There’s a New Version of the 2014 Master Plan…

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…for you to read at http://jeffco.us/parks/about/open-space-master-plan/.  Following the February 11th Board of County Commissioners public hearing, the BCC considered approval of the Master Plan.

At that time, members of the development community requested more time to review maps and make comments before approval. They were granted a 30-day extension.

The Open Space Advisory Committee will again review and consider the staff-recommended Master Plan at their regular meeting (open to the public) on Thursday, March 6, 2014 at 7:00 p.m, at the Open Space building, Ponderosa meeting room. Following this meeting, the BCC will consider the Master Plan at their regular hearing on Tuesday, March 18, 2014, 8AM. This meeting is open to the public; it will be in Hearing Room 1, Administration and Courts Facility (the Taj), 100 Jefferson County Parkway, Golden.

MALT Announces the Conservation of 80 Acres in Woodland Park

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MALT — the Mountain Area Land Trust — does great things, and in this case it’s an 80-acre parcel which abuts U.S. Forest Service land. While the Conservation Easement contains an option for an environmental education center and potential eventual acquisition by the city of Woodland Park, it’s wonderful to have this area protected. MALT Announces the Conservation of 80 Acres in Woodland Park

For more information, go to the MALT website at http://www.savetheland.org/latest-news

The Nature Conservancy protects 1M acres in Montana

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Sometimes land preservation is done on a big scale. Last week, The Nature Conservancy closed on a 515-acre conservation easement, to bring the total of Montana land which is now preserved and protected from development to just over 1 million acres. One million acres of Montana protected in the 35 years that TNC has been working in the state; that’s about one acre per person. I am impressed; thanks to the efforts of the TNC and others, Montana will stay a “big sky country”. http://helenair.com/news/local/state-and-regional/the-nature-conservancy-protects-m-acres-in-montana/article_0f821f60-7698-11e3-a4ef-0019bb2963f4.html

PLANjeffco headline

Friends of Dinosaur Ridge Announce New Visitor Center Golden, Colorado

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Great news from Joe Tempel (

jo********@di*******.org











) of Dinosaur Ridge (www.dinoridge.org):

The Friends of Dinosaur Ridge has purchased a building that will be renovated to become a visitor center at the north entrance of Red Rocks Park. The 4,000 sf building, dubbed the Discovery Center, will complement the existing Visitor Center on the east side of Dinosaur Ridge.

Aerial View of Dino RidgeThe Discovery Center will feature indoor and outdoor educational exhibits on dinosaurs, scientific displays, a gift shop and picnic areas for families and school groups. This new location will allow visitors at Red Rocks Park to have better access to Dinosaur Ridge. Guided bus tours of Dinosaur Ridge will be provided from both locations.

Dinosaur Ridge was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974 by the National Park Service because of the historical importance of the dinosaur discoveries (tracks and bones) that were made beginning in 1877 and the need to preserve the remaining fossils as a unique outdoor museum for educating school children and the public. Currently, Dinosaur Ridge hosts over 100,000 visitors annually with over 65,000 of those receiving a guided outdoor educational experience provided by trained volunteers and staff.

New Discovery Center Dino RidgeThe Friends of Dinosaur Ridge is a nonprofit organization that has been preserving the fossils on Dinosaur Ridge and educating the public about them since 1989. Renovation has begun and the building will be open to the public in January 2014. The total cost of the project is estimated to be $520,000, funded entirely by donations. Almost 90% of the funds have been raised, with major funding ($410,000) from the following foundations:

Harvey Family Foundation

Adolph Coors Foundation

Gates Family Foundation

Exxon Mobile Foundation

Denver Foundation Scientific and Cultural Facilities District

Greater Denver Area Gem and Mineral Council

Chevron Foundation

Xcel Energy Foundation

Bandimere Family Foundation

Additional funding ($50,000) was provided by 85 individuals including board members, members of the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge and other scientists and dinosaur enthusiasts. “We have been incredibly grateful for the support we have received for this project,” said Joe Tempel, Executive Director of The Friends of Dinosaur Ridge. “People in Colorado know what a unique and interesting scientific artifact we have right in our own backyard, and they have been excited to help us share it with school children and visitors alike.”

The Friends of Dinosaur Ridge purchased the building and property in February and are in the process of raising additional funds to renovate the building to bring it up to code, add handicapped bathrooms, install indoor and outdoor educational exhibits, and set up displays for merchandise. The Friends plan on raising another $60,000 from interested individuals, corporations and other organizations to complete the final phase of the project. This final phase will consist of installing the outdoor educational exhibits, a front porch to provide a covered area for people waiting for a tour bus, and repaving the existing 40-car parking lot.

If you are interested in contributing to the project or have questions with regard to the project, please contact Joe Tempel, Executive Director of The Friends of Dinosaur Ridge at

Jo********@Di*******.org











 or call him at 720-971-9649.

Hot Particle Politics on the Rocky Flats Highway

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If you’ve lived in Colorado for any length of time, you know about Rocky Flats and the protests of decades past — protests not just because of what was being manufactured at Rocky Flats (nuclear weapon parts), but because of the dispersal of plutonium in the topsoil and into the atmosphere. Time has passed, and some groups have forgotten that plutonium is 1) always lethal, and 2) never goes away.

In the northwest corner of the metro Denver area there’s a plan to construct a superhighway. Actually, the plan for this “last leg of the beltway around Denver” has been on the books for 50 years or so, and like plutonium, it simply won’t go away. The draft plans today show that the construction zone will pass through what was once part of Rocky Flats.

From the article in our News section: “The parkway is controversial for a number of reasons, including funding, [and] concerns over increased traffic and sprawl and safety. Some worry about the roadway crossing the southeast edge of Rocky Flats – the former government facility that produced plutonium bomb triggers from the 1950s until 1992. Small traces of plutonium still exist on the surface of Rocky Flats soil.”

No amount of plutonium is safe, and plutonium, released into the air, is especially toxic. From Wikipedia: “…calculations show that one pound of plutonium could kill no more than 2 million people by inhalation. This makes the toxicity of plutonium roughly equivalent with that of nerve gas.[96]”

Development is inevitable, but is development at any cost a wise choice?  The new highway will bring commerce and new housing to the northwest quadrant (http://www.candelasco.com/), and will most likely release plutonium into the atmosphere during the roadway construction phase. It’ll be a sad day when what is now open lands is converted to suburbs and shopping centers, and when the number of bone and liver cancers escalates in the decades following.