We've had some successes and faced some real challenges in the last year.

Among our successes are the County's approval of a trail connection between the Betasso Preserve and Boulder Canyon, the opening of a new loop trail at the Heil Valley Ranch, and a Forest Service decision to put a major set of proposed trail closures on "indefinite hold."

We've been concerned and active in many other similar issues including a proposed permanent dog ban for all of the North Foothills Open Space, loss of public access to City of Boulder Open Space, and threats to horse keeping properties and equestrian public land access. See our "Recent Activities Reviewed" article later in this newsletter for details of these and other BATCO activities.

We need Trail Champions! There are many "missing trail links" throughout Boulder County which could be constructed if they had someone to champion their advancement. BATCO has identified and prioritized these trail connections and has made recommendations to both the City of Boulder and Boulder County that they be constructed. But unless we find trail advocates who won't take "no" for an answer, they may languish indefinitely. See Chris Morrison's article, "Championing a Trail System", to see how you could become a BATCO Trail Champion.

Elsewhere in this newsletter Guy Burgess outlines the three phases the environmental movement has gone through to date and presents his recommendations for a new, more inclusive approach. Read his "Connection Ecology" article for some insights into how we got where we are today and what the future could bring.

Finally, if you haven't already renewed your membership for this year please take a moment to do so. Your support makes all our activities possible. We couldn't do it without you.

At our annual meeting this April two new members were elected to our Board of Directors: Brett Conrad and Dirk Vinlove.

Brett Conrad is the father of four, a Boulder resident for 18 years, a CU MBA graduate, and the Director of The Conrad Group, a management company focused on process flow and communication. His interests are trail running and mountain biking. He believes we humans are a critical part of the ecosystem, and is a proponent of a contiguous trail loops of 10 miles and above.

BATCO memberships are for the calendar year. We ask that continuing members try to renew in the spring. Memberships received in the last quarter of the year are considered paid in full for all of the next year. This May we launched our first member renewal campaign. We tried to mail a reminder to all of you whose memberships were due for renewal. We've received a positive response and appreciate your continued support.

If you have friends, neighbors, or anyone else who you think would like to help in our efforts, please tell them about BATCO. If you would like some BATCO brochures, contact any board member or send us e-mail via our Web Site and we'll be delighted to send you some.

The Board of Directors would like to take this opportunity to offer special thanks to Eloise & Bob Joder for renewing their generous contribution as sustaining donors.

This is a long, frustrating process, so you have to be committed.

I chose the Rock Creek Farm/Carolyn Holmberg Preserve. It is near where I work at StorageTek, and I've always been interested in it, although I hadn't visited it before I got involved with the re-plan of the trail network there.

A friend at StorageTek frequently hikes there with his dog.

We walked a long loop in the western half one afternoon.

On following days I walked all of the trails on Rock Creek Farm and in Broomfield's Lac Amora trail network.

• City of Boulder Mountain Parks
• Boulder County Parks and Open Space
• Louisville
• Lafayette
• Broomfield

• Longmont
• The Forest Service
• The Bureau of Land Management (the BLM will give its isolated parcels to local governments, but it has to be open to recreation. They can't exclude us from land donated by the BLM)

BATCO can be a big help. Before I got involved with Rock Creek, Suzanne Webel and Eric Vogelsberg gave me some initial contacts. Suzanne told me about a livestock crossing under the railroad. Eric continued to advise me on other people to contact. To network with people in BATCO, the easy way is to come to the meetings:

Third Thursday at 6:00 in NIST, Room 1103.

Also ask everyone about who else is involved. This is the way Brian Hannegan, who planned the trails on Rock Creek, told me about Arnie Carlson, the Broomfield trails coordinator.

Eric Vogelsberg (who is on POSAC-Boulder County Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee) came out for an afternoon. He had the latest Open Space maps. We walked the proposed trail corridor on the west side. Then we looked at how the Broomfield trail network ties into the Rock Creek trails.

At the POSAC meeting, I almost had nothing to say, because Eric spoke first and made all my points.

Are there any people in the Open Space, Parks and Recreation, or Transportation who think that a trail would be a fine idea?

I think Brian Hannegan, the landscape architect/ planner, was surprised at how a nice trail design was trimmed back. In the re-plan, we lost a third of the trails at Rock Creek.

Scott Robson is responsible for planning the Rock Creek trail.

Arne Carlson, the Broomfield trail planner told me about their new pedestrian and bike underpass north of 10th street. This is not accessible to equestrians. I don't think Broomfield allows horses on their concrete bike and people paths. It also ends now in a King Soopers parking lot.

Arne also told me about Broomfield's plans for the Rock Creek Trail segment that will connect Rock Creek Farm with FlatIron Crossing.

Ask for the reports/plans. Talk to people about updates.

A trail along the west side of US 287 had been cancelled, partly due to concerns about law enforcement at a parking overlook. We want a trail, not a car overlook. I asked them to reconsider the trail. I followed up conversations in person and over the phone with a letter. I sent copies of the letter to several other people, including Ron Stewart.

The Open Space departments and Forest Service are mainly staffed by people who believe that whenever recreational access impacts wildlife or "the environment", public access must be restricted. The result can be more and more closed space.

They aren't going away. Neither are we. This is an ongoing relationship, albeit a frustrating one. They think we are misguided, and we think they are. We have to work with them on future issues, so try to be civil.

