Share the Trail COVID Campaign Off To A Good Start – Shaun Howard

Last year, Jeffco Open Space Parks received approximately 7 million visitors. This year, with the pandemic, we have seen a drastic increase in people finding much-needed stress relief while enjoying our parks. For several years, Rangers and Volunteers have collaborated to host dozens of Share the Trails pop-up events. What’s a pop-up you ask? A pop-up is a focused low-key event where volunteers and staff talk with visitors at the trailheads regarding various pertinent park issues. For example, if a park has an increase in dogs off leash, rangers and volunteers will staff a Love Em’ Leash Em’ table and talk to visitors about dog safety messages (i.e. leashing, picking up waste, providing for dog safety in hot weather, etc). Over the years, pop-ups topics have covered living with wildlife (rattlesnakes, bears, lions, coyotes, etc), share the trails, dog safety and education regarding park management changes. The goal is to educate visitors BEFORE they enter the park and BEFORE they make a mistake. Feedback from visitors has been extremely positive. They seem to really appreciate the one-on-one contact with representatives of Jeffco Open Space.

As I write this article in mid-November, rangers have already responded to more than 1000 calls for service. Some of these calls have been responding to visitor courtesy complaints on North Table Mountain. While rangers routinely patrol the park, a few of our volunteer equestrian Park Patrollers recognized our stretched staff resources and approached me to request they would like to help out by hosting several Share the Trails events at North Table Mountain. These pop-ups generated 550 conversations with our park visitors. Volunteer Frank Blaha, said “often all of us were fully engaged” in conversations with several visitors. He goes on to say, “many people seemed appreciative of us being out, and a few commented it is good to know Rangers and Volunteer Patrollers were working to keep Jeffco Open Space in good shape.” Special thanks go out to Volunteer Patrollers who were instrumental in moving this series of pop-ups along: Dan B., Frank B., Jack M., Jan K., Lydia M. and Sylvan R. Thanks also go out to the many volunteers who dropped by and who spent over 725 hours in 2020 routinely patrolling North Table Mountain Park. I am privileged to work with such an amazing group of volunteers. Jeffco Open Space truly appreciates all they do to support the Jeffco Open Space mission in caring for our parks!

Shaun Howard, Ranger Lead
Jeffco Open Space
303-271-5909

Miss Mountain Manners extends great thanks to Shaun Howard, JCOS Ranger, for sharing the story about these pop-up events. Communication, cooperation…if everyone tried a little harder, imagine what a great world this could be!