Visitor Plan Management Strategies

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From the Open Space Board of Trustees Annual Board Retreat Memos, April 2002

The goal of the Visitor Plan is to implement a new system for visitor use management that seeks to be more effective in enhancing the quality of visitor experience conditions and minimizing visitor use impacts on the quality of natural resource conditions. Open Space and Mountain Parks (OSMP) must better direct and channel passive recreational activities to those locations where use can be supported, while minimizing resource degradation. The new OSMP visitor use management system involves:

• Strategic investment in education, enforcement, and facilities - Priorities for these investments are based on a strategic assessment of needs, cost, and benefits.
• Area management - Area management is designed to provide coherent regulatory and other mechanisms that provide higher levels of natural resource protection where needed. Higher levels of protection are provided to those areas and resources that are relatively high value and unaffected by current visitor use.
• Continued development of working relationships and partnerships - These involve OSMP, recreational, environmental and other stakeholder groups. The goal is to find ways of working together to implement the new visitor management system in support of sustainable recreation that is compatible with resource protection.

A Visitor Plan is long overdue. Our current visitor management strategies date from 1980 when there were less than ½ million visits to the system. The current management system is primarily reactive. Now, there are over 3.5 million visits and we have learned more about visitor needs, how they behave, the condition and sustainability of the trail system and the nature of visitor impacts on natural resources. Equipped with this information we have the responsibility to implement strategies that will provide a quality visitor experience consistent with the conservation of natural and agricultural systems.

OSMP provides world-class recreational opportunities. The setting, convenient location and trails provide an extraordinary quality and number of passive recreation opportunities—over 3.5 million of them. That is more visits than Rocky Mountain or Yellowstone National Parks receive, on a much smaller land area.

Outings on OSMP provide an opportunity for visitors to improve their lives, to conveniently "get away" to think, appreciate nature, take in the views, enjoy the outdoors, have an adventure and get some exercise. Because of its attractive features, the system is a regional draw with about one-third of the visits coming from outside Boulder.

OSMP provides more than 130 miles of designated trail with over 1.5 million hikes, 1 million runs, 3/4 of a million dog walks with almost 1 million dog visits, and 1/3 million bike rides and 100,000 climbs on 1,300 climbing routes. Visitors also enjoy wildlife watching, picnicking, fishing, photography, contemplation, hang and paragliding, remote control airplane gliding, outdoor education and interpretation classes, pleasure drives, and weddings at the Flagstaff Amphitheater. Projections show a good chance of visits doubling by 2020.

In the Visitor Plan Survey conducted in 2000, Boulder residents indicated a high level of satisfaction with their OSMP experience. Almost all interviewees (93%) said the quality of their visitor experience as either excellent (58%) or good (35%). Eighty nine percent (89%) thought trail facilities were either excellent (39%) or good (50%). Two-thirds of respondents thought visitor services as excellent (20%) or good (45%) with 21% not responding to the question. When asked about the management balance, 62% said the balance is "about right." Of those who felt the balance wrong, twice as many people (20%) felt that there was too much emphasis on recreation than those who felt there was too much emphasis on the environment (11%).

Visitor Plan public involvement has been extensive. For a list of Visitor Plan steps and public involvement opportunities see Attachments A and B.

A systematic analysis of the OSMP system was conducted to document the relationships among the visitor experience, OSMP’s dominant ecological systems and agricultural operations, all open space purposes mandated in the Boulder City Charter. Our analysis identified several areas of concern: 1) proliferation of undesignated trails by visitors, dogs, and horses traveling off designated trails, 2) substantial deficiencies of a significant portion of the trail infrastructure mainly in the mountain backdrop, and 3) conflicts associated with dogs and visitors, including poop pick-up, other dogs, wildlife and livestock. Other areas of concern include conflict between bicyclists and visitors, gates left open by visitors, and the removal of vegetation to "improve" conditions for visitor use (including unauthorized trail creation and rock face "grooming").

Proposed strategies to address these issues and improve the visitor experience while reducing environmental impacts are interrelated and incremental. These management strategies require sustained and adequate human resources to make them successful.

