Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships Initiative

In 2050, Colorado’s people and economy thrive because of our healthy lands, water, wildlife, and working farms and ranches, accompanied by improved, inclusive outdoor recreation, hunting, and angling opportunities for all.

This is the state-level vision of the  Colorado Outdoor Partnership (CO-OP) , a collaborative of private and public sector outdoors leaders across the state. Since 2017, the CO-OP’s diverse stakeholders have worked to balance the needs and desires of diverse user groups including agriculture, recreation, conservation and game sports amidst growing pressures on the natural environment. The CO-OP follows the  Colorado Outdoor Principles  and serves as the statewide advisory body for the Regional Partnerships Initiative, established in October 2020 by Governor’s  Executive Order B 2020 008 .

The RPI coalesces a network of local conservation and recreation efforts, known as Regional Partnerships, across Colorado to learn from and elevate community-level perspectives, values, and priorities, which subsequently inform work across the state. Some of these coalitions existed before the RPI, while others have come into being through a collaborative grant program. (Keep reading to learn more!)

As of late 2023, 14 Regional Partnerships cover 51% of Colorado's geographic area. Each Regional Partnership considers multidisciplinary interests, including tourism, recreation, wildlife, equitable access to nature, water quality, habitat health, cultural resources, and more. Many of the Regional Partnerships provide much-needed data and landscape-level perspectives for communities to use in short- and long-term planning processes.

The Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnership honors and acknowledges that the areas that make up the regional partnerships continue to be home to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, 46 other contemporary Tribes with historic and cultural ties to the State, and Indigenous peoples from more than 200 Tribal Nations. We recognize the Indigenous peoples as original stewards of this land and affirm Indigenous sovereignty, history, knowledge, and experiences.

Regional Partnerships are funded in part or entirely through the Regional Partnerships Initiative Grant Program, a collaboration between  Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO)  and CPW.

Through the first four grant cycles, RPI awards totaled $3,039,981. As of fall 2023, there are 16 Regional Partnerships. More Regional Partnerships are anticipated to join the Initiative in future grant cycles.

GOCO, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Department of Natural Resources, and the Governor’s Office have embarked on a multi-year process to establish  Colorado’s Outdoor Strategy . This statewide vision and action plan seeks to proactively address the increased pressure on our environment from both climate change and human use. Diverse stakeholders and interests – including conservation, outdoor recreation, and ecological health, especially land, water, and wildlife – are critical to forming the Outdoor Strategy. The Regional Partnerships will inform the Outdoors Strategy so that it is locally relevant to the wide range of cultures and needs across Colorado. “Ensuring a future for Colorado’s outdoors requires the expertise of communities across our great state, who have a deep understanding of critical natural resources and recreation opportunities in the regions they call home,” said GOCO Executive Director Jackie Miller. “GOCO is incredibly excited for the priorities and plans that will be elevated by Regional Partnerships Initiative, which will inform a responsive, regionally-rooted statewide strategy for the years ahead.” The final vision and action plan will be completed by June 2026.

While many Coloradans are familiar with the U.S. Highway 285 corridor, which runs southwest from Denver into the mountains, few may realize how much care and intention has been directed to the lands surrounding it in recent years. Much of that work is thanks to Outside 285, a coalition based on a years-long collaboration between the South Platte Ranger District of the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and the Colorado Mountain Bike Association (COMBA) laid the groundwork. With this initial arrangement, USFS received help with trail construction and maintenance, and COMBA got a seat at the decision-making table for when and how new trails were added. While that relationship was beneficial, it lacked a long-term perspective, so work began on a multi-year strategy. From there the conversation grew as more groups were welcomed in - including wildlife advocates, equestrians, and trail runners - and the geography expanded to encompass more lands around U.S. Highway 285. 

That’s where Bill Mangle and the team at ERO Resources was brought in to facilitate and collate the group’s work into something tangible. Outside 285 provides non-binding recommendations, which might imply the group has no sway over what happens on the ground; yet paradoxically, this arrangement has led to better rapport with land managers. “There’s no way we would be able to get any binding commitments” from agencies like USFS or CPW, Bill acknowledges, as these groups have to follow their own plans and leadership directives. But through Outside 285, land managers benefit from a condensed version of a stakeholder process, and still retain their ability to implement what works best for their agency.

“In our case, I think that has made our recommendations be taken a lot more seriously,” Bill says. “It’s taken pressure off the land managers and kept them at the table.”

