Day 9 Summary and Questions

Notes from June 15, 2009:

Visitor master plan – breaks open space into different regions to do trail study analysis
- Eldorado, Dowdy Draw and Marshall Mesa already done
- Main work is now being done in the foothills region

4 Questions on Open Space
What does Open Space represent to people in Boulder?
- Recreation
o Exercise, personal mental health
o Encourages healthy lifestyle
o Spiritual Values
- Buffer zone – physical separation from the city
- Preservation of the aesthetic values and wildlife values
- Negative values
o Loss of development
o More expensive housing, comes with desirability
Are people part or apart of Open Space?
- People are not living in open space except caretakers
How should Open Space be used?
- Strict conservation or recreation
- Agriculture
- Resource extraction, ex. Logging, quarrying
- Habitat
Who should be making decisions on open space? Who does currently?
- Currently, OSPM under City Council and County Commissioners
- Public should be making decisions along with the role of science
- Idea that open space needs to be actively managed
o Shows the desire to manage
- The role of science
o Use science to show what is natural and healthy
o Science is used very often when dealing with open space

Susan Ross – City of Boulder, OSMP, Volunteer Coordinator
Susan has worked for OSMP since 1990.
Hogan Land
- Located in Jefferson County, but owned by city of Boulder
- Extremely controversial purchase
- Contains historical relics and elk herd
She is a long term sustainability believer and holds those values
Recreational User
- Hiking, skiing, and biking
Works w/ people on all issues
- Bird watching
- Bike patrol
- Pulling weeds or invasive species (ex. Russian olive plants)
o Subtractive landscaping
People come out to help w/ the land
- Volunteering is supplementing jobs w/ payroll
- She tries to make working conditions good and fun
- Openspace 101 for workers or volunteers
- Volunteers come from all backgrounds

Questions for Susan
How many volunteers?
- 11,000 volunteers
- Varied times put in by individuals
- Core of 400 on regular basis
- Some volunteers just do a 1 day project
- All ages, 10 year old monitoring Eagles nest
No problems w/ recruitment
- Active website
- Email list
Public Process
- When people are pleased they don’t show up, but only seem to show up when they are angry with a certain issue
Where do they need the most help?
- West TSA, multiple maintenance issues
- Keeping people on the big picture is a huge problem
- A conservative approach is going to make you make smart decisions
Passive Recreation is an object of a lot of debate
Foothills is the most controversial Area in Boulder County that is part of the TSA
Boulder Farmer’s Market – a whole meal can be purchased there that was produced in Boulder County
Examples in different management between City and County?
- County never aloud dogs off leashes
- City ignores dog leash laws, but still has them
Keeping trails down to trail tread width is very difficult
- Maintenance is very difficult w/ single track expierence
Education and Childrean – Volunteer Naturalist Programs
- Connecting kids w/nature
- Calwood environmental education center
- Often times retired school teachers
o Undergo 80 hours of training to do school programs
Who is going to take care of nature when were gone?
- Connection between things
- Brazilian bats in southern Colorado, effect of climate change
- Nature, and change, is somewhat unpredictable
How do you use volunteers in collection of data?
- Don’t use volunteers in collection, only management collects data
- Has scientific counters for human data
Trail Guides
- 75 trail guides
- Two groups of trail ambassadors
- Fairly brief training
- Human interface on trails, welcome and helpful to visitors
- 4 or 5 rangers on at anytime
- Bike controllers
- Trail guides are mandated to have leash on their dogs, which improves the expierence w/ the visitor
- If you were to get a ticket for dog droppings left it is not the rangers decision on how much the ticket will be, it will be the judges decision

Questions for Test
1. Is Susan Ross hold long-term sustainability views on nature or short-term?
- Long-Term
2. According to Susan Ross what is an example of subtractive landscaping and when will we be doing this?
- An example is the pulling of weeds or invasive species such as Russian olive plants, and we will be doing this on the last day of class
3. How many volunteers does Susan have on TSA’s?
- Around 11,000
4. T/F, Susan has problems with volunteer recruitment?
- False
5. According to Susan what TSA is the most controversial in Boulder County?
- The Foothills area

6. What is the role of the Volunteer Naturalists in OSMP
- Work with children on nature education
7. Why does Susan feel that programs like the Volunteer Naturalists are so important?
- Because she feels that it is important to establish the connection to nature when people are young
8. What is one of the problems Susan sees with conservation efforts?
- The future is unpredictable and you never know how changes in one area will affect another, e.g. temperature changes and bat migration.
9. What is the role of trail guides and bike patrollers?
- To serve as a human interface for visitors.

10. What are two of the ways that people view open space?
- Recreation (hike, bike), Spirituality, Nature Preservation, Physical and mental health, Buