22 hours Ago By Elizabeth Stewart-Severy, Aspen Journalism
Responses from surveys at trailheads show that trail users, including hikers and mountain bikers, do not feel that local trails are too crowded. The Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition will use data from the surveys and a biodiversity report to generate a regional plan for recreation and conservation. There’s a certain whiplash that accompanies conversations about trails, crowding and conservation in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Sure, the parking lots are full, but does that mean that trails are crowded? Maybe your answer depends on how recently you tried to hike or bike somewhere else, east of the Continental Divide or farther west, or how long ago your core memories of that particular trail were imprinted. More broadly, are we making the right recreational choices at the right time of year to protect wildlife and the landscapes that draw so many people to the Roaring Fork Valley? The 3-year-old Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition, headed by Pitkin County Open Space and Trails, is looking for expert and community involvement to help answer those questions and establish a plan for natural resource conservation and recreation in the Roaring Fork Valley. The coalition, which includes representatives from six local governments, two federal land management agencies and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, has entered the third and final phase of a five-year process with a $125,000 grant from the state.
Representatives from Pitkin and Eagle counties, the cities of Aspen and Glenwood Springs, and the towns of Basalt and Snowmass Village are working with the state wildlife agency, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to identify regional priorities and possible projects, and map out a guide for future decisions involving recreation and conservation.
The coalition will also include a community advisory group and is asking for participation from experts and stakeholders, including conservation-focused organizations such as Wilderness Workshop and American Rivers, local fire and ambulance districts, recreation heavy-hitters such as Aspen Skiing Co., outfitters and guides, and more. Some of these groups have given feedback on the first two phases of the project, which included listening sessions, gathering data and building a framework for the coalition’s work.
In the final phase, land managers aim to create a plan that helps anticipate current and future trends while exploring the best strategies to harmonize recreation and conservation. Although there are many documents that guide recreation and conservation decisions around the valley, “We haven’t worked at the valleywide scale before,” said Carly O’Connell, senior planner and landscape architect for Pitkin County Open Space and Trails. Even when trails cross several jurisdictions, such as the Rio Grande Trail, recreation and conservation management “happens ad hoc, as needed, and there’s not a ton of coordination.
” O’Connell said the regional effort is not meant to replace any existing plans. “We want this to be a strategic and higher level vision for the planning of recreation and conservation in the valley,” she said. Colorado Gov.
Jared Polis signed an executive order in 2020 that called for the creation of regional planning groups such as the Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition and for funding to support those efforts. “The state is looking for actions and priority projects to fund that have widespread support,” O’Connell said, so part of the coalition’s goal is to identify those projects in this area. Full parking lots, like those at the base of Smuggler Mountain on a recent fall morning, can contribute to a sense of crowding on the trail, according to researchers with Utah State University who are conducting recreational surveys for the Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition.
The coalition is working to develop plans that strike a balance between recreation and conservation at a regional level. Recreation and conservation are both at the heart of Roaring Fork Valley community values, and are simultaneously in tension and deeply reliant on each other. “The region’s growing popularity threatens to overwhelm the very attributes that make it special,” the Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition’s March 2024 vision framework notes.
“The surrounding White River National Forest is the most heavily used National Forest with more than 18 million annual visitors. Land managers in various agencies and organizations are at capacity responding to growing recreational pressure at portals within their respective jurisdictions.” It is less clear if the lands and trails themselves are at or near capacity.
Two recent studies have worked to unpack the realities involving both recreation and conservation in the area, and the coalition will work to bring the studies together to inform future planning. Beginning in 2018, the Watershed Biodiversity Initiative set out to identify and map the biodiversity and habitat quality for both wide-ranging, large animals such as deer and elk and rare species in the Roaring Fork Valley. The local nonprofit hired scientists with Colorado State University’s Colorado Natural Heritage Program to produce the Roaring Fork Watershed Biodiversity and Connectivity Study , which includes detailed mapping and ranking of habitat by conservation and restoration value.
“What we saw is that the overall conservation health or conservation index for the Roaring Fork Valley is really quite healthy. It really has a lot of conservation value,” said Renee Rondeau, conservation planner and ecologist at CNHP and a lead scientist on the report. Rondeau will serve as a biodiversity expert for the Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition.
Surveys commissioned by the Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition looked closely at the motivations driving visitors to area trailheads and the experiences they had while there. Most respondents to trailheads (like Smuggler Mountain, pictured) close to town show a focus on exercise and socialization. Researchers say understanding motivations can help with regional planning to ensure that there’s a place for all visitors on the landscape.
There are areas that are heavily impacted by development, particularly along highways 82 and 133. “Those highways have a huge impact on large wildlife, especially deer and elk,” Rondeau said. “As density goes up, it impacts biodiversity.
As our footprint increases, it impacts biodiversity.” As both Colorado’s population and the popularity of recreation grow, Rondeau expects to see human impact on biodiversity and habitat increase as well. A main concern is conserving low-elevation lands where deer and elk spend winters, a critical time for the animals’ health.
“How can we make sure that people have a place to live and thrive and enjoy life, but also protect all those things that people came here for?” Rondeau said. “Biodiversity is at the forefront.” Certainly, recreation is not the only stressor for biodiversity and wildlife, and the impact that recreation has is both species- and timing-specific.
