Bike Beat

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by Paul Murphy

Powered Mobility Devices in JCOS Parks

In response to a mandate from the federal level, Jefferson County Open Space has released its guidelines regarding the use of “mobility devices” in JCOS parks, and on JCOS trails. In short, persons with disabilities related to their mobility are permitted to access JCOS properties using powered devices of their choice. This does not mean that all parts of the park or every trail will become subject to this requirement, since it is not required that JCOS make alterations that “would fundamentally alter the nature of [its] service, program, or activity”, as stated in the regulation.

What it does mean is that we can expect to see people enter the parks and utilize some of the trails using powered devices, which might seem surprising at first, but, since this is a nationwide directive, expect to see adjustments to park policies pretty much everywhere. Rest assured that Segway in the Park is an approved activity, and it does not imply any other changes to park policy, beyond the accommodation of people with mobility issues. For a large volume of additional information, please see the following pages:

jeffco.us/openspace/openspace_T56_R168.htm

www.americantrails.org/resources/accessible/Summit-County-CO-policy-OPDMD.html

Priority Park: North Table Mountain – But What About Reynolds?

Although not always thought of as a destination park for mountain bikers, North Table Mountain has been selected as a “priority park” on which Jefferson County Open Space will focus resources this summer. We can expect continued activities at North Table Mountain Park as JCOS staff continue to implement the development plan for this park. The work will include further changes to familiar routes, as some existing trails are not on JCOS land. Resources are expected to be concentrated at North Table until implementation is complete.

Reynolds Park, where opportunities for mountain biking do not currently exist, will be affected by the focus on North Table, since resources will be shifted to the work at North Table Mountain. This is noteworthy to mountain bikers, since it will delay by perhaps a year the opening of a new regional connector trail, definitely slated to be multiuse and available for MTB use. This new trail, when complete, will make it possible to ride all the way from the parking lot at Waterton Canyon West on the Colorado Trail, then North on the connector all the way to Reynolds Park, between Foxton and Conifer. Also one can ride from Reynolds Park on the connector to the Colorado Trail, then West to South of Buffalo Creek and then North to Pine Valley Ranch. Taking the road from Pine Valley Ranch through Pine and Foxton will allow one to complete a loop to Reynolds Ranch.

Expanded Avenues for Public Participation

At the most recent Trail Users Forum, conducted on May 17th, Open Space Director Tom Hoby and JCOS staff outlined some thoughts on a coming initiative to expand the opportunities for the public to offer input and suggestions regarding the trail system and its management. Beginning with a broad review of the myriad of existing avenues and volunteer programs through which the program receives feedback from the public, Mr. Hoby suggested that additional opportunities, created specifically for the purposes of exchanging feedback and information regarding the trails, could be created. The program would follow the theme of promoting safe and enjoyable trail experiences for all users, while protecting resources. The precise nature of this program and specifics regarding its structure are yet to be determined, but it is expected that broad participation will be encouraged. Additional details regarding this program and opportunities for participation will be communicated in this space as information becomes available.

Volunteer Trail Days with JCOS

As always, there are a number of opportunities to volunteer on the trails with Jefferson County Open Space this season. For more information, go to trails.jeffco.us and click on “Volunteer Trail Days” to see Saturday events, or head over to minicrew.org for options occurring Thursday afternoons-evenings. 

Jan Wilkins and Wayne Forman – OSAC’s Co-Chairs

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Jan Wilkins and Wayne Forman – OSAC’s Co-ChairsWhen long-time OSAC Chairperson Greg Stevinson stepped down from this post as OSAC Chair in 2009, prior to the end of his term, Jan Wilkins and Wayne Forman – also seasoned veterans of OSAC, stepped up to co-chair the Committee. Finding that they worked together so well, they requested that this ruling structure remain in place, but alas…bylaws are bylaws, and OSAC doesn’t allow for co-chairing. So Wayne stepped into the Chairperson position, and Jan is now a Co-Vice Chair with Ken Morfit.

Talking with these two outside of an OSAC meeting is a genuinely pleasurable experience. Jan is warm and outgoing; she speaks freely of her involvement with open space issues over the years. Wayne is practical and forthcoming, and – as a practitioner of water, land use, and environmental law, extremely committed to Open Space.

Jan’s involvement as an activist for open space causes started around 1982, when – as a resident of Mount Vernon Country Club, on the west end of Lookout Mountain, she became chair of the Canyon Defense Coalition, an organization that opposed the plan to develop a rock quarry in Clear Creek Canyon. Her early exposure to Jefferson County’s approach to open space was her participation in the “Rock Round Table”, the County-initiated attempt at arbitration over this matter. Ultimately, and partially as a result of this experience, Jan developed her open space philosophy: “…just because land is undeveloped doesn’t mean that it’s preserved…”, and “…you need to buy it to preserve it!”

