Articles In This Issue

Membership campaign

This April BATCO launched its first major effort to acquire new members. With funding from Paul Turner (Rock Shox inventor) we mailed information on BATCO to approximately 5,000 people in Boulder County. We followed the first mailing with another in September to about 3,000 additional addresses. As a result we have hundreds of new members! We'll be contacting those of you who indicated you wanted to get more involved over the next several months. As a volunteer organization we need your help!

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 takes this opportunity to thank those who have made special financial contributions to BATCO.

Supporting Members

McStain Enterprises made a grant of $5,000 to our map project.

Paul Turner contributed $5,000 to our membership drive.

Thank you all very much.

Trail champions

This summer BATCO members were involved in a number of specific trail advocacy projects. We championed the Eldorado Springs to Nederland trail corridor with the Forest Service and County Open Space. We advocated a Boulder Reservoir to Lyons trail (along the Supply Canal) with the County and City of Boulder Open Space departments. We are working to provide an updated set of County Open Space trail priorities for their acquisition planning.

You can help us. Would you consider becoming a Trail Champion? Have you noticed a trail gap? Would you like to work on making a connection between two sections of trail? For example, there is a trail gap from Boulder Reservoir to Gunbarrel that needs a champion. If you are interested in Rails to Trails (trails along abandoned or unused railroad tracks) there are several railroad lines in Boulder County that would make valuable additions to our trails system. These connections could become reality through the focused efforts of one individual. It is not necessary that you know how to be a Trail Champion. If you would like to help, we will work with you to make the trail happen. To learn more contact any BATCO board member.

BATCO candidate survey

County OS tax extension support

BATCO supports our county and city open space programs. Without them the system of regional trails we envision would not be possible. This fall we were particularly active in our support of the County Open Space Tax Extension Ballot Issue (1A). The County has been very active in acquiring new open space in the last six years and is the only land management agency that has created major new trail systems (at Hall Ranch and Rabbit Mountain). BATCO made significant financial contributions to the Open Space Tax Extension campaign, solicited additional funding, wrote letters to the local newspapers, and supported the issue on our Web Site. We believe our efforts contributed to the success of the tax extension, which passed by a greater than two to one majority (69.2% approving vs. 30.8% opposed). The fact that the ballot issue was worded "for trails and open space" may have had something to do with the unusually high approval level (previous open space issues have typically received less than 59% approval).

Mountain Parks management plan

In general, it was a job well done. We are particularly happy about Mountain Parks' recognition of the necessity to find an objective balance between recreational uses and resource preservation. BATCO believe it is essential to avoid treating these requirements as mutually exclusive. We commend Mountain Parks' willingness to accept that it may be possible to satisfy both requirements, rather than assuming that one must always be sacrificed for the other.

BATCO also appreciate Mountain Parks' positive responses to the public input they received. Several items that were raised in the workshops appear in the final plan. We are uncomfortable with policies that incorporate blanket rejection of types of users or uses (e.g. the mountain biking and bolting bans). Although they can make management easier, they tend to alienate users and can be inappropriately or arbitrarily applied. Once again, Mountain Parks' willingness to discuss such issues and to consider less exclusive alternatives is most commendable.

BATCO supports the Revised Mountain Parks Plan and hopes that it will serve as a model for other city land use agencies.

Boulder City OS visitor plan

This summer the Boulder City Open Space staff has focused on developing a Visitor Plan to manage the people who use Open Space. The staff sponsored a public forum and a workshop in February at which the preponderance of public input was in favor of access and trails. Subsequently the staff selected a Visitor Plan Advisory Committee to "collect, analyze and summarize information and public comments" and to prepare recommendations for the plan. An Open Space telephone survey was conducted in July and August. A second workshop was held in September and another is scheduled for November. The Visitor Plan Advisory Committee's report is planned for early next year. The draft Visitor Plan will then be created and presented to the OSBT in 2000.

Forest Service Winiger Ridge plan

Suzanne Webel

Because of our ongoing, active communication with Forest Service recreation planners, BATCO was stunned when the draft Winiger-West Magnolia-Caribou Travel Management Plan was released this summer. Areas affected include Caribou, Nederland, the Switzerland Trail, West Magnolia, Boulder Canyon, Meyers Gulch, and Winiger Ridge. There are currently about 118 miles of mapped roads and trails in this area, which stretches from Boulder to the Continental Divide. The proposed plan would have closed more than 60% of all existing roads and trails in the name of protecting the environment as well as local neighbors. We felt that it ignored objective science in the decision-making process, falling back on emotional environmental rhetoric, applying arbitrary standards, caving in to private access demands, and avoiding appropriate public process.

BATCO joined several other trail advocacy organizations in opposing the plan, but we didn't just stop there! Instead, we spent many hours poring over maps, evaluating environmental issues, talking among local recreationists, getting people to sign petitions, and analyzing alternatives. Which trails were essential to a quality trail system and which trails could we live without?

