The National Association of Counties released a report last month on county planning for wildlife habitat connectivity, which featured Routt County as one of only five counties in the United States as notable case studies.

Routt County Commissioners Sonja Macys and Tim Redmond attended the 2026 National Association of Counties Conference from July 17-20, where the commissioners spoke on a panel about the county’s progress in updating its planning codes and policies, among other strategic initiatives, to reflect wildlife protection. 

The other four counties featured as case studies are San Diego County, California; Kane County, Utah; Albemarle County, Virginia; and Teton County, Wyoming. 

The report notes how Routt County has integrated wildlife protection and connectivity into both its 2022 Master Plan and its 2024 Unified Development Code — two critical documents that have largely underpinned the back-and-forth development review and multiple correction letters in Discovery Land Company’s Stagecoach Mountain Ranch application. 

The state of Colorado began addressing the “costly issue” of collisions between wildlife and vehicles in 2018 when it created the Colorado Wildlife and Transportation Alliance, a statewide coalition of agencies and stakeholders led by the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Colorado Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Parks and Wildlife, the report continues.  

The state then signed a Memorandum of Understanding for counties to begin building a guiding framework for land-use planning that incorporates connectivity and thereby reduces human-wildlife conflicts. 

Routt County, the report states, incorporates species activity mapping, which is updated every four years and incorporated into the Unified Development Code. Developer applicants are then required to use these maps to “identify sensitive habitat areas and evaluate potential development impacts.” 

In high-priority habitat areas, the Unified Development Code requires a survey by a qualified biologist to assess potential impacts on the natural environment. The code also adopts Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s strategy of using three steps for private land development in sensitive areas: “avoidance, minimization and mitigation strategies.” 

Examples of appropriate mitigation strategies within the code include reclamation of a site when operations are complete; creation of added or improved habitat in the immediate area to offset habitat losses resulting from development; reestablishment of populations affected by development; and offsite mitigation to compensate for impacted habitats, among others. 

The Unified Development Code also notes that in circumstances where impacts on wildlife cannot be fully mitigated, “compensatory offsets may be required,” the report states. 

A key feature of the county’s land use planning framework, the report adds, is the Routt County Open Lands Plan, a section within the master plan, which originated in the mid-1990s when local ranchers and county commissioners began discussing conservation easements on privately owned ranches. 

A 1996 ballot initiative for the Purchase of Developments Rights program then established the PDR Citizens Advisory Board, which includes authorized program funding through a property-tax levy. 

The role of that board is to review easement proposals and recommended funding for the county’s acquisition of voluntarily offered development rights on ranch and agricultural lands, as well as natural areas for preservation, states the report. In 2022, the PDR program was renewed through 2035 with 84% voter approval. 

With increasing development pressures in Routt County, planning staff are exploring additional mechanisms for applicant development guidelines in high-priority wildlife habitats, including establishing “like-for-like offsets,” adopting a simple formula for habitat valuation, adopting study maps to guide land use planning and implementing a compensatory mitigation fund. 

The report notes the controversial Mad Rabbit Trails Project, which highlights the challenge of coordination between multiple governmental agencies. While the U.S. Forest Service included adaptive management tools in its plan to minimize wildlife impacts, “the county took an additional step.” 

“In response to the Mad Rabbit proposal, using a combination of non-regulatory policies, the county partnered with the city of Steamboat Springs to create the Routt County Recreation and Conservation Roundtable as a recommending body to land managers responsible for recreation and/or conservation planning and policy decisions,” the report states. 

“The roundtable has documented community priorities in the Routt County Conservation and Recreation Strategy, which was approved by the county commission,” the report adds. 

The report also mentions that the county is currently participating in a study to determine where mitigation and conservation investments will reduce wildlife and vehicle collisions — noted as a “challenge” on U.S. Highway 40 — and support landscape-scale habitat connectivity. This includes identifying and reviewing highway segments and mitigation actions to reduce such conflicts. 

The case study feature closes by underscoring Routt County’s partnership with local and neighboring municipalities to form the Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority, which aims to include wildlife mitigation in its regional infrastructure and to collectively address wildlife and vehicle collisions on both U.S. 40 and “other high-risk highway segments.” 

At the conference, Redmond was appointed as vice chair of the association’s policy steering committee on agriculture and rural affairs, while Macys was appointed the vice chair of the Public Lands Policy Steering Committee, a prestigious appointment by the president of the National Association of Counties. Each will serve one-year terms ending in July 2027.