Land Trust Protects Two Mountain Properties

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MALT scenic view

…by Vicky Gits

Mountain Area Land Trust of Evergreen announced Jan. 6 it had closed a conservation easement on an 80-acre property near Divide in Teller County.  Conserving this private property connects the surrounding Pike National Forest to maintain a valuable wildlife corridor.  The property features a large pond, several springs, and wooded hillsides, making excellent wildlife habitat.  Moose, elk, mountain lions and eagles have been spotted on the property.  There are also remnants of an 1850’s homestead that will be protected by the easement.

Separately on Dec. 30, the land trust announced closing on a conservation easement on a beautiful 71-acre property near Bailey.  The land has breathtaking mountain and river views and includes a half-mile of river frontage on the North Fork of the South Platte River.  This easement ensures the habitat and scenic vistas will be conserved forever.

In the early 1900s, a Denver bicycle club owned the land and held bike races in the meadow near the river.  In the mid-1900s, the property was used as a church summer camp.  The current owners have owned the property since 1994.  MALT has been working with these owners for several years.

Founded in 1992, MALT is a nonprofit organization that primarily helps facilitate the conservation-easement process for private landowners. Since inception it has protected nearly 15,000 acres in Park, Jefferson and Teller counties.

For information see www.savetheland.org

Hickenlooper calls for Bike Health campaign, trail system and new “recreational crown jewels”

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By Vicky Gits

Jan. 15: In the State of the State address, Gov. John Hickenlooper spoke at length on the economy and legislation and reserved a few paragraphs for his thoughts on cycling and preservation of open space.

Gov. John Hickenlooper“We have asked Ken Gart, our volunteer bike czar, to assist us in launching a Bike Health initiative that will take on a number of large challenges, such as create a publicly available data source to track existing bicycle trails, routes and cyclist feedback; seek funding for new construction for bicycle infrastructure; and create a plan to connect bike routes across communities and around the tallest mountains in Colorado,” Hickenlooper said.

He named Mike King, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, to build on the accomplishments of Great Outdoors Colorado and join federal and local open space partners to craft a statewide recreational trail system. One such network envisions linking the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge, the South Platte River, Rocky Flats and Rocky Mountain National Park.

Hickenlooper called for “identifying a new generation of recreational crown jewels,” and increasing opportunities for people to “hunt, fish, hike and explore the extraordinary natural beauty that only Colorado can offer.”

Stampeding Black Elephants

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Stampeding Black Elephants, Tom Friedman, NYT

Did you realize that PLAN Jeffco and Jefferson County Open Space are an integral part of a world wide effort to deal with massive environmental problems such as global warming, climate change, deforestation, mass extinction and water pollution? Well, we didn’t either until we read Tom Friedman’s op-ed piece in the New York Times Sunday Review Section on November 23, 2014 entitled “Stampeding Black Elephants”.

So what’s a Black Elephant? When Friedman was at the recent World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia, he heard this term used for the first time. The Black Elephant is a cross between “…‘a black swan’ (an unlikely, unexpected event with enormous ramifications) and ‘the elephant in the room’ (a problem that is visible to everyone, yet no one still wants to address it).”

The Black Elephant in question is the plethora of environmental issues which are influencing each other — global warming, deforestation, ocean acidification, mass extinction and massive fresh water pollution. These tragedies strike and we claim they’re unpredictable black swans. In truth they’re the elephant which is already in the room.

The Congress brought together some 6,000 scientists and environmentalists from around the globe, all of whom were focused on the same goal: “guarding and expanding protected areas, which are the most powerful tools we have to restrain the environmental black elephants.”

Russ Mittermeier, one of the world’s leading primatologists, said to Friedman that “…protected forests, marine sanctuaries and national parks are not zoos, not just places to see nature. They are the basic life support systems that provide the clean air and water, food, fisheries, recreation, stable temperatures and natural coastal protections that sustain us humans…”

This article brings a global perspective to what we’re trying to do in Jefferson County, in preserving and conserving our open spaces. Friedman cites perspective after perspective, from countries across the world, and they all point to a common thread of thought…our open spaces and “parks are really the heart, lungs, and circulatory systems of the world — and they’re all endangered.” You can read the entire column in the New York Times online, at

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/opinion/sunday/thomas-l-friedman-stampeding-black-elephants.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fthomas-l-friedman&_r

(The New York Times is a subscription-based newspaper; a paid subscription may be required.)

A Voice for this sorely damaged Refuge Earth, a letter by Mickey Harlow

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Rocky Flats PlantI have been a resident of the City of Arvada since 1970.  My current home is located downwind from the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.  I was the Rocky Flats Coordinator for the City of Westminster, Colorado from just after the FBI raid until 2001. I worked with both then Senator Allard’s and then Congressman Udall’s staffs on language designating the former nuclear production facility into a Refuge. I know the site very well and I know contamination has been left behind.

I recently became aware that the Fish & Wildlife requested an Air Permit in July 2014, for a prescribed burn to occur in April 2015, on 701 acres in the Southern Section of the Refuge.  The permit was granted by the Air Quality Control Commission. The permit was granted under the Arsenal name as the site is managed under the Rocky Mountain Arsenal.

I am very concerned about this prescribed burn.  The 701 acre burn area is contiguous to two new housing developments that have young families and small children. Plutonium, Americium and Uranium remain in the soils in that area. The cleanup of the Site meets regulatory standards for cleanup, but this does not mean that there is no radionuclide and other contamination left in the soil.   Fish & Wildlife manages over 600 Wildlife Refuges nationwide and prescribe burns are part of their maintenance plans.   However, Rocky Flats is the only national Wildlife Refuge with residual radionuclide contamination.  Airborne radionuclide contamination in smoke is a health hazard.