We submitted a lengthy, trail-by-trail counterproposal which, we feel, represents a more equitable balance between the competing priorities of passive recreation and environmental preservation. The BATCO proposal would reinstate approximately 16 miles of needed existing trails, and would require construction of about one mile of new trail. Our plan includes a variety of loop trails, one regional trail, and maintains significant connections. It would keep about 50% of the existing trail system open. In exchange, we would support the closure of the remaining 50% of existing trails as a gesture of good faith toward environmental protection. We also indicated that we were prepared to object to the Forest Service Plan on a trail-by-trail basis if necessary.

The final plan had been due out in October, with key personnel saying they would start hiring people immediately to begin the trail closure program this fall. Instead, the Forest Service has decided to slow the pace down until they can conduct additional environmental reviews and come up with a better plan (now they are thinking in terms of the beginning of next year). They thanked us for all the work we did, and indicated that the final product will be a lot more to our liking than the draft!

Stay tuned for the final chapter of this saga. We'll keep you posted. We wouldn't want to count our (bald eagle?) chicks before they hatch, but there may be some morals here: be vigilant and do the homework, make it really difficult for decision-makers to disagree with you and really easy for them to agree with you.

FERC Gross reservoir trails and access recommendations

Suzanne Webel

After literally years of dialogue between Denver Water, representatives of several stakeholder organizations, concerned neighbors, consultants, the Forest Service, and others, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just issued its Draft Environmental Assessment for the Gross Reservoir Hydroelectric Project.

BATCO representatives were among the stakeholders interested in maintaining a reasonable amount of public access to this little-known gem tucked between Walker Ranch, Eldorado Springs, and Coal Creek Canyon. Trails there have served recreationists for many years, both informally near the reservoir on the east and more formally on the west in the Winiger Ridge area (Roosevelt National Forest).

The Denver Water recommendation included designating equestrian use, mountain biking and hiking in the Winiger Ridge Recreation Area, with hiking only on all other trails. Dogs would be allowed on leash on all hiking trails. Fishing and ice fishing would continue to be allowed, while there would be no swimming and no boating on the reservoir. Signage and enforcement would increase, and there would be a designated, improved parking area at the top of Forsythe Canyon for cars and horse trailers. All social trails and roads that are not needed for Denver Water or the Recreation Management Plan would be closed and revegetated.

FERC agrees with the trail recommendations, but feels strongly that non-motorized boating (for watercraft small enough to fit on the top of a car) should be allowed. It is refreshing to read a government document that actually talks about the benefits to the public of recreation and access to public land. FERC notes that "the inevitable increase in the Front Range population, coupled with the lack of recreation facilities, will cause future unavoidable impacts to the Project area." But, there would be "an overall benefit to vegetation and wildlife by better planning and providing facilities to focus recreational use." FERC evaluated the potential for impact on a variety of flora and fauna, including 19 threatened, endangered, or sensitive species, and determined that the plan would have either no effect, was not likely to adversely affect, or might even have beneficial effect, on those species. Furthermore, they note that the cost of enhanced recreation at Gross Reservoir would reduce the "financial benefit" of the hydroelectric project by $157,000 annually, but that the cost is justified by the benefits to the projects natural resources and the public.

Time will tell how this management plan works out. It will be especially important to monitor implementation of the trails portion of the plan. We will also need to remain vigilant that the section of the regional east-west trail planned to connect Eldorado Springs to the Continental Divide, which passes through the Gross Reservoir area, is not derailed. For now, it is safe to say that if it weren't for BATCO, BCHA, FIDOS, and Trail Mix showing up at the meetings and advocating for trails, the final plan could have been a lot less hospitable to the public than this one.

National Trails Day 2000

Suzanne Webel

One of the crown jewels of the Boulder County Parks and Open Space program is scheduled to open to the public in early December, albeit in a limited way initially. The 5500 acre Heil Valley Ranch now has a 1.5 mile pedestrian-only loop trail with an attractively designed parking area. The trail winds gently through meadows and forests, offering tantalizing glimpses of the future potential of a regional north-south trail that might someday connect Boulder and Lyons.

As members of the citizens' advisory committee to provide input to the North Foothills Open Space management plan, Eric Vogelsberg and I were treated recently to a sneak preview of the new trail. Parks and Open Space Director (and Chair of the Board of County Commissioners) Ron Stewart mentioned that trail work on the next phase, a long awaited, multi-use trail, would begin in June. Yours truly seized the opportunity to offer BATCO's resources to make this an official National Trails Day project and our offer was received favorably.

So mark your calendars for June 3, 2000. Join over a million other volunteers nationwide who will be showing their support for trails. Look for more information on this National Trails Day event in upcoming BATCO newsletters. Contact any of the Board if you are interested in helping us to organize this fun and rewarding event.