Jan also became a founding member of the Clear Creek Conservancy, citing Clear Creek as “a jewel on Denver’s doorstep, and a gift to this part of the world”. During this time she also stepped up to serve as President of the Mount Vernon Country Club. Never one to sit still for long, Jan teamed with Margot Zallen, Chair of PLAN Jeffco, Sharon Freeman and others to help with Save Open Space, a campaign organized by PLAN Jeffco and supported by OSAC, which at the time was being chaired by Greg Stevinson. The $160M revenue bond issue – to raise money to acquire open space land throughout Jefferson County – passed with a whopping 72 percent of the vote of county residents. As Jan said, “It’s one thing to oppose development; it’s another to form a method to save open space lands…the SOS campaign reflected the commitment of the voters.”

In 1998, Jan swapped her role as an Open Space activist for that of a politically-oriented Open Space advocate when she was appointed to OSAC.

To paraphrase Jan – the voters have seen so many key acquisitions since the passage of the SOS bond – they’ve been able to see what’s happened with the bond funds they approved with SOS. They’ve seen years of maintaining integrity in land acquisitions, of avoiding politicization of the process, of unwavering delivery of the process based on the founding principles of OSAC. In a moment of lightness, Jan confirmed that OSAC has had so much fun achieving the OS goals with the bond money…”OSAC, the most fun that you can have on a committee in this county!”

Jan spoke of Centennial Cone OS Park…dear to her heart, since it was very near the site of the proposed rock quarry back in the 80s, and is now almost totally protected open space. “Imagine, it went from a proposal for the largest gravel quarry in the state, to include 400 trucks a day, 7 days a week, traveling on Highway 6, to the crown jewel of Open Space. Centennial Cone is the best of citizen activism – it’s fulfilled such terrific ideals, 40 years of people’s visions…”

Wayne Forman’s attraction to Open Space began with his mountain biking excursions through the Open Space Park trails system. A 1984 graduate of CU Law in Boulder, and subsequently a resident of Denver’s Park Hill area, he saw Jefferson County Open Space as a way to “get away from it all”. In 1993 he moved to Genesee, in part to be closer to the lands that he’d grown to love. He’d been a JeffCo resident for about 6 months when he saw a notice in a local paper for an opening on OSAC. He applied, and was appointed as a reserve committee member. Wayne deprecatingly speaks of himself as the “token Democrat” of OSAC.

Wayne has a reputation among his colleagues as a quiet but very wise man. As per Jan, “…when Wayne has a point to make, it’s based on reason and logic.”

When asked about the “co-chair method” of governing OSAC, both Jan and Wayne agreed that it was great to have coverage for meetings and other events…one or another would always be available. At the end of the term, when it was evident that the “cochair method” would have to come to an end, Wayne and Jan discussed the issue and decided that Wayne would put his hat in the ring for the chair position, which he won. The question, of course, is “how different is the governing structure when it’s hierarchical (i.e. a single chairman) versus when there are two people sharing the leadership responsibility. Both agreed that the difference is minimal. Since Wayne took over as OSAC chair, the committee mindset has changed; the committee is now “a group of equals that is ‘horizontally balanced” with a lot of cross-person engagement and interaction”, to quote the two former co-chairs.

Wayne spoke to the invaluable nature of citizen participation in Open Space matters. He strongly believes that OSAC has to answer to the voting public, and that its mission is to benefit the Greater Good. “There’s a lot of balancing involved when you’re on OSAC; you have to hear all sides, you have to strike a proper balance.” According to Wayne, JCOS staff takes a lot of input early in the decisionmaking process, especially with individual and community meetings; they then share with and work very tightly with OSAC to develop a going-forward plan. “There’s two-way respect in the relationship, and OSAC trusts in the JCOS staff’s work, expertise, and recommendations.” Jan agreed, adding that “JCOS [staff] makes it easy for OSAC to make good decisions.”

The conversation then moved to the challenges facing OSAC and JCOS. The bond monies are mostly spent, and for the foreseeable future the organization will be working with an extremely tight budget of approximately $6M per year for acquisitions, development and joint venture grants. Open Space supporters are aging, and finding ways to attract a new population of supporters will be on the top of OSAC’s (and JCOS’s) to-do list. With OSAC’s support, JCOS Director Tom Hoby has launched a project to survey existing and potential users of Open Space properties, in an attempt to take the pulse of the changing demographics and understand how trail use concepts are shifting. Jan remarked on the recent Open Space Foundation photo contest, in the category of ‘Kids Under 18’ alone there were over 100 entries, many of which were of remarkable quality. She feels that this bodes well for support from the youngest generation.

Speaking to the future: “We are entering a new part in the life of the Open Space Program, where the focus is shifting from just acquisitions to more of an acquisition-development-management balance…we’ve got as much land as we could acquire, and now big blocks of land outstrip our financial capacity to acquire them…but we will manage.”