In late 2021, pluralistic conversations and diligent research resulted in Outside 285’s first  Master Plan , a comprehensive look at recreation and ecological habitat along the U.S. 285 corridor. Initially the group focused on lands east of Kenosha Pass, an area that Bill calls a “recreation-shed” for the metro Denver area, with ample trails and spaces for an outing that still lets adventurers get home by dinner. The group joined the Regional Partnerships Initiative in 2022, receiving a $149,500 grant that Bill says has been critical to keeping the coalition together, since “there’s not a singular well-funded agency that is leading the charge.” For better or for worse, Outside 285 is not alone there, and Bill lauds the RPI network as both a source of validation for how tricky this work can be, and a wealth of knowledge so that coalitions can help each other do things better. 

“It’s about being part of something larger,” Bill says, “and part of this movement towards balanced solutions while also being able to be authentic to our region and our participants.”

Thanks to the RPI grant, Outside 285 has expanded its reach to the entirety of Park County, taking the South Park area under its wing. While many of the lessons and strategies from the first few years remain true in this new geography, each community has different needs and priorities, and Bill says it’s about “meeting them where they’re at.” In South Park, that means diverging from an explicit Master Plan, instead focusing on local management solutions and communication efforts that emphasize environmental ethics. As the group evolves, Bill expects there will be less focus on a single goal that keeps everyone together, but that’s not inherently a bad thing.

“It may feel a little more scattered as we have disparate priorities and subprojects going on,” Bill says, “so we’ll need to continue to be dynamic to keep people interested and at the table.”

Outside 285 continues to build common ground between and beyond its member organizations, which Bill says is foundational to this work, even when it doesn’t always result in a tangible project or product. In the summer of 2023, COMBA collaborated with Backcountry Hunters and Anglers for a grant application; while the application itself was ultimately not successful, Bill points out that an inter-organization project, especially from user groups that are often perceived to be at odds in public discourse, “doesn’t happen all the time.” These connections happen on a smaller scale too, such as the duo Bill refers to as “our most hardcore mountain bike advocate and our most hardcore equestrian advocate,” who came to the process with competing goals and a dose of suspicion. After a year and many shared conversations, these two enthusiasts now help each other with trail events and are frequently caught talking the other one’s ear off at Outside 285 gatherings. 

“That’s a soft win, but it’s pretty huge,” Bill says.

The future of Outside 285 remains unclear as long as the search for sustainable funding continues. While Bill says the group is grateful for RPI’s grant support, the coalition would ideally operate with consistent funds that are independent from the ebbs and flows of grant cycles. As the current facilitator, Bill is a consultant, and he wonders if a long-term plan might include moving the coalition in-house to an organization, such as a land management agency, or sourcing enough stable funding to hire full-time staff. Additionally, many of the participating groups have been more successful in receiving their own project implementation funding thanks to their involvement with Outside 285, but these case-by-case occurrences haven’t yet translated to systemic change.

“There are a lot of good ideas that have been identified, and it's hard to match the funding to the on-the-ground needs,” Bill says. “Either the funding doesn't exist, or we don't have strong connections between where the funding exists and where the needs are. And so I would like to strengthen that conduit, and have Outside 285 be part of that.”

When Matt Mulica thinks about Routt County prior to the Routt Recreation and Conservation Roundtable (RRCR), he remembers the work the initial group did on the  Mad Rabbit Trails Project , a tax-funded proposal to expand the trail system in the national forests surrounding Routt County. The Mad Rabbit trail project deeply divided the community, with people turning out in droves to public meetings and getting into heated exchanges. 

In 2019, Matt and other associates at the Keystone Policy Center took on the role of mediating and facilitating what is now the RRCR, bringing together wildlife advocates, recreationalists, sportspeople, land management agencies, and municipalities to one discussion table. The Roundtable’s goal: “let’s never have an issue get so wrought with conflict that we don't have a forum to discuss it.” Since its inception, RRCR has worked to do just that through routine monthly meetings, alternating between the full membership, and an executive committee of land managers and municipalities. The Roundtable provides non-binding recommendations to jurisdictional agencies, including local and state government offices, in hopes that a wider range of voices results in more sustainable projects, in every sense of that term.

“It's about making projects better and providing the perspective of leaders within Routt County,” Matt says. “That is our primary purpose, to get early and often input on these projects, so that they can be better from a recreationalist’s standpoint, and lessen the impacts to wildlife and the environment.”

One of the group’s most significant projects so far, a  decision support tool , may not be as visible to the general public as other projects but is no less impactful. RRCR joined the Regional Partnerships Initiative in 2021, and much of the funding that supported the development of this tool is thanks to RPI’s support. Matt calls the tool “one map to rule them all,” with “any layers we could get our hands on” integrated into one digital tool that can inform land managers and decision makers on where and how to implement conservation and recreation initiatives in and near Routt County. The tool, released in late 2023, offers an environmental sensitivity score based on the information in or around a user-drawn line or polygon. Matt noted that it’s similar to the statewide CODEX tool, but with a particular focus on Routt County, which provides better specificity for proposed new trails, habitat closures, and other similar projects that may come down the pike.

