{"id":406085,"date":"2025-11-26T13:47:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/406085\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T13:47:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T13:47:18","slug":"keep-routt-wild-comments-on-stagecoach-mountain-ranch-urges-further-evaluation-of-wildlife-impacts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/406085\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Routt Wild comments on Stagecoach Mountain Ranch, urges further evaluation of wildlife impacts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local conservation group Keep Routt Wild has submitted detailed comments<\/a> on the proposed Stagecoach Mountain Ranch development, calling for robust scientific review and ongoing community engagement but stopping short of endorsing or opposing the project outright.<\/p>\n

Discovery Land Company\u2019s proposal for Stagecoach Mountain Ranch, a planned 6,100-acre private ski area south of Steamboat Springs, includes 613 luxury homes alongside 137 workforce housing units, with 95 marked for affordable housing accessible to the public, according to the application\u2019s planning documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Keep Routt Wild\u2019s statement, sent by President Larry Desjardin, to Routt County planners on Nov. 17 as part of the application\u2019s public input process, emphasizes the ecological significance of the Stagecoach area and advocates for more in-depth evaluation regarding the luxury development\u2019s potential impacts on high-priority wildlife habitats.<\/p>\n

Kyle Collins, Discovery Land Company\u2019s vice president of architecture and planning, responded to Keep Routt Wild\u2019s statement in an email to the newspaper on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cDiscovery takes the potential impacts to wildlife habitats \u2014 particularly the Elk High Priority Habitats \u2014 very seriously,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe are still in the process of developing a comprehensive and thoughtful response not only to the comments submitted by Keep Routt Wild, but also to those from Colorado Parks and Wildlife related to these habitats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of this effort, we are working with other wildlife habitat stakeholders to advance restoration of Elk Production areas that have been negatively impacted by recent wildfires in order to expand on our wildlife mitigation measures,\u201d Collins continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that the final version of the Stagecoach Mountain Ranch Wildlife Mitigation Plan will fully address all comments received relative to wildlife habitat,\u201d Collins added. \u201cThe plan will provide both onsite and offsite mitigation measures that exceed the potential impacts identified, ensuring meaningful and lasting protections for elk and other wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur interest in SMR goes beyond this individual project, as this will be the first major project under the County\u2019s new UDC (Uniform Development Code) that addresses wildlife mitigation, and one using LPS (Land Preservation Subdivisions),\u201d Desjardin wrote. \u201cTherefore, this project will set a precedent of how wildlife mitigation is treated in Routt County for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep Routt Wild also highlighted the sensitive nature of local wildlife corridors and habitats around Stagecoach Mountain Ranch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The group noted its focus on high-priority habitats potentially impacted by the development and referred to Discovery Land Company\u2019s mitigation plans for Columbian sharp-tailed grouse and golden eagles as \u201ceffective\u201d \u2014 while also raising concerns about possible repercussions to elk populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cA highlighted concern of ours is the impact to important elk habitat from the development and associated trail-based recreation,\u201d wrote Desjardin. \u201cElk serve as a proxy for many wildlife species that share their habitat and avoidance behavior to humans. The application proposes development in elk severe winter range, elk winter concentration areas, and elk production (calving) areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conservation organization acknowledged some proposed mitigation to elk habitats from the development application but said they do not \u201ccompensate for the net loss of high priority habitat that will occur through development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keep Routt Wild also criticized the way in which Discovery Land Company quantified the impacts to high-priority habitats in their application, adding that \u201cno impacts are assessed \u2026 for disturbances that will occur on the landowners\u2019 properties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe application proposes to mitigate for the loss of (high-priority habitat) by not developing an equivalent number of acres. There are issues with this approach,\u201d wrote Desjardin. \u201cAvoiding impacts in one area does not compensate for the impacts in another. There is still a net loss of high-priority habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen scaled to the countywide level, such an approach would lead over time to a massive reduction and fragmentation of important habitat,\u201d he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The conservation group also noted the application\u2019s proposal for new recreation trails and asked that the trails not be approved without further evaluation from both Colorado Parks and Wildlife and other local public land agencxies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that the impact to wildlife habitat needs to be evaluated using best available science and the GIS tools to support it, and then mitigation needs to occur on-site, off-site, and\/or by cash-in-lieu fees to offset the net impact,\u201d Desjardin concluded in the letter. \u201cDoing so will preserve the wildlife and habitat so highly valued by Routt County residents and visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public hearings for Stagecoach Mountain Ranch are slated to begin early next year. Residents may submit comments ahead of the hearings at tinyurl.com\/4w89vm42<\/a> or by emailing PlanningDept@co.routt.co.us<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local conservation group Keep Routt Wild has submitted detailed comments on the proposed Stagecoach Mountain Ranch development, calling…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":406086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-406085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115616313692425851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}