As John Denver famously sang, country roads take us home.

In Routt County, however, they not only take us home and to work, but for our local agricultural producers, these country roads serve important, long-term businesses.

You may think of them as farms and ranches, but in reality, these are businesses which contribute millions of dollars to the local economy and serve as the property tax base for our rural schools, fire districts and other county services. Yet lately, the changing (read: increasing) traffic on our country roads has become challenging for ag businesses, and the changing character of our roads and traffic is also changing community character.

Due to the current real estate market, land ownership is rapidly changing rural neighborhoods, and with that comes increasing activity on rural roads. Construction traffic for new homes being built creates more traffic, making it more difficult to move ag equipment and livestock from field-to-field. Increasing damage to gravel roads that may have been designed for lower traffic volume changes the quality of not only the drive home, but also shakes the horse in the trailer and the cattle in the truck.

There is increasing tourist activity on rural roads, too. Drivers touring the countryside, campers and RVs looking for places to stop, motorcycles traversing the country and an ever-increasing number of bicycle riders now fill roads, too. There is no “quiet time” to move hay equipment or cattle down the road any longer, and these essential tasks that enable agricultural businesses to continue to operate have become a source of stress and, at some points, even dangerous.

Transporting cattle and equipment in or on trailers has become more commonplace as our local ranchers have decided that they can’t safely drive livestock herds down the road with cowboys and drive their hay rakes down the highway, but that’s proving challenging, too. Over the past couple of weeks, there have been several near-misses with people illegally passing livestock trailers that were turning off of local rural highways, and others trying to cut-off trailers hauling equipment. Increasing traffic and speeds on rural highways, along with a disregard for non-passing zones and other traffic laws, makes typical agricultural production activities a hair-raising, if not death-defying, experience.

If you’re going to travel in rural Routt County this summer, know that you should expect agricultural and recreational activities both to be taking place on and alongside the road. Follow the posted speed limit. Pass only in legal passing zones. Slow down and give riders on bicycles, ranchers on horseback and fence-fixers on ATVs plenty of room. Move aside and stop for livestock on the road and follow directions given to you by the cowboys and cowgirls moving them. At the end of the day, smart travel will make for safer and faster travel for you and everyone else on the road.

Routt County has a long history of people working together to enrich our community, and that includes working together to use our country roads as safely as possible. Regardless of whether you have lived in Routt County for a month or for many generations, taking care of one another and treating our neighbors with respect and kindness is more important than ever, regardless of how they use the road.