1. Working relationships and partnerships – OSMP will enhance the visitor experience by intentionally building working relationships with groups on trail, restoration and other projects. A key component to this is education and building a leave no trace ethic in the community.
2. Education – Education will be focused to enhance the visitor’s experience, reduce conflict and promote staying on designated trails. OSMP will continue its Leave No Trace (LNT) model program in which last year over 50,000 leave no trace trailhead contacts were made focusing on dog management and staying on trail. This level of effort is required to reach people in order to change their behavior based on education.
3. Enforcement – By increasing enforcement and education, the visitor experience will be improved. New regulations may be proposed to ensure the safety and enjoyment of visitors, and to improve the visitor experience.
4. Trail assessment, prioritization and improvement – Improving trails will enhance the visitor experience by delivering people to where they want to go on a trail that has less mud, slippery talus, a more even climbing grade and is more attractive because eyesores such as erosion are reduced. This strategy also minimizes ecological impact. To accomplish this, existing designated trails are proposed to be assessed and prioritized for rebuilding/rerouting based on their "sustainability." Guidance for this assessment will be in the Visitor Plan. Once the prioritization plan is approved by OSBT after public comment, a multi-year trail improvement program will begin including rebuilding, rerouting and refurbishment. Once complete, redundant undesignated trails particularly in sensitive areas may also be closed.

Bringing current designated trails up to standard will be expensive, incremental and will take many years unless more resources are found. For instance, it is estimated that about 1/3, or 14 miles, of trail in the Mountain Parks area are not sustainable because of inadequate construction and placement on excessively steep grades, wet areas or ecologically sensitive areas. Trails in steep terrain are generally less sustainable than those in flatter terrain. Because of limited resources, it is proposed that priority be given to trail reconstruction, basic trail maintenance, and finally, critical new trail connections.

5. Delineate management overlays – Management areas will allow sensitive areas to be protected, a "wild" experience to be preserved, and passive recreation in less sensitive areas to be enhanced using the management strategies described above.

• OSMP system - As a baseline, all of OSMP areas are proposed to be managed to improve the visitor experience and protect resources using current rules and the strategies described above. In addition, newly developed standards may be applied for facilities (trail-related) siting, construction and maintenance, and weed management (Attachment C).

• Recreation/Resource Monitoring Overlays - Recreation/Resource Monitoring Areas are proposed to be established in areas that have high ecological value and low to moderate visitation. Staff will monitor these areas for change and strongly recommend to visitors to stay "on trail" which is the current trail policy. Monitoring will allow staff to detect key problems in a timely way, ratchet protection up or down as needed, and provide the most visitor access as long as resources are protected.

• Special Protection Overlays - A preventive approach of Special Protection Areas may include a requirement for staying on designated trails in high ecological value and low visitation areas. Access may be provided through these areas on currently designated trails and in some instances on trails placed to make major trail connections that are sited to minimize environmental impact. Staff guided public field trips and research off trail will be allowed in these areas.

1. Monitoring and management adjustment - Monitoring is proposed to gauge the success of management strategies and to adjust management strategies. Monitoring visitor behavior and biological indicators can be used to improve the visitor experience, and protect natural features and agricultural operations. Monitoring indicators will be used and standards will be set that if exceeded will trigger alternative management action. For instance, monitoring could include measuring the level of off-trail activity in a sensitive area by placing observers near a trail. Management may be adjusted based on the monitoring results.

Open Space and Mountain Parks uses a cautionary "minimum resource impact to the land and natural resources" approach when making management decisions. To do otherwise may damage complex resources that cannot be or are very difficult to repair. Best available information will be used in management decisions. Because of the cost of management mistakes, part of this cautious approach is to use a "preponderance of evidence" standard based on available research, staff expertise and information from the public.

Staff recommends scheduling a study session soon to further discuss these concepts.

ATTACHMENTS:

1. Planning Chronology
2. Public Participation Opportunities List
3. Area Management Framework

Listed below are the major steps in the development of the Visitor Plan:

1998

• Collect and analyze information on visitor uses
• Identify issues

• Develop goals

• Establish the process for public involvement and plan development

1999

• Develop criteria to assess recreational uses (based on the input of the Visitor Plan Citizens Advisory Committee, the public, and the Open Space Board of Trustees)

2001

• Integrate Open Space and Mountain Parks visitor use planning projects.

• Additional Public and User Group Review

2002

• Draft Visitor Plan (now)
• Public Review/Comment

• Draft Revision

• Presentation to and adoption by OSBT

• Implementation

• Begin monitoring

An opportunity was provided at all the forums listed below for citizen comment. In general, public meetings were announced in newsletters, Channel 8 programs, the Visitor Plan website, the Visitor Plan hotline, and in paid advertisements placed in the Daily Camera. Public meeting notices and newsletters were placed at trailheads, community centers, and various locations around Boulder.