Funding from city's accommodation tax could be used to build 32 miles of trails and improve three trailheads along U.S. Highway 40.
The U.S. Forest Service asked the Steamboat Springs City Council for more than $1.6 million in accommodations tax dollars on Tuesday that would be used to build 32 miles of trails and improve three trailheads on Rabbit Ears Pass.
The trails are part of the now approved Mad Rabbit Trails Project that has been in the works since 2018. The plan will build or designate 49 miles of trails while rehabilitating 36 miles of so-called social trails that have naturally developed over time.
In addition to adding trails to Rabbit Ears, the project will improve trailheads along U.S. 40, restrict uses like mountain biking to designated trails and create the first seasonal wildlife closures on Rabbit Ears protecting elk production areas.
Michael Woodbridge, the District Ranger for the Hahns Peak/Bears Ears Ranger District in Steamboat Springs who signed off on Mad Rabbit’s approval, said the project allows them to actively manage summer-time uses on Rabbit Ears Pass, which currently has no management plan for summer use.
“There is only one trail on Rabbit Ears Pass,” Woodbridge said, referencing the Continental Divide Trail. “That is not enough of a use that people want up there, so we are going to continue to just have a wack-a-mole of new user created trails over time if we only have one trail.”
“This is saying we’re going to build some trails in places that make sense for people that want to use trails,” Woodbridge continued. “And we’re going to rehabilitate the trails that people created that shouldn’t be on the landscape.”
Mad Rabbit — named because it once intended to connect Mad Creek with Rabbit Ear Pass — has been in the works since 2018. Woodbridge noted Tuesday that a 2017 letter from City Council to the Forest Service expressed unanimous support for developing legal trails addressing illegal, user created trails. He said he sees this letter as a pseudo “kick-off” of Mad Rabbit discussions.
Council did not have a discussion about the funding request. Instead, Council President Gail Garey noted that the issue would come back to them on Dec. 3, when council will hear recommendations for trail project funding from the 2A Trails Committee. Several questions to Woodbridge from Council members sought to understand the benefits of the project beyond creating additional trails.
The city has about $2.2 million in accommodation tax revenues to spend on trails outlined in the 2013 Trails Alliance Proposal.
Council’s role here is not to approve Mad Rabbit — that was a Forest Service decision and has already happened. Council will decide whether to allocate any 2A Trails Funding toward the project. Woodbridge told The Yampa Valley Bugle in September that his office would look else where for funding if the city doesn’t pitch it, likely slowing but not stopping construction of trails.
Woodbridge said USFS’s $1.6 million request only includes trails that are either outlined in the 2013 proposal or have been deemed equivalent to trails in that document. Other aspects of the project, like rehabilitating unsanctioned trails, will need to be funded another way. This money cannot be used for maintenance, education or enforcement on trails either, as that was not part of the 2013 ballot question.
(Accommodation Tax Revenues can be used for stuff like maintenance going forward, after voters approved updated language in 2023.)
Colorado Department of Natural Resources, CPW removes objection
Caption: Michael Woodbridge, the District Ranger for the Hahns Peak/Bears Ears Ranger District in Steamboat Springs who signed off on Mad Rabbit’s approval, left, speaks to Council on Nov. 19.
Council’s packet included a Nov. 14 letter from Dan Gibbs, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, addressed to Forest Supervisor Russ Bacon saying that the state agency no longer objected to Mad Rabbit. Gibbs wrote that this change is due to the addition of an adaptive management plan for the area that Forest Service and Colorado Park and Wildlife officials drafted together.
“We believe the incorporation of the Adaptive Management Plan addresses the bulk of the concerns outlined in our objection letter to the Mad Rabbit Trails,” Gibbs wrote. “Accordingly, we withdraw our objection and appreciate the coordinated development of the associated Adaptive Management Plan.”
In his letter, Gibbs does reiterate some of state land managers reservations with the project, including the need to update the forest plan for the area. Another concern mentioned is the Forest Service’s ability to fund maintenance and stewardship on new trails as the agency faces budget shortfalls. The Colorado Sun reported last week that the Forest Service does not plan to hire seasonal workers next year.
When asked about this by Council member Dakotah McGinlay, Woodbridge said they receive a lot of support from partners to maintain trails.
“Trails are one of those things where people are so passionate about having trails and being able to enjoy trails that we get a lot of support from the community and from organizations to maintain trails,” Woodbridge said.
Asked after the meeting about hiring seasonal workers locally, Woodbridge said his district hopes to hire some next year with grant funding. Either way, seasonal workers are typically not who builds trails and a project like Mad Rabbit would be bid out to contractors who specialize in trail construction, Woodbridge said.
91 pages of Public Comment
Tuesday’s meeting packet include a 91-page collection of public comments, a page-count bloated by the inclusion of the entire Adaptive Management Plan as part of one comment. Council President Garey noted that they had received nearly 200 comments from the public so far, and welcomed more ahead of the Dec. 3 meeting.
People on both sides of Mad Rabbit spoke during public comment Tuesday, though supporters had the edge in Centennial Hall based on a series of hand-raising exercises Council occasionally uses to gauge support for comments. This is an informal practice used on nights where public comment is expected to be lengthy.
“Too often, these processes can get bogged down by a deep negativity, forcing us to lose sight of the incredible chance we have to fund and create new experiences that will be treasured by the community,” said Laraine Martin, executive director of Routt County Riders, which recently conducted a survey about what trails mean to residents. “It is apparent many individuals are using trail access to support their mental, emotional and physical health. … Please do not lose sight of the opportunity that presents itself.”
Martin added that she was “dancing at her desk” when she read the letter from state wildlife officials withdrawing objection to Mad Rabbit, adding that there is limited precedent for DNR and CPW to remove objections.
Larry Desjardin, president of Keep Routt Wild, said his group sill opposes Mad Rabbit as approved. He said they believe that it will lead to the loss of 3,900 acres of habitat, that 14 miles of trails pass through elk calving areas and that they believe it will violate Colorado Roadless Area rules.
Desjardin added that three of the trails proposed for funding were not part of the Trails Alliance Proposal and therefore should not be funded. The Forest Service believes the three trails are functionally equivalent to the trails in the proposal. The city has approved and funded functionally equivalent trails in the past.
“The funding recommendation includes a novel legal theory called functional equivalence to circumvent the will of the voters,” Desjardin said. “Adopting this funding recommendation would severely harm City Council’s credibility with the public and would put at risk any future referendums the city is considering.”
Council will consider this funding request along with other recommendations from the city’s 2A Trails Committee at its Dec. 3 meeting.