In addition to the concerns and issues of our individual members, BATCO is an umbrella organization for various stakeholder groups with interests in creating and maintaining multi-use trails in Boulder County. We actively endeavor to bring these groups together for the common good. We've been successful in this effort, and count board members of several stake-holder groups on the BATCO board of directors. The organizations we represent include the Boulder Off-Road Alliance (BOA), Friends Interested in Dogs and Open Space (FIDOS), and the Boulder County Horse Association (BCHA).

During 2004, BATCO members worked with the Boulder Off-Road Alliance to set a new trail project record of 11 workdays and more than 1,300 volunteer hours. In 2005 we did it again, with another new record of 19 project days, 452 volunteers, and more than 1,600 volunteer work hours.

We've finally had action on our City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) trail projects. As we've previously reported, the OSMP Board of Trustees in their August 23, 2000 meeting adopted five "near-term" projects following a series of discussions about BATCO's trail recommendations. The City completed the first of these, a short connection north from Lookout Road to the Cottontail Trail, early in 2001.

After that first small construction project, various complications prevented any additional progress. With the completion of the extended OSMP Visitor Master Plan process, efforts are now turning to creating real new visitor opportunities.

We are encouraged by the progress we've seen on our previously approved trails. These include:

• The Cowdrey Draw Trail. A segment of the Marshall Mesa-to-Superior trail between the Community Ditch Trail and South 66th Street was constructed last fall. This major volunteer project was sponsored by OSMP, the Boulder Off-Road Alliance (BOA), and supported by BATCO.
• A trail that connects the Greenbelt Plateau trailhead to the Coalton Trail was included in the Marshall Mesa/Southern Grasslands Trail Study Project, and is scheduled for construction in 2006.
• An equestrian connection between the Greenbelt Plateau and Flatirons Vista trailheads via an existing Highway-93 underpass was included in the Marshall Mesa/Southern Grasslands Trail Study Project as an informal equestrian access. This connection will be supported by OSMP until an alternative access can be provided.
• The southern portion of the Boulder Feeder Canal Trail is the last of the five trails approved by the OSMP Board of Trustees. Progress on the trail had been impeded by a dispute between and within City of Boulder departments over the trail's effects upon Boulder water quality. In 2005, the city staff and the County Transportation Department worked together to resolve the dispute. It appears that a resolution of the water quality concerns can be reached. The staff presented a Community and Environmental Assessment Process (CEAP) Report on the trail's potential impacts to a number of city advisory boards and to the county's Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee. Although all the reviewers did not accept the CEAP, it was not rejected. The reviewers' primary concerns were with the CEAP's attention to environmental issues and with the limited public process involved. The staff is presently working to resolve those issues and expects to return an improved report for approval later this year.

The Rock Creek and Coal Creek trail system will ultimately consist of two trails that follow Rock and Coal Creeks, beginning west of Superior and ending at the east County line, where the trails will merge. A large portion of the Coal Creek Trail is already a reality, stretching almost continuously from Coal Creek Drive west of Superior to 120th Street east of Lafayette.

In the fall of 2005, the County and the City of Lafayette jointly purchased the final piece of private property required to connect the Coal Creek trail with Lafayette's Flagg Park. Implementation of this link is scheduled for 2007 and will include a connection north to the town of Erie. Farther to the west, Louisville built a new town park and completed the missing link in the trail to the north of the County's Warembourg Open Space.

The County continued to address the missing segments of the Rock Creek Trail. With the completion of the C-470 Parkway, trail components inside the highway right-of-way and highway underpasses became available. The County connected these trail segments to the Lafayette end of the Rock Creek trail on the north, and to Dillion Road on the south. The County has plans to complete the connection this year from Dillon Road, running under Highway 287, and ending at Rock Creek Farm.

At the western end of the Coal Creek/Rock Creek trail system, the County plans to construct a north-south connection between the Coalton Trail and the Singletree Trail during 2007. In addition to tying the Coal Creek and Rock Creek Trails together, this connection will form the eastern piece of the Morgul Bismark singletrack loop envisioned in the City of Boulder's Marshall Mesa/Southern Grasslands trails plan.

For the final components of the system to be completed, Broomfield and Louisville must approve and participate in the connections west from Rock Creek Farm to 96th Street, and from 96th Street to the Superior Rock Creek Trail segments via the StorageTek campus. We hope these key alignments will be addressed after the issues that surround the pending redevelopment of the StorageTek campus are resolved.

In 2005, Boulder County completed the first phase of the Caribou Ranch Open Space trail system, completed a connecting trail between Caribou Ranch and the Mud Lake Open Space, and began trail construction at Mud Lake. BATCO supported and participated in the volunteer trail projects that helped to build the new Mud Lake trails.

This year the County plans to complete the Mud Lake trails and to construct the second phase of the Caribou Ranch trail system. The new construction at Caribou will include a connection to the Forest Service Sourdough Trail via the old Switzerland Railroad bed, and a new bridge over the creek. The County is also considering additional trail opportunities in the northwest portions of the ranch property.

In 2005, Boulder County used transportation tax funds to build an underpass at Highway 52 that will connect the Niwot trail system with the Gunbarrel Cottontail Trail. Later this year, additional transportation tax money will fund the alignment’s remaining trail component.

The Transportation Department has ongoing plans to complete additional trail connections to the east and the west. Eventually, these Gunbarrel and Niwot trails, along with Boulder and Longmont trails, will be part of a Longmont- to-Boulder (LOBO) regional transportation alignment.

Boulder County Parks & Open Space (POS) has been analyzing possible trail connections between Hall Ranch, Heil Valley Ranch, and the town of Lyons. This process has resulted in an implementation plan for connections between the town and the open space properties.

After 10 years of effort, we've finally finished and released the BATCO Boulder County Compre-hensive Trail Map.

Previously, if you wanted to know all the official trails that exist in Boulder County, you would have to obtain more than a hundred different maps. Even then, you would miss some trails, because not all jurisdictions produce maps showing their trails. You’d also have a jumble of information because the maps are at different scales, show different information, and offer no visible relationship between agency holdings and adjacent areas. You would have invested a significant amount of time tracking down all this material, and a fair amount of money purchasing all the maps, as only a few small ones are free.

The new BATCO map solves your problems!

For the first time ever, there is a single map that shows all designated trails in Boulder County, with a colorful overlay that indicates which public land agency owns and manages them. Trails are color- and pattern-coded to show routes open to various user groups, as well as the trail surface of each trail (such as single track, 4WD road, and concrete greenway). The map also shows urban bicycle routes and other recreational amenities (including trailheads, parks, campgrounds, fishing holes, golf courses, and recreation centers). The BATCO map enables you to visualize and select your trail experience before embarking on an adventure.

Information is included about each agency’s trail regulations and contact persons. The map has suggestions for trail etiquette and safety, material about various outdoor and environmental organizations, along with user-friendly sketches, photographs, and text that addresses how to appreciate and protect Boulder County’s diverse natural resources.

Finally, BATCO has committed to investing the proceeds from map sales in local trail project planning, construction, and maintenance. We will put our money where our mission is: to improve the public lands we all know and love.