Speaking to the topic of the value that Open Space adds to Jefferson County, “…after more than 30 years involvement with Open Space, it’s apparent that the recognition of Open Space to the health of the county has never been stronger…there’s strong support from the Board of County Commissioners, the cities, and the park ‘n’ rec districts…natural resources (i.e. Open Space) are proeconomy, pro-lifestyle, and pro-quality of life…Open Space adds value to living in Jefferson county.”

In summary, Wayne pointed out that “people get involved initially [with Open Space] as an advocate for a point of view, to have the opportunity to make a difference. PLAN Jeffco and other agencies – MALT, CCLC, CARE, and many others – give people a chance to advocate.” From Jan’s point of view: “…with the very broad base of support [that Open Space has], I feel very optimistic about the foundation we all have laid for the Open Space program.” 

Everything’s Rosy!

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Here in Colorado’s foothills and mountain slopes, our future is rosy. So is our present, and for some time, so has been our past. We are fortunate in that almost everywhere we look, we see roses. Although June is the traditional month for traditional roses, the native roses we enjoy here often appear in May. Many of them, however, masquerade under other names, some even under disguises so complete most of us never suspect their true identities. There are roses hiding, literally, in almost every one of the flowering shrubs we seek out for their color and beauty each spring.

Roses have long been the domesticated friends of humans, serving in a variety of capacities. Flower and fruit provide pleasure and food, fragrance and sustenance. Among familiar tame roses, we find apples, pears, peaches, apricots, cherries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries: It’s hard to make a fruit pie without involving one or another of Rose’s cousins. If these fruits seem too diverse to be related, it’s because the Rose Family, with 3,000 members worldwide and 69 species here, is large and a bit unwieldy. Botanists often divide it into three separate subfamilies: The apple subfamily, with its multi-seeded fruits, includes pears, quinces, and hawthorns; the peach subfamily includes the “stone” fruits, cherries, plums, and apricots; and the rose subfamily is a catch-all for the rest—strawberries, true roses, potentillas, raspberries, and so on. A close look at the flower reveals an underlying unity: Five petals and sepals—and many, many stamens—characterize roses.

Everything's Rosy! by Sally White (drawing of a wild rose)If you think first of our wild pink rose, you’re on the right track. It alone, of all our local roses, retains the Latin name Rosa, although its specific name is variously given as arkansana, woodsii, acicularis, depending on where you are. Most of us have difficulty separating these very similar species—for good reason, as Rosa itself is described as “taxonomically difficult.” This genus alone has rosebuds, leaves, and “hips” nearly identical to those of our tame backyard roses, and is sought for rose hip jelly or tea. The Rose Family also includes many other dramatic and ubiquitous native shrubs. All are attractive enough, at least to me, to serve in domesticated situations, as well as in wild landscapes. Native roses—mountain mahogany, serviceberry, chokecherry, wild plum, potentilla—are readily available in the nursery trade, though you may have hunt for them. We’re fortunate that local nurseries stock all of these and many other native shrubs. Several local roses also provide food, at least for those who trouble to collect fruit for chokecherry or wild plum jelly (or wine!) each fall. Chokecherries and plums are also greatly appreciated by coyotes and other local wildlife who enjoy their abundance in season. If you don’t know how chokecherries got their name, try one!

Our other woody roses also have much to offer. The hawthorns (Crategus erythropoda and C. macracantha), with their lovely white flowers, glossy leaves, bright red fruits, and thorny red stems, are often found in foothills canyons. Feathery fruits adorn Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa), a more-distant native transplanted from lower deserts. Rock spirea (Holodiscus dumosus) is a distinctive local shrub with a loose spike of minute rosy-pink flowers and soft, almost pleated leaves.

Two that may be less familiar but are well worth looking for are the Boulder raspberry (Rubus deliciosus) and mountain ninebark (Physocarpus monogynus). The Boulder raspberry, with conspicuous white flowers and less-than-inspiring fruits, seems to tolerate sun and shade, and thus is seen in a variety of habitats. Mountain ninebark has tiny white flowers in clusters—the plants look like spring snowdrifts in shady areas. It grows a little higher in elevation and blooms a little later than other roses. Both have an orangish, shredded bark that offers winter interest.

To avoid entrapment by the thousands of rose clichés western civilization has inherited, I’m being vigilant against a powerful temptation. Who could write about these plants that have so long and so gracefully served humankind without repeating the discoveries of centuries of Rose’s admirers? I’ll leave it to you to remember our rosy sayings, but I think you’ll agree it’s hard to name another plant family that’s given us so much symbolism and legend down through the ages: from Eve’s apple, to the briars that grew up to protect Sleeping Beauty’s castle, to the symbol of love and loyalty still used by swains today. In song, in poetry, in our hearts, roses hold a special place. This year, remembering our natives, let the roses of Mother’s Day say even more than they usually do.

And I will make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies…

Copyright © 2013 Sally L. White