Recent News:

March 15th, 2012 - New Cooperative Plan Draft with Appendices.

Files can be downloaded for viewing from our Explore Documents page.

Note that the Draft document is very large -25MB, so please be patient as it downloads!

Opportunities Workshop December 14^th, 2011 Meeting Summary

The December 14^th Public Opportunities Workshop took an unexpected turn that resulted in valuable discussion amongst key stakeholders from the community. The meeting was planned to include a 30 minute presentation from the U.S. Forest Service District Ranger, Scott Snelson, followed by an open house with resource specialists and planners to discuss specific opportunities. Instead, as the planning team waited for the public to arrive, the open house took shape during the first hour of the meeting. While there were not many new faces in the room, the turnout was strong from members of the Focus Group, and others who have been involved so far in the process, such as from the City of Aspen, Pitkin County, the Forest Service, and various stakeholder groups.

After about an hour, a lively discussion as a larger group began. The chairs in the room were rearranged into a circle, and Scott Fitzwilliams, White River National Forest Supervisor, gave some remarks as to the importance and unique nature of this plan. There have been few, if any, projects in the past that have brought together an array of participants to plan the future for a large area of the Forest adjacent to a community like Aspen. Such a process will hopefully set a precedent for a new way of planning and implementing projects on National Forests moving forward.

Once the roundtable kicked off, Tom Cardamone, Executive Director of the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, explained his dilemma in considering future opportunities for improved recreation, namely, the designation of trails that have been built illegally and have potential conflicts with wildlife habitat. Echoing Tom’s sentiment, Kevin Wright, Senior Wildlife Manager for the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife, said that “wildlife is usually on the losing end” in planning scenarios. Members of the mountain biking community expressed understanding for the wildlife concerns, but also an interest in meeting the needs of the biking community. Mike Pritchard, President of the Roaring Fork Mountain Bike Association, acknowledged that this cooperative plan is a step in the right direction to encourage recreationists to respect the process and policies that are in place to establish new trails on public lands.

Whether or not the Balcony Trail will be closed or re-routed, or new trails will be built, is to be determined; however, this dialogue was very valuable in having an honest discussion about the top concerns that the community has for moving forward with this plan.

December 14th Opportunities Workshop Boards