2023-11 Newsletter thumbnail

The PLAN Jeffco Monthly – November 2023

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2023-11 Newsletter thumbnail

Download your copy of the November 2023 PLAN Jeffco Monthly newsletter here

 

Empty pillar where interpretive sign once stood.

Founders Sign Removed from Open Space Park

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Empty pillar where interpretive sign once stood.By Vicky Gits and Bette Seeland, Nov 26, 2023

Early this year Jefferson County Open Space quietly removed without replacing an interpretive sign that had stood for about 20 years as a tribute to the visionaries whose genius and hard work launched PLAN Jeffco and created the Open Space Park system.

Now that the sign is gone, it is probably gone for good, according to Matt Robbins of the Open Space department.  Positioned in Elk Meadow Open Space in Evergreen, the sign was removed because it had fallen into disrepair after weathering outdoors for so long.

Evergreen resident Joe Mackey brought the missing sign to the attention of the Open Space Advisory Commission in October at a regular meeting. A former member of OSAC in the ‘70s, Mackey thinks the sign should be preserved. Read more

Jeffco Trails Plan cover photo

Trails Partnership Program Awards 2024

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Jeffco Trails Plan cover photo

One of the many components of Jeffco Open Space is the Trails Partnership Program. The TPP is a grant program that provides supplemental funding to assist partners in implementing their priority trail projects within Jefferson County. These grants are awarded on an annual basis, provided that funding is available.

At the November 2nd (2023) Open Space Advisory Committee meeting, Open Space staff presented to OSAC an overview of the TPP applications and proposed funding amounts for 2024. Resolution #23-12, which includes the following projects, was approved that evening: Read more

Alvarado Open Space event

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

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(Apologies to the Five Man Electrical Band and their recording of “Signs”, circa 1970).

Signs guide us as we travel through life.  Signs are part of our everyday life; they’re everywhere we look…

There are signs happy signs, announcing fun events that we may want to take part in:Alvarado Open Space event Read more

CROWN HILL OPEN SPACE PARK – A BRIEF HISTORY

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What we know today as Crown Hill Open Space Park wasn’t always a public venue. One year before the end of the American Civil War, in 1864, a young man named Henry Lee sojourned west from Iowa to join his brother, William, who had a farm east of Golden, on the south side of Clear Creek.

The land was rich, fertile enough to support wheat fields (Wheat Ridge), fruit orchards (Fruitdale) and further to the north, the farms that would one day become the city of Arvada.

While William worked the farm, Henry traveled on the narrow gauge railroad up Clear Creek Canyon to the mining camps in Gilpin, Clear Creek, and Park counties, selling vegetables to the residents.

In less than 10 years from the time of his arrival, Henry had met and married Jennie Paul, another Iowa ex-pat, and settled down to a married and family life on land that Henry was now farming.  Read more

2022 Preservation Progress cover page

Jeffco Open Space 2022 Preservation Progress Annual Report

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Jeffco Open Space 2022 Preservation Progress Annual Report

We have a new addition to our Library, the Open Space 2022 Preservation Progress. It’s an update updates on how Open Space is doing with the Conservation Greenprint 2020-2025.
Apologies for not getting this added before now, it’s been available on the Jeffco Open Space website since sometime this spring. Our Librarian has been remiss.
Happy reading!

Jeffco Open Space Foundation home screen

The Open Space Foundation is Back!

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Jeffco Open Space Foundation home screenTwenty-five years ago, a group of volunteers formed an organization called the Jeffco Open Space Foundation, whose purpose was (and is) to raise funds for programs and initiatives that align with its vision, mission, beliefs and its focus areas.

From the beginning, the Foundation has been busy. They have provided partial funding for acquisition of Hildebrand Ranch, South Table, Alderfer/Three Sisters, and Elk Meadow Open Space Parks.

They funded improvements at Evergreen Lake, the Pioneer Trail in Evergreen, and Lair o’the Bear Open Space Park, as well as providing matching funds for the Open Space Grant program. Read more

ALD map park closure 2023

Alderfer/Three Sisters Forest Health 2023-2024

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Alderfer3Sisters Open Space ParkIf you’ve recently been out to Alderfer/Three Sisters Park recently, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of forestry activity happening, especially in the eastern one-third of the park.

Managing and maintaining forest health is incredibly important to the safety of everyone and everything, and so, after 100+ years of the forest overgrowth, JCOS is able to start work on this park.

Starting in August 2023, the JCOS Forest Management Team will remove seedlings, saplings, and even some larger trees – mostly Ponderosa pine and Douglas fir – so that the density of the forest will be reduced. Eventually some 240 acres throughout the entire park will be mitigated. This will result in a healthier ecosystem that will be far more resilient to wildfire than what is currently in place. Read more

Presidents Report 7/31/2023

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It’s the merry month of August and President’s Report time, time to catch up with what’s happening in the local land conservation community and spot-checks from around the world.  New this month is a section on Signs of Hope. We hope you enjoy the read, and in so doing, we hope this may broaden perspectives in some small way.
– the Fine Folks at PLAN Jeffco

NOTE: in this Presidents Report you’ll read about lands that have been “Permanently Protected” by land organizations. Most of these protected lands have conservation easements on them and have very limited public availability, unlike our Jeffco Open Space Parks.
What is a conservation easement? It’s a promise to the land, a promise that encumbers the land, that protects the land from ever being developed into something other than what it already is. The land is still privately owned, so no — you cannot go trekking across the property without the owners’ permission, but you can rest assured that the land will not sprout condominiums or shopping centers. Read more