For example, recreation during summer months in many popular areas does not impact elk and deer, but recreation can be highly disruptive in the spring months during calving season or in the winter when the animals are trying to conserve energy. The biodiversity and connectivity report gives a general overview of the conservation values across the watershed, and its advanced mapping tools also can provide highly specific details about when and why some areas are critical to protect. “I’m going to help [the Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition] make sure that people know how to unpack this and use it wisely,” Rondeau said.
Rondeau anticipates helping the coalition identify a series of questions that will guide decision-making and plans for conservation and recreation, something like a dichotomous key for planning. And she will be an advocate for conservation as a top priority, because once land is used for other purposes, it’s very difficult to go back. “Restoration is super, super expensive,” Rondeau said.
“Conserving the land, if it’s in good shape, is the cheapest thing you could possibly do.” Rondeau also sees the value in recreation, alongside measures to protect the best remaining lands for biodiversity and habitat. “Recreation is super important for lots of reasons, from economics to our well-being, our joy, our children.
We can’t say no to recreation,” Rondeau said. “Most conservation biologists understand that there are some compromises that we have to make, even for the benefit of some animals. The more people who get out and observe them, the more likely they are to want to protect them.
” Researchers at the Colorado Natural Heritage Program studied the habitat quality and conservation values across the Roaring Fork watershed to identify the areas that are most critical for conservation and those with potential for restoration to protect local biodiversity. Red and orange areas on the map show spots — many along highways 82 and 133 — where restoration work could improve habitat connectivity for elk and deer. A series of surveys paid for by the coalition and begun in 2022 and are ongoing look closely at the motivations and experiences of people recreating in the Roaring Fork Valley.
The coalition will use the survey responses alongside the biodiversity report and mapping data, working to bring the reports together for the first time. O’Connell said such an inquiry will help answer key questions for the coalition. “Are these portals for recreation in the right spot? Are we managing for the right experiences in the right places?” she asked.
“Are there places that are seeing high levels of use that maybe shouldn’t be? And are there places in the valley that could accommodate higher levels of use where we could be prioritizing recreation?” Recreation experts from Utah State University conducted a series of surveys at 14 trailheads in the Roaring Fork Valley that they labeled as primitive, semiprimitive, concentrated, or urban-proximate and developed. At each location, the researchers looked to understand the visitors’ demographics, motivations and perceptions of crowding, as well as the use patterns of each spot. Christopher Monz, who is with Utah State’s Recreation Ecology Lab, headed up the research and will serve as a recreation expert for the Roaring Fork Outdoor Coalition.
He said the information is meant to provide a baseline from the perspective of visitors to local trails, but it is not meant to dictate what management should be. Instead, it reveals what drives people to visit certain trails and what their experiences are like once there. The report reveals some commonalities in why people visit certain areas, including a desire for exercise and fitness at trails such as the Ute Trail in Aspen and Arbaney Kittle near Basalt, and more focus on nature and tranquility at more remote trailheads such as Capitol Creek and Snowmass Creek.
“Visitors come to those locations with very different motivations,” Monz said. “We need to know that to be able to provide a fulfilling experience.” With more people than ever recreating in Colorado, crowding has been a concern.
Monz’s team asked visitors to rate statements such as “trailhead parking is adequate” and “other people affected my recreation experience” on a scale of 1-5. Monz notes that visitor demographics — their age, where they live, how long they’ve been recreating in a particular location — all affect perceptions of crowding. Most of the 1,212 surveys indicated that people do not feel that local trails are very crowded.
“In a very broad brush, we’re not seeing strong signals from this group that crowding is at some sort of critical level,” Monz said. Asked to rate if other people affect their recreational experiences, survey respondents had a mean score that fell near 2 on the scale — “somewhat disagree” — across primitive, semiprimitive and concentrated sites. At urban-proximate trails such as the Ute Trail and Smuggler, the mean was closer to 2.
5 — between “somewhat disagree” and “neither agree nor disagree.” Asked if parking is adequate, the same respondents had a mean score between 3.4 and 4.
2 – between “neither agree nor disagree” and “somewhat agree.” “If you can obtain a parking spot at your desired destination with relative ease, there's a perception that it's not very crowded,” Monz said. “If you can’t, then there’s this sense that it is highly crowded, regardless of the experience you have when you get out on the trail.
” Survey respondents reported using different trails, visiting trails during less busy times of the day or year and avoiding places with difficult parking; Monz and his team call such adjustments “coping behavior” that shows adjustment to growing crowds. Surveys given at trailheads such as this are inherently limited — not only because people don’t want to spend much time filling out a survey, but also because they do not reach the very people who feel most impacted by crowds. Those who opt out of hiking the Ute because it’s too crowded will not be filling out a survey at the base of the trail.
“Everybody wants to turn the clock back 30 years or 40 years, but that’s not the reality. What we can do is try to manage the current conditions with the best information possible,” Monz said. “We have some responsibility to the contemporary visitor.
” The Utah State team also collected vehicle traffic data from 50 trailheads, including more remote locations, around the Roaring Fork Valley this year, and O’Connell said she expects an analysis of that data early next year. O’Connell said the coalition is also planning to conduct both a statistically valid and an online opt-in survey about recreational use that will target more households in the Roaring Fork Valley..