Meanwhile, RRCR has also been working on destination management projects in an attempt to spread out the recreation load on the county’s available lands. In conjunction with the local Chamber of Commerce and other RRCR members, the group developed Know Before You Go websites, with one each for summer and winter. These help educate visitors to be prepared and practice proper etiquette, especially in areas that see multiple user groups like hikers, snowmobilers, and skiers on the land at the same time. 

In a similar vein, a pilot project initiated a few years ago is proving successful enough that RRCR is now looking to expand it across the county. A webcam was installed at the Dry Lake-Buffalo Pass trailhead, one of the most popular locations in the county for recreators, and also one of the most fraught with overuse and poor parking etiquette. Potential visitors can check the webcam, which refreshes every 15 minutes, before leaving their home or hotel room, and decide whether to head to that area or elsewhere based on how busy the camera feed looks. Matt reported that a few hundred people checked that camera every day during the pilot phase, indicating that a resource like this might prove useful on a larger scale. The camera continues to be available, and RRCR is now looking into more funding to establish more trailhead cameras in the area. Matt hopes projects like these can become more common for the roundtable; the group is exploring installing more webcams and creating a dashboard to help people choose where to go on any particular day. 

“The idea is to continue implementing these activities to try to make a positive impact on the ground,” Matt says. “We can provide people with information, so that they can make better informed decisions on where to go and how to behave that will hopefully lessen the impacts to wildlife and the environment, and reduce conflict among users.”

Entering into its fifth year, RRCR is finalizing its Conservation and Recreation Plan, which is anchored around conservation and recreation visions and goals as well as a set of guiding principles. Matt marks that journey toward consensus an indicator of “better understanding in our group on what we want to accomplish together,” something that hasn’t always come easy to this coalition. That hard work is far from finished, though; the NEPA process for Mad Rabbit was still ongoing as of December 2023, and disagreement continues between various groups. Yet Matt was thrilled to see a new swath of community groups join the roundtable when spots opened up in 2023, a sign that more people are interested in engaging in difficult conversations. 

“The folks on the Roundtable are the exact people that you'd want sitting around this table,” Matt said. “I'd rather bring everyone in no matter if they agree with each other or not, than exclude a perspective that is going to then question the process and the whole group because they weren't involved.”

Looking forward, the RRCR is thinking about where it might go next. Matt wonders about sponsoring volunteer projects to remediate social trails, or maybe even hiring seasonal workers to have boots on the ground for educating visitors and enforcing violations like unattended campfires. These ideas ultimately rely on sufficient funding, and would likely be in conjunction with the continued dialogue meetings that make up the backbone of RRCR. Ultimately, Matt knows that getting groups of diverse interests onto the landscape helps reorient everyone to the shared goal of caring for the place they all love so dearly.

“Implementing activities that make a positive impact on the ground is what will keep this Roundtable moving forward together,” Matt says. “Whatever hat or helmet you wear, everyone is deeply passionate about Routt County and surrounding lands.”

Steve Coffin never intended to spearhead a coalition of governmental agencies in unprecedented collaborative efforts across Colorado’s northern Front Range. He was just a longtime Coloradan, increasingly worried about negative impacts of the state’s growing population and its penchant for recreating among incredible natural places. Following his growing concern, Steve spent about a year having countless conversations with environmental leaders, government officials, and business experts, seeking to understand exactly what things looked like from their perspective. One conversation in particular, with someone in the U.S. Forest Service, stuck out. 

“He said, ‘the only way we’re going to be effective at addressing this challenge is if we break down the bureaucratic silos, the bureaucratic boundaries, between the federal land agencies, state land agencies, and local land agencies,’” Steve recalled. “‘There have been periods of time and episodes and issues around which they have collaborated, but it's been very episodic.’ So I ran with that idea, and that became NoCo Places.”

Established in 2018, the multi-scalar collaborative seeks to “protect and conserve natural and cultural resources while providing equitable access and a quality recreation experience for current and future generations,” according to its mission statement.  NoCo Places  includes eight governmental agencies: the five counties of Boulder, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Jefferson, and Larimer; the state of Colorado, by way of Colorado Parks and Wildlife; and the federal government, through the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service. This translates to a significant geographic reach, including much of the northern Front Range, the western Denver metro area, and the revered Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Each land agency offers one representative to serve on the NoCo Places executive committee, which does the heavy lifting to align principles and guidelines across agencies that can then inform their individual work. Steve is careful to note that NoCo PLACES is not a legal entity, and does not dictate what a particular agency should do in a given situation, such as how it should write or implement a management plan. 

