critical,” according to the report. “Routt County faces an increasingly challenging landscape in which to manage and advance the benefits and sustainability of both conservation and recreation.”

The report notes that increasing population growth and visitation often contribute to capacity challenges at sites such as trailheads and waterways, competition for land-use priorities and rapid evolution in trends and expectations for recreation.

“The county’s ecosystems and wildlife populations are rapidly changing due to both human and non-human caused impacts from climate change, recreation, different land uses and natural disasters,” according to the report.

A five-year framework of visions, goals and priorities is intended to help the roundtable prioritize projects led by the group and guide the roundtable in deciding whether or how to support a community-led project or policy initiative.

Due to recreation use that grew during the COVID-19 pandemic and some disagreements on land management issues in Routt County that culminated in disputes regarding the Mad Rabbit trail system, the roundtable started work in 2019 guided by staff from the Keystone Policy Center and funding through Colorado Parks and Wildlife grants.

“The roundtable was formed as a public forum to bring together conservation and recreation leaders to get ahead of future conflicts,” Mulica explained of the bimonthly meetings.

The process in Routt County included 26 roundtable members, an executive committee and several ex officio members representing 17 recreation and conservation activities ranging from hunting and fishing, to quiet use and hiking, to winter motorized uses.

The executive committee voting members represent the Bureau of Land Management, Steamboat Springs, Routt County, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, State Land Board and U.S. Forest Service.

The roundtable work drew guidance from seven existing land, water and wildlife management plans from state, federal and other sources as well as 15 community, county and municipal plans.

The local roundtable is part of the Parks and Wildlife’s Regional Partnership Initiative, a network of regionally based coalitions known as Outdoor Regional Partnerships that bring together broad interests to advance conservation and outdoor recreation priorities for regional areas.

After several years of planning and meetings, the local roundtable received $200,000 in Parks and Wildlife grants. The roundtable started in July 2023 to produce the new strategy report. The state has funded grants for similar work by 20 other partnerships across Colorado. So far $4.9 million in grants have been awarded since 2021 covering 75% of Colorado. Similar work is ongoing, for example, in Eagle, Grand and Summit counties.

The Northwest Colorado Outdoor Coalition, also facilitated by Keystone Policy Center staff, is at work for Moffat and Rio Blanco counties.