Conservation vision aims to address overcrowding in Colorado's Front Range public spaces

It's a beautiful day in Golden. The trees are the color of the namesake of the city, bikers are breezing by on paths next to Clear Creek, and plenty of people are out walking with their dogs and children. 

But how long will it stay this way? That's something Steve Coffin and his colleagues are trying to maintain. Coffin is the executive director of NoCo Places, the umbrella organization for a variety of open space groups across the region. 

"I think Coloradans have an instinctive feeling that we've got a problem," Coffin said. "I think there's two things they don't know. One is that there are people out there trying to do something about it."

The concern is everywhere in the Front Range, with topics touching all ends of the spectrum to overcrowding on trails to wildlife-human interaction. 

"The problem is there's more and more people doing that," Coffin added. "The other factor coming in is our population growth. So all of those things come together is just causing our trails to be congested, wildlife to be impacted, our environment to be impacted."

Tom Hoby, the Jeffco Open Spaces director of Parks and Conservation, feels it acutely in his organization's backyard.

"We are the first stop west of the largest population center in the state to get to the foothills and mountains," Hoby said. 

So NoCo Places laid out what it calls a conservation vision. It includes recommendations, plans and actions to address high visitation, encroachment on animal habitats and crowding on trails and parks. 

"All 9 agencies get together and say the same thing at the same time with the same voice, and that way, it's gonna have more impact than if each one says their own thing at different times," Coffin said.

"That notion of degradation of the land is at the center of the NoCo Places recreation and conservation vision," Hoby added. 

It's a multi-year plan. It's one that Coffin believes is essential for educating Coloradans about how to be good stewards of the land. With the population growing in the Front Range and not slated to slow down anytime soon, he believes that the alarm bells need to be heard now before the problem gets too tough to fix. 

"Unless we tackle these challenges in a wholistic way, we're at risk of losing what makes Colorado a special place," Coffin said.