Northern Colorado Conservation & Recreation

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A big challenge that almost all public land management agencies face on the Northern Colorado Front Range is taking care of what we have amidst increasing pressure for more recreation opportunities. Recreation in Colorado is a wonderful thing to which everyone should have access. However, more recreation and more people can stress infrastructure, facilities, natural resources, and staffing.

While the land is to be explored and enjoyed, there are steps that must be taken to ensure the assets of the region are around for generations to come.

The challenges that visitors face include full parking lots, crowded trails, trash and waste on the ground, and other aspects that negatively affect their experience while trying to enjoy the outdoors.

When both wildlife and people use the same areas, there are bound to be conflicts. Many species of wildlife, like coyotes, even use the same trails people do.

When visitors go off trail they can negatively impact wildlife by disturbing their nests, their hunting habits, or their food source. Off leash dogs can disturb or kill animals and birds, and dog waste does not biodegrade and can be harmful to water quality. Conversely, visitors can be harmed by wildlife when they get too close.

But wildlife is part of the reason people value recreating in Northern Colorado.

How can we share the landscape with wildlife?

In 2019, NoCo PLACES 2050 was formed (now called NoCo Places). The collaborative is made up of eight Front Range public land managers spanning from the northern border with Wyoming down to Jefferson County. The jurisdictions that are represented include county, state, and federal-level. These different land managers came together to share ideas and resources and form management strategies together. Across jurisdictions. Across boundaries.

NoCo Places: A Common Voice for Public Lands

This coalition is actively collaborating on ways to address the challenges the mountains and foothills in this region are facing from high visitation and a growing population. NoCo is committed to sustainable solutions, equitable actions, and beneficial land management practices for the long-term conservation of Colorado’s public lands and the quality of the visitor experience.

• U.S. Forest Service, Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland
• Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Northeast Region
• National Park Service: Rocky Mountain National Park
• Boulder County
• Clear Creek County
• Gilpin County
• Jefferson County
• Larimer County

As part of the effort to develop a conservation and recreation vision, NoCo Places worked with the  Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP)  to create a Conservation Summary map for the region.

The Conservation Summary is a map that combines multiple data layers showing the variety of biodiversity in the region. The map represents the current state of knowledge about biological resources of conservation importance to the NoCo region.

What did we see? A very diverse region with species of conservation concern.

The Conservation Summary map above has a weighting scheme of 0-10. Weight 10 is shown as dark blue, and a weight of 1 is shown as light blue. For example, a weight of 10 represents one of the following:

• Critically Imperiled species or plant community
• Federally Listed species
• State Listed species

A weight of 1 represents "General Biodiversity Interest".

From late spring 2020 to summer 2021, NoCo Places conducted in-depth research into a series of core topic issues that affect the long-term management of public lands in this region. The goal of this investigation was to ensure all NoCo agencies had a common understanding of those challenges and to learn from subject matter experts across the country on the best practices and latest trends on these issues

Core Topics Covered:

• Adaptive Responses and Coordination
• Behavioral Science
• Carrying Capacity
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
• Forest Health and Climate Change
• Funding and Economics
• Managing for New Uses and User Conflicts
• Transportation
• Trends in Visitor Use
• Volunteerism, Stewardship, and Advocacy
• Wildlife

After the data from CHNP's CODEX map was in place, it was time to pair it with another type of data that would round out the entire picture: on the ground information showing when, where, and how long people visit public lands. This type of data adds a valuable layer of detail to the mix.

Mobile phone location data involves information collected from cell phones across a time and study area. This data comes in the form of “pings” which are points that show latitude, longitude, time, and date. The data collected for this study consists of 70 specific hot spots in the region.

Mobile phone data provides "movement data":

• Where people are going, which has implications for managing off-trail use
• When people are going, which helps land managers understand which parks/trails are the most popular at which times
• Where people are coming from, and demographic information, which helps equity and access efforts

In the past, it has been hard to fully understand how people use and experience large landscapes. Today's mobile phone data allows park managers to understand large scale movement of visitors, something they have been looking for in terms of congestion management and crowd management for a long time. This data gives them the ability to do that, and across many different locations at once.

This data is not meant to stand alone. To fully paint the picture, it needs to be paired with other data and sources of information like surveys and site evaluations.

NoCo Places is focused on cross-jurisdictional solutions and opportunities. The data derived from mobile phone locations can help the group in future decision-making processes. This information can be used to reveal:

1) Monitoring high conservation value and high recreation use areas 2) Cross-visitation patterns between selected NoCo sites 3) Potential Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion issues using Census Data 4) General visitor use monitoring across sites and between land managers

Mobile phone data allows public land managers to manage these places better. If management changes are made, they can see the impact of those changes on the visiting public, and the ecosystem, over time.

The following areas only represent a portion of the hot spots identified across the NoCo region.

What does it look like when the data from the Conservation Summary map and the mobile phone hot spot map are combined? In some areas, we see a high amount of visitor use in areas that are highly sensitive, ecologically speaking. These are areas where a healthy balance of conservation and recreation can be assessed.

The Northern Colorado Front Range is a beautiful and special area. The assets in the region, the public land, the flora, the fauna, and the recreation opportunities, are well worth protecting for generations to come. High and concentrated visitation to public lands is putting pressure on the natural resources, and the overall visitor experience.

The group working collaboratively to address these challenges is  NoCo Places . This coalition consists of eight public land managers, ranging from county to state to federal level, who are committed to finding solutions to the challenges, together. They represent a common voice for public lands.

A conservation and recreation vision will help inform these land manager's decisions and open up new opportunities for partnership in a shared management philosophy.

Through a commitment to collaboration, a deep dive into core topic research, connecting with partner organizations in the region, and gathering data, a Conservation and Recreation Vision will come to life.

NoCo Places worked with leading experts on wildlife and plant data, as well as visitor mobile phone data, to better understand what's happening on the ground in the region. The first piece of key data comes in the form of the Conservation Summary map, a data-rich illustration of the biodiversity in the region, as well as the areas of species and conservation concern.

The second piece of key data is mobile phone data from visitors to public lands. The value of mobile phone data is that it provides multiple years and different seasons to the story of how people are using open spaces and natural areas. The understanding that comes from this can help make a better experience for visitors, while monitoring the impact that people have on these landscapes over time.

The time to address the challenge of high visitation on public lands is now.

Conservation and recreation can coexist, when balance is achieved.

Future generations depend on actions taken by public land managers—and the visiting public—today.