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Surging visitation to Colorado's public lands, fueled by booming population growth along the Front Range, is alarming to the very same people who adore Colorado’s outdoors and worry about the impact of high visitation on sensitive public lands and ecosystems.
Northern Colorado Places, or NoCo, for short, was formed in 2019 as a collection of northern Colorado public lands agencies dedicated to understanding the depth of public concern over increasingly crowded parks and forests along the Front Range. Since then, representatives of Rocky Mountain National Park, the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, the northeast region of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, and five counties (Jefferson, Larimer, Boulder, Clear Creek, and Gilpin) have met monthly to discuss their concerns with managing overcrowding on beloved public lands.
Steve Coffin, the executive director of NoCo, said, “You hear a lot of complaints—people hiking in a conga line up these trails, people going off the trail, impacts to wildlife and the environment.” Coffin also acknowledges the benefits of outdoor recreation. “We want people outdoors, of course. It’s important for mental health, physical health. It goes to the core of who we are as Coloradans. But we’ve got to do something to manage this differently, to manage it better, in order to protect those things that make this such a special place,” Coffin said.
NoCo members say they believe it is the only collaboration of federal, state, and county land management agencies of its kind in the U.S. The group expects to publish a comprehensive “Conservation and Recreation Vision” action plan soon that will identify specific goals across jurisdictions for issues like camping, campsite management, and unauthorized trails, and will also educate visitors on the region’s Indigenous and cultural history.
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All of us in this profession, it breaks our heart when we see public lands degraded for whatever reason. We’re all dedicated to the same thing. Ken Burns says our national parks are America’s greatest idea. I would broaden that to say public lands are America’s greatest idea, whether they are a neighborhood park in New York City or Rocky Mountain National Park. They all matter.”
