Chaffee County presents habitat-connectivity rules, maps and mitigation tools to reduce vehicle–wildlife collisions

Planning staff presented Chaffee County's existing land-use code standards and a county 'Planning for Wildlife' map intended to identify high-quality wildlife habitat, migration corridors and big-game winter range and to guide development away from those areas.

The presentation opened with a county planner saying the code requires use of the Planning for Wildlife map to "identify locations of sensitive wildlife habitats" and that "impacts to high and highest quality habitats be avoided if possible." The planner said the county's map was developed with partners including Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and will be applied during development review.

The planning staff emphasized why the rules matter: vehicle'wildlife collisions have a high human and economic cost, and the county contains multiple state-identified hot spots. The presenter cited state and federal analyses, saying, "vehicle wildlife collisions account for over 2,000,000 annual collisions per year" and that…