A recent report of soil sampling initiated within the Woman Creek Reservoir prior to 2014 repairs found small amounts of Plutonium, Americium, Uranium and other contaminants at levels below regulatory concern. The Woman Creek Reservoir was constructed in 1995 to physically separate Standley Lake, the drinking water source for the Cities of Northglenn, Thornton and Westminster from surface water leaving the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Production Facility Site.   These analysis results are important because they show that radionuclide’s are still in the soil at the Wildlife Refuge and can be brought to the surface, by earthworms, ants and other burrowing species located at the site.

Prescribed burns are not the answer!  An integrated plan with methods for controlling plant litter and weed management to include administrative, cultural techniques (prevention), mechanical controls, biological controls and chemical controls is necessary.   The Refuge has not received Interior Department funding for proper weed and site management.

Local government entities have the expertise in their open space management staff to provide invasive weed technical support to Fish & Wildlife Site Manager David Lucas.  It is time for us all to work together find alternatives to the burn. We must become “A Voice for this sorely damaged Refuge Earth.”

Mary (Mickey) Harlow

[Editor’s note: you can read more about Rocky Flats at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Flats_Plant]

 

PJ Board Meeting, 1/22/2015

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Save the date: PLAN Jeffco Board Meeting, January 22nd, 2015, 7PM – 9PM at Saint Anthony’s Hospital Auditorium C. All PLAN Jeffco Board meetings are open to the public; please RSVP to contactus@planjeffco.org if you plan to attend, in case there is a last-minute change of venue.

Trail Completed from Reynolds Park to South Platte

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Reynolds Park trailThe long anticipated connection from Reynolds Park, which is near Conifer, to the Colorado Trail opened October 11. The 9.3 miles of natural surface trail is open hikers, bikers and equestrians. For details see the news release at the Jeffco Open Space site, http://jeffco.us/parks/news/2014/north-fork-trail-opens-saturday,-october-11-in-south-jeffco/

Jeffco Open Space and Parks Receives National Agency Accreditation

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Matthews-Winters Jeffco Open Space & Parks has recently earned National Agency Accreditation from CAPRA, the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies. This accreditation is in recognition to JCOS’ commitment to excellence.

The accreditation process is a self-assessment which is then reviewed during a CAPRA on-site visitation, which was done last July. The CAPRA Commission rendered their decision on October 13, based on their assertion that JCOS met 143 of 144 established CAPRA standards. Jeffco Open Space and Parks is now CAPRA Accredited through 2018 when the agency must seek re-accreditation.

Read the full story at http://jeffco.us/parks/news/2014/jeffco-open-space-and-parks-receives-national-agency-accreditation/

 

DOUGLAS MOUNTAIN PROPOSED ACQUISITION CITIZEN SURVEY RESULTS & LISTENING LOG

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Douglas Mountain listening log_first page image

On the 22nd of October, Jeffco Open Space held a Community Meeting to discuss the proposed acquisition of 964 acres on the top of Douglas Mountain. This is the first page of the listening log — a summary of feedback from the audience. Click on the image to see a clearer copy; read the entire listening log here:  http://jeffco.us/parks/documents/douglas-mountain-documents/jcos-listening-log-douglas-mountain-community-meeting-final/

SINGLE USE TRAILS WORKING GROUP IN JEFFCO

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Aldefer Three SistersFrom: Thea Rock, Thursday, October 30, 2014
Jefferson County Open Space (JCOS) will be forming a working group to study the feasibility of single use trails within JCOS Parks. JCOS currently provides 236 miles of trail for outdoor, nature-based experiences. While the majority of these trails are open to hiking, mountain biking, and equestrian use under our multi-use definition, 21.5 miles offers an experience for specific user types. Today, JCOS offers 14 miles of hiker only, 7 miles of hiker and equestrian only and 0.5 miles of bike only trails. An additional 18.75 miles have some type of directional or alternating use management in place.
With the goal of being responsive to our user communities and reducing the potential for trail conflict, this working group will be assessing the effectiveness of our existing single use trails and exploring the possibility of providing this experience on new or existing trails.
This Working Group for Single Use Trails will be formed from JCOS staff, partner agencies, user advocacy groups and interested citizens. The purpose will be to explore the feasibility of single use trails in Jefferson County Open Space. The outcome of this working group will be a report on group findings that should include the pros and cons of providing single use trails in the Parks, and if applicable, indicate potential test sites with monitoring programs to gauge effectiveness. The Group will make a recommendation of action to JCOS management team.
The Group makeup will consist of 3 to 4 JCOS staff members, 9 to 10 representatives from user advocacy groups, reps from other partner agencies, and interested citizens. To apply, interested citizens must submit a resume and letter of interest to Dave Davenport, Outdoor Recreation Management Coordinator, by end of business, Friday, November 14, 2014 to ddavenpo@jeffco.us or 700 Jeffco Parkway, Suite 100, Golden, CO 80401.
Selection criteria of Working Group members will include but is not limited to: residency or business interest in Jefferson County; involvement with JCOS as a volunteer, advocate, or have conducted permitted activities in the Parks; and individuals who identify themselves with more than one user group.

Mountain Area Land Trust Newsletter – Fall 2014

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MALT newsletter fall 2014

Click on this link to read the full newsletter in your web browser.