The Next 40 Years: Jeffco Open Space Conservation Conference

Article by: Michelle Poolet and Vicky Gits

To honor the conception of the open space program as well as 40+ years of service as a watchdog and supporter, PLAN Jeffco gathered together prominent experts to present their findings on a wide variety of conservation issues. About 180 people attended the half-day event, which took place Nov. 16 at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds.

Nine speakers took the podium to address various subjects, from a five-year master plan to tracking mountain lions. Presenters also discussed climate change, state demographics, recreation trends, biodiversity, animal habitat, the economy and the impact of access to nature on public health.

The program as a whole served to illustrate that the 40-year-old open space movement continues to grow in relevance and importance as the year’s progress. Open space has become the focus of attention not only for nature lovers and hikers but also in terms of public health, workforce appeal, economic benefits and preservation of habitat.

The following reports are summaries of the speakers’ comments from the conference. A more detailed report on the talks will be made available at a later date.

1. Amy Ito, Park Planning and Construction Manager, Jeffco Open Space: “The 2014 Jeffco Open Space Master Plan Process.”

The revised final draft of the 2014 Master Plan is posted at http://jeffco.us/parks/about/open-space-masterplan. This update sets the priorities for the next five years of Open Space activities. The predominant themes include balancing natural resources preservation with outdoor recreation, and building trust by creating confidence with transparency and reliability. The main mission of the Open Space program is to acquire open space and park lands.

The Master Plan update sets the criteria for future land acquisitions in terms of priorities, approaches and process. The Plan reflects trends such as the growing recognition of the connection between public health and the outdoors. In surveys, contacts and public meetings, Open Space officials have clearly noted the desire of the population for more trails and open space parks. At the same time, people have far less free time than ever and children are less connected to nature than ever.

While there have been six Master Plan updates over the years, Ito said this is the first plan in which the staff has aimed to create measurable goals. See the adopted goals in the Master Plan Article.

2. Scott Babcock, Planning Manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife: “Outdoor Recreation and Participation Trends in the Front Range.”

Recreation in Colorado is a big business; recreation activities are estimated to run in the range of $21 billion per year. Understanding who recreates, what they do when they recreate, and what they would like to see as future recreation, is imperative to our state’s economy.

Colorado has a statewide comprehensive outdoor recreation plan, or SCORP, which is updated every five years. This allows Colorado to maintain its eligibility for Federal Land & Water Conservation Fund allocations. The purpose of SCORP is to inventory outdoor recreation supply and demand; recommend strategies to maintain and improve Colorado’s outdoor recreation heritage; support local and statewide initiatives guiding the long-term maintenance and enhancement of outdoor recreation resources; and allows for strategic allocation of limited funds.

People travel to recreate, with 80 percent of respondents indicating they do day trips. The most active recreation areas are in north central and northwest Colorado, and in the Metro area. There are some factors that influence the use of a recreational area: cleanliness, travel distance, and entrance fees are the top three. However, 60 percent of respondents opted for wilderness areas or open lands with little or no development. This seems to point to a priority for future investment – wildlands, which offer solitude and open space.

The draft plan, of which this survey is part, will be available in early 2014, for public input. For more information or to get involved, go to www.coloradoscorp.org.

3. While the Colorado outdoor lifestyle is highly valued for it health benefits, the fact is more people have become substantially more unhealthy in Jefferson County in recent years, observed Dr. Mark B. Johnson, executive director of the Jeffco Department of Health and Environment. Johnson did not sugarcoat the facts in a revealing talk, “Health and the Outdoors.”

A Jeffco community health assessment found that in the last seven years adult obesity was up 59% and adult diabetes up 89%. The number of adults who don’t exercise was up 14%, Johnson said. In 2010 only 25% of adults engaged in outdoor activity.

Nationally, Americans spend 90% of their day indoors or in a car. Children spend 6 to 7 hours per day looking at a screen and only 4 to 7 minutes in unstructured play. “When we were children we were outdoors. Now that it’s healthy (to be outdoors) kids are staying inside. Childhood obesity rates have doubled in the last two decades,” Johnson said.

Research has established that walking at least a half hour per day can reduce heart disease by 40%. Exercise also helps reduce breast cancer, depression, colon cancer, osteoporosis and impotence. Research shows that increased time spent outdoors increases life expectancy, helps lower blood pressure, and decreases attention deficit disorder.

What are health department recommendations?

1. Get outdoors and do something.

2. Provide an hour a day of unstructured time for preschoolers and toddlers.

3. Adults should get 20 minutes of vigorous exercise per day.

4. Dr. Kevin E. Trenberth, Distinguished Senior Scientist in the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder: “The Science of Climate Change: from Global to Local.”

Dr. Trenberth was a lead author of the 1995, 2001 and 2007 Scientific Assessment of Climate Change reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Climate change is happening, and the evidence points definitively to human activity. Burning more fossil fuels (carbon-based) puts more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (a 40% increase in CO2 in the last 120 years). The increase in CO in the 2 atmosphere is accompanied by increasing air temperatures; the sea ice melts and the oceans get warmer, and land ice (glaciers) melt, which lets the land warm up once it loses its icy blanket. Melting sea ice causes the ocean levels to rise. Warmer air can hold more moisture than cold air, and the abundance of water and heat creates more evaporation into the atmosphere. When cold air masses meet this warm, wet air, storms develop. The storms run the gamut from small, isolated thunderstorm cells to massive hurricanes, tornadoes, and cyclones. The warm, wet air is the storm’s ammunition, and the more warm, wet air there is, the bigger and more destructive the storm.