Yet the mere act of assembling these distinct entities into the same room leads to synergistic results. One such effort centers around  COTREX , or the Colorado Trail Explorer App, as a tool to remedy trail misinformation. Many commercial apps, Steve points out, won’t include seasonal closure data or emergency alerts and closures, and sometimes will show an unsanctioned trail as if it’s legitimate. In contrast, all the data on COTREX comes from public land agencies, so every trail on there is verified. Even better, COTREX is available for free, compared to some apps that require a purchase fee or even a recurring subscription.

“We just made a deliberate decision that we want to promote COTREX as much as we can, and make it the go-to app for trail use,” Steve says, adding, “And we've actually been talking to some of the other Regional Partnerships about this too.”

While NoCo Places has been around longer than the Regional Partnership Initiative, and has even worked with other pre-existing Regional Partnerships, Steve says getting involved with RPI has opened new doors for the coalition. NoCo Places received grants in two of RPI’s funding rounds – spring 2021 and spring 2022 – totaling about $200,000. Much of that funding is currently being used to support a visioning project: the creation of a tool that will help NoCo Places develop a strategy around conservation and recreation goals, two forces that appear in opposition but don’t necessarily have to be so. Numerous projects in pursuit of this same vision are in progress across the state; this is where RPI and the network of Regional Partnerships come into play.

“There could be a natural tendency for each of us [Regional Partnerships] to do some similar things, where we end up recreating the wheel. And so if the state [via the RPI] can take the lead on some of this stuff, we can then tailor what the state's done to our own particular needs,” Steve says. “I'm fully confident that at the end of the day, the state is going to help make this process more efficient.”

None of the work happens easily or quickly. Yet Steve emphasized the importance of relationships, both among the agencies that contribute to NoCo Places, and between the Regional Partnerships. Sometimes all heads at the table are nodding in agreement; other times, it takes multiple conversations, in groups and one-on-one, to find a consensus that allows the group to move forward.

“Just knowing that there are others out there trying to do the same thing, in spirit, that we're trying to do is encouraging and inspiring,” Steve says.

In the long term, NoCo Places is considering whether to become a 501(c)3, have full-time staff, a consistent budget and the capacity to become more operational, helping agencies make the changes they want. Steve dreams of wildlife corridors throughout the region and beyond, of interconnected trail systems that offer prime recreation while protecting critical flora and fauna. Realistically, Steve’s involvement with NoCo Places will be completed before these ideas come to fruition, even though they will “drive me until I do retire and even beyond.” For now, he and his collaborators work and volunteer their time to play the long game, sorting out what’s best for Colorado and its people, and doing what they can to make it happen sooner rather than later.

“Even though I get into the weeds here a little bit, that passion is still there,” Steve says. “I do not want us to lose what makes Colorado a special place.”

Nestled in south central Colorado, the San Luis Valley is often referred to as a magical place. Home to 14,000 foot mountains, high altitude sand dunes, the headwaters of the Rio Grande River, and troves of migratory and resident wildlife,  the six-county region  is a fertile valley of natural and cultural diversity. Recognizing the beauty and value of such a unique place, a group of passionate residents came together in 2013 to form  San Luis Valley Great Outdoors! (SLV GO!) . The organization works with the mission to provide “accessible and inclusive outdoor recreation opportunities that balance conservation, connect communities, improve wellness, encourage stewardship, and contribute to the economic vitality of the region.” SLV GO! obtained non-profit status in 2018, and in 2021 SLV GO! was awarded a $110,000 grant from the Regional Partnership Initiative.

SLV GO! is a “collective impact organization,” according to Community Connections Coordinator Dani Robben, with a wide range of projects ranging from trail work, to Dark Sky advocacy, to revitalizing the Rio Grande River. Sometimes SLV GO! is the home for these initiatives, assisted by more than a hundred volunteers; other times, it helps support upwards of 40 nearby organizations that are doing the actual work. 

“We're always trying to help our partners connect to resources, and help them move projects forward,” Dani said. “Even if it's not our directive, it still furthers our mission to provide equitable and inclusive outdoor access or improve the local economy. It all ties in in some way.”

