2024 Conservation Awards Ceremony

2024 Conservation Awards Ceremony Pays Tribute to John Litz

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2024 Conservation Awards CeremonyBy Vicky Gits

Once a year, Jefferson County Open Space honors those who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and exemplary effort as volunteers on behalf of Open Space Parks, as well as the causes on behalf of land preservation and involvement.

About 300 people attended this year’s Conservation Award event at the Lakewood Cultural Center Jan. 31. Members of the Open Space staff nominate candidates and choose the winners.

The highlight was a video tribute to volunteer role model John Litz, longtime board member of PLAN Jeffco, who died Dec. 29, 2023 at age 87. Although suffering from cancer, Litz continued to serve as an active member of both the PLAN Jeffco Board and the Open Space Advisory Committee before he died. Read more

In Memoriam – John Litz, PLAN Jeffco Founder

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John Litz at the PLAN Jeffco 40th Anniversary celebration, 2012

John Litz at the PLAN Jeffco 40th Anniversary celebration, 2012

It is with heavy hearts that we come to you with news of the passing of one of our own, John Litz. There are some people for whom words are just not enough.

John was an original founder of PLAN Jeffco, the keeper of Open Space histories and teacher of conservation methods. His accomplishments are too numerous to list, his encyclopedic knowledge of land and conservation opportunities profound. Read more

The PLAN Jeffco Monthly – December 2023

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

 

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