Climate change for the Colorado mountains will likely be manifested by shorter snow seasons, retreating glaciers, bigger snowfalls in mid-winter (warmer air = more moisture=more snow), earlier snowmelt in the springtime, a smaller snowpack in May and June, less water in the summertime accompanied with a greater risk of drought and wildfire.

Global ocean heat content data. Pink effect of volcanoes. Blue efffect of El Nino. 1997-1998 El Nino. 1998 was warmest year of the 20th centurybecause of heat coming out of the ocean.

5. Macroeconomist Grant Nulle, of the Colorado Demography Office, Colorado Department of Local Affairs, focused on “Economic and Demographic Trends in the Denver Region.”

Employment is on the upswing and population in Colorado is resuming its historical growth profile after five years of economic distress. Thanks to the expected increasing age of the population, the bulk of the new jobs will be household-related, as opposed to ones in traditional base industries like agriculture, oil and gas, manufacturing and government. In addition to aging, the state profile is characterized by a large number of new people moving to the state and a correlation between job growth and people moving to Colorado, which is attractive because of its jobs, and a traditionally lower unemployment rate. Colorado is an attractive place for the 25-to-34-year-olds.

The state used to have the fourth lowest share of over-65-year-olds in the country, but with so many baby boomers moving to the state, the proportion of oldsters is getting larger. The aging trend means there will be a lot more people at home during the day, not working as much and more older people using our open space parks.

The lower per-capita income associated with the aging population means less sales-tax revenue as retirees demand more in the way of public services and spend less money on the type of goods that generate sales tax.

6. John Sovall, Biologist/Ecologist, Colorado Natural Heritage Program, CSU, presented for both himself and Pam Smith, Field Botanist/Ecologist, CSU Botany Team, Colorado Natural Heritage Program.

The original 1993 Colorado National Heritage Program report was funded by Jeffco Open Space. The results of that survey were used by JCOS to orient their acquisition and preservation activities. In 2011 the Colorado Natural Heritage Program was retained by JCOS to revisit Jefferson County and re-survey. This survey also included funding from the EPA for surveying wetlands. The newer survey has produced some amazing results: 34 rare plants, 11 rare animals, 29 rare plant communities, and a new fungus not seen before in Jeffco.

The locations where these populations have been found are called Potential Conservation Areas (PCAs). It is Sovall’s opinion that Jefferson County is very rich in biodiversity because of past and current efforts to preserve these PCAs including efforts by Jeffco Open Space.

Biodiversity makes for a better quality of life for resident human populations (as well as for the plant and animal communities) in the county. The best way to conserve these critical sites for biodiversity is to protect large, unaltered, and unfragmented landscapes. Open space, especially riparian habitat, acts to sequester carbon and ameliorate climate change. The wetlands areas act as freshwater storage systems, where large, undisrupted riparian landscapes can help mitigate the effects of massive erosional episodes (mudslides).

7. Dr. Sarah Thomas, Center of the American West, and Dr. Sarah Reed, Colorado State University: “Balancing Recreational Access and Conservation Objectives in Open Space Programs.”

While the demand for protection of public land for recreation purposes has increased significantly since the ’50s, much more research needs to be done on the impact of outdoor recreation on wild animals and their habitats.

There is “limited awareness about the inconsistency between wildlife protection and outdoor recreation,” Thomas said. People tend to blame industries like mining and skiing other than their own activities (“the finger-pointing factor”) for negative impacts on animals. The impact on wildlife is subtle and not that obvious to park users (“the scale” and “visibility” factors.)

There is relatively little research on the impact of recreation on wildlife, Reed said, but some impacts are established:

1. Outdoor recreation results in habitat loss and fragmentation of habitat.

2. The composition and diversity of species changes as the human-adapted species (foxes, skunks, etc.) increase.

3. In one study, outdoor recreation affected rhe reproduction and survival rates of the woodlark.

4. In a Swiss study, flushing by skiers and snowboarders produced elevated stress levels in black grouse.

Thomas identified two key questions for land managers:

1. Determine which parcels are most appropriate for coexistence of recreation and resource protection.

2. Determine which lands are best managed exclusively for one of the objectives.

The reality is that outdoor recreation is in demand and it has an impact on resident species.

8. Dr. Mat Alldredge, Wildlife Researcher with Colorado Parks and Wildlife: “Impacts of Humans on Wildlife in the Front Range.”

Global land use change due to human impact is altering the predator-prey dynamics. Our propensity to suppress fire results in catastrophic wildfire events. Our road-building is fragmenting habitat and altering food availability. Decorating our yards with succulent plantings draws ungulates (deer, elk) closer to human habitation, exposing them to higher rates of unnatural mortality (road kill). The prey animals draw in the predators, which then begin to prey on domestic animals. Bears, being opportunists, are adapting to foraging in the urban environment, and many of the prey are taking advantage of our human lawns and gardens.

Dr. Alldredge has been studying mountain lions in the Front Range. Of the 79 cats studied, there have been 54 mortalities, mostly due to road kill, hunting, and other types of human interaction. He’s been able to demonstrate that lions disperse over ranges that span multiple western states (Evergreen to Wyoming, Estes Park to New Mexico, South Dakota to C-470), and that lions hang out in the urban outskirts during the day, but move into the suburbs and cities to hunt during the nighttime. For sub-adult males and females with cubs, the risk of human interaction is apparently worth having a consistent food supply.

More about the event:

PLAN Jeffco Annual Dinner with the
Commissioners

Wild about Nature: Celebrating 42 Years of Open Space

May 8th, 2014

Ian Billick spoke on

“Science and Land Conservation: Building a Better Tomorrow”

The Vista at Applewood Golf Course

14001 West 32nd Ave Golden, Colorado 80401