Steamboat Launches Three-Year Invasive Species Cleanup on Emerald Mountain

Steamboat Springs —The wind off the Yampa Valley cuts sharp against the slopes of Emerald Mountain, where crews are currently digging through soil to pull out Russian olive and tamarisk. It’s manual labor, repetitive and gritty, happening right now on the ridgelines that overlook Steamboat Springs.

For context, this is one of two major initiatives launched by the Routt Recreation and Conservation Roundtable (RRCR). The other is a digital pledge campaign designed to turn casual hikers and skiers into active environmental stewards. The RRCR, established in 2019 during the height of the Mad Rabbit Trails controversy, exists to bridge the gap between federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and local groups.

Matthew Mulica, the RRCR’s facilitator, explained that the organization provides "fluidity between a lot of different groups to help coordinate communication." On paper, this sounds like bureaucratic glue. In practice, it’s an attempt to prevent the kind of friction that erupted when the Colorado Department of Natural Resources objected to how the Forest Service handled 49 miles of new trails and 36 miles of rehabilitated unofficial routes.

The pledge campaign is the public-facing piece of this effort. It asks users to promise to "respect the land, water, other users and wildlife every time I head into nature." It’s a simple ask. The incentive is less subtle. Signers are entered into a Big Agnes giveaway featuring a six-person tent, two sleeping bags, two sleeping pads, and a Yeti cooler.

"The giveaway is a way to incentivize people," Mulica wrote in the Steamboat Pilot. "The main idea is to get people talking and participating."

Winners will be announced after Oct. 31. Let’s do the math on that incentive structure. You are trading a verbal commitment to tread lightly for a chance at free camping gear. It’s a low-barrier entry point, but it relies on the assumption that a cooler is enough to change how someone behaves on a trail.

The weed removal program offers a harder look at the actual work involved. It targets whitetop, Russian olive, and tamarisk on Emerald Mountain and the Steamboat Springs Pro Rodeo Grounds. This isn’t a one-day cleanup; it’s expected to be a three-year program involving annual inventory, mapping, targeted treatment, and monitoring. It combines the efforts of Keep Routt Wild, Friends of the Yampa, Friends of Wilderness, the city of Steamboat Springs, Routt County, the Forest Service, BLM, private landowners, and volunteers.

Mulica noted that Emerald Mountain is a "vector" for these species because of the high volume of people using the area. The RRCR’s recommendations are non-binding, which is a critical distinction. They advise land managers, but they don’t order them around. The better the communication between groups, Mulica argues, the better the outcome. But "better" is a relative term when you’re dealing with cumulative impacts on elk and other wildlife.

The Mad Rabbit trails project has been in the works since 2017, covering Forest Service land from Rabbit Ears Pass to Mad Creek. Objectors argued the initial plan didn’t address cumulative impacts. The RRCR went through every segment of trail to establish where there was a high probability of wildlife impacts. That granular, mile-by-mile analysis is the kind of work that doesn’t make for a catchy social media post about tent giveaways.

For locals, the practical impact is twofold. First, expect more organized volunteer days on Emerald Mountain over the next three years as invasive species are treated. Second, expect a push for behavioral change from every major outdoor user in the county. The RRCR is betting that coordination and awareness can balance recreation with conservation. Whether a pledge and a prize are enough to sustain that balance is the test they’re about to run.