One of SLV GO!’s newest in-house endeavors is the Embajadores program, which seeks to connect with the approximately 50% of Valley residents who identify as Hispanic or indigenous.  Community survey results  have indicated that non-white residents engage with nature in different ways, and often less frequently, than their white counterparts, according to SLV GO! Health and Wellness Coordinator Esteban Salazar. For those who do spend time outdoors, microaggressions and outright conflicts have led many people of color, including the Hispanic community, to feel unwelcome on public lands in the Valley and beyond.

“There's definitely some historically excluded communities in outdoor recreation,” Esteban noted. “Through our ambassador program, we hope to break down those barriers and demonstrate that outdoor activities can be inclusive.”

As an SLV GO! Embajador (“ambassador” in Spanish), Hispanic residents from school-age kids through adults are trained and encouraged as outdoors leaders in mountain biking, fly fishing, rock climbing, camping, and other activities. Esteban pointed to Cultivando, out of Adams County, and Leadville Outdoors as two nearby groups that SLV GO! is looking to for inspiration. These groups, and SLV GO!’s Embajadores program, are riffing off the “promotoras” model, which taps into the interpersonal trust and relationships between community members to advance change, rather than relying solely on outside experts. This not only empowers the Embajadores themselves as land stewards; it also shows the rest of the community that “this is something that we are thriving in,” Esteban says, and that there are many ways to safely and respectfully enjoy nature.

“Maybe you won’t see us summiting those fourteeners, but we’ll be in the parks barbecuing, going to other events, participating in public music venues,” Esteban said. “It’s a foot in the door to getting people onto trails and into natural spaces in ways they might not have considered before.”

Outdoor recreation can be prohibitively expensive; SLV GO! is working to knock down that barrier for Embajadores participants. All of the Embajadores are paid for their time, and free or reduced-priced equipment is available for trips when needed. SLV GO! has developed working partnerships with groups like Alamosa Bike Coalition, who provide loaner bikes for program participants, rather than assuming that everyone owns what is often a multi-thousand dollar item.

While people of any age can become Embajadores, there’s a special focus on uplifting Hispanic youth. Esteban is working to develop a peer-to-peer component, where Embajadores from local colleges and high schools, trained in the best practices for certain outdoor sports, could subsequently teach their younger counterparts. For young adult Embajadores, their training in Wilderness First Aid and other workforce readiness skills could give them a leg up for getting full-time work, once they graduate from high school or college. 

SLV GO! is intentional in showing people of different sizes, family dynamics, and ethnic backgrounds in visual marketing materials, according to Esteban, to show “it is possible to break the mold of what we traditionally believe to be a stereotypical outdoors person.”  There are numerous languages and dialects in the region beyond English and Spanish, so SLV GO! is also partnering with community interpreters to ensure outreach and engagement efforts are reaching more people in their preferred language.

Even though the program is still getting its footing, Esteban sees SLV GO!’s Embajadores as a critical part of the Valley. As the Alamosa school district transitions to a four-day school week, the teachers who want or need to work that fifth day will have the opportunity to become Embajadores. Teachers also have the opportunity to become outdoor program facilitators on Fridays through a partnership between the school district and the San Luis Valley Generation Wild Coalition, which lives at SLV GO! alongside the Embajadores program.

Esteban also points to the conundrum of public land stewardship. The San Luis Valley is surrounded by federal lands, which are often understaffed, yet the federal jobs application is notoriously tricky. Esteban wants to figure out how to help the Embajadores and other young community members who are looking for work to navigate these job applications, and in turn, they might end up working to care for the region’s valued natural spaces. The adjacent work by the SLV Generation Wild Coalition might even help these youth get their foot in the door by way of the Great Outdoors Action Team, a year-round trail maintenance and restoration crew that works on both private and public lands in the Valley.

“We see this as an opportunity to bring good experiences and immersive opportunities that our community may not have had the chance to really explore before,” Esteban said. “​​It may take a few years to get there, but that's really where we see this work going.”

While the Embajadores program is working to bring historically excluded communities to the San Luis Valley’s natural spaces, there remains the question of how to balance conservation and recreation in the region. SLV GO! continues to facilitate community conversations with recreationists, conservationists, and other stakeholders, including agricultural producers. The organization is helping facilitate a regional recreation and conservation plan in conjunction with local ranger districts and land management agencies. Amidst these projects, the support from the RPI underscores that the Valley does not have to face its challenges alone.

“It's an inspiring circle to be in,” Dani said, “and just provides more motivation, I think, for coalitions to do this work.”

Two term-limited Regional Partnership Coordinator positions will join the CPW team in 2024 to support coalition efforts on the Western Slope and Eastern Plains. Additional grant cycles are expected in 2024 to fund the work of existing Regional Partnerships and add new coalitions to the network. Stay up to date on the latest grant cycle status at   the Colorado Parks & Wildlife website.