Practice good office politics. You know, how do you treat the person at work that you want to strangle, but you can't? Listen to their arguments, disagree, but don't make it personal. We all may even learn from each other. Some co-workers that I thought fools or knaves, became people I had common interests with. Mutual respect is valuable.

(Of course, I'm sure some really are fools or knaves. I still try to be civil. I just don't socialize with them.)

Boulder County Parks and Open Space will decide on a trail on the west side of 287 later. I plan on remaining involved.

Here are a few snapshots of trails issues on which BATCO has been working on your behalf this year.

For several years, BATCO has been working with the Forest Service on its Travel Management Plan for the entire swath of Roosevelt National Forest from Boulder to the Continental Divide. We were stunned to learn that they were proposing to close more than 60% of all the roads and designated trails-and essentially all of the social trails-in this huge area. We collaborated with several other non-motorized trail advocate groups to analyze the data, pore over maps, talk with neighbors, and propose alternatives. The Forest Service has recently announced that they have put their trail closure plan on "indefinite hold." Our diligence, expertise, and networking really paid off on this one!

We've campaigned to open Boulder County's spectacular Heil Valley Ranch to the public. A new 1.5 mile pedestrian loop trail was recently opened there. Later this summer, we hope to participate in the construction of the first section of a multi-use trail that will eventually provide a connection from Lefthand Canyon to Lyons. The alignment for this next stage of the trail system has recently received tentative approval and the County intends to begin construction soon. When completed (hopefully by next spring), the new trails will add more than 4 miles to the existing Lichen trail and will provide a round trip in excess of 7 miles.

A one year moratorium on dogs at Hall Ranch was enacted in 1997 by the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), and has continued for three more years, in spite of efforts by BATCO and FIDOS to allow limited access to dogs in this area. Since the original moratorium, a second trail has been built at Hall Ranch and on-leash compliance has improved from 55% to 73%. Both these items were initially considered requirements for allowing dog access. Nevertheless, the staff proposed converting the moratorium to a permanent ban, and to include the Heil Valley Ranch. BATCO has consistently opposed this plan, arguing that staff's data are flawed, their goal of 90% leash compliance arbitrary, and compliance is improving. Without BATCO, the Parks & Open Space Advisory Committee would probably have voted for the ban. They opted instead to extend it for another five years. This recommendation was accepted by the County Commissioners. Commissioner Paul Danish also suggested making provision for some limited dog access next year as part of a study to help determine if the feared impacts are in fact real.

We have been dismayed to watch the closure of equestrian properties and horse facilities around the City of Boulder. Fences with locked gates are being constructed in many places on "Open Space," and the Open Space Board of Trustees and City Council have been unresponsive to our complaints that more than half of all their properties are officially or de facto closed to equestrians.

The area behind Devils Thumb in South Boulder is a particularly troubling development, as there are several improved trails leading from a private enclave of homes to the public lands in their backyards from which the public is banned.

For additional details of these and other BATCO activities visit our Web site at http:/bcn.boulder.co.us/batco/

We had hoped to hold this year's National Trails Day project at the County's Heil Valley Ranch Open Space. We were looking forward to helping build the first stage of a multi-use trail system that is planned to ultimately connect with the Hall Ranch trails west of Lyons. Unfortunately defining an appropriate trail alignment took longer than had been anticipated. Instead we worked at the County's Carolyn Holmberg Preserve/Rock Creek Farm property. Almost 50 volunteers and county staff spent the morning constructing portions of a new trail that will eventually be incorporated into an east-west trail from the Weld County border to the town of Superior.

A tentative trail alignment at The Heil Valley Ranch has since been approved and the County is planning several after work trail projects this summer to help with its construction. We will post the dates and times of the projects on the BATCO Web site and send out an e-mail notification as soon as we get the details from the County.

Discussions with Scott Robson of the County's Transportation Department provided some positive news about the Rock Creek and Coal Creek trail system. Ultimately the system will consist of two trails following Rock and Coal Creeks from west of Highway 36 in Superior to the east County border where the trails will join together. Connections in the west to the County's and Boulder City's open spaces and then to Forest Service lands could eventually reach to the continental divide. On the east there are potential connections with Broomfield and Weld County trails. Today a large portion of the Coal Creek trail is a reality. The trail stretches almost continuously from Dillon Road in Louisville to 120th Street. One small missing section between Public Road and a trail segment west of 120th Street is scheduled for completion this summer. Louisville has been successfully working with private owners and developers to acquire and construct a westward extension of the trail from Dillon Road under HW36 to Superior. We anticipate this connection will be made in the next few years.

There's more work to be done on the Rock Creek trail component of the system. The County is in the process of constructing a new alignment at the Carolyn Holmberg Preserve/Rock Creek Farm (see the National Trails Day article for some additional details) that will be a major component of the trail. A connection with Broomfield's Lac Amora trail is in the plans. The RTD has recently acquired land to the west of the Rock Creek Farm that should provide connection under Highway 36 to Interlocken and Superior. The final piece of the puzzle, a connection east from the Rock Creek Farm to the Coal Creek Trail, will probably have to wait until the new toll highway from I-25 to Highway 36 is built. The highway plans are making allowances for the ultimate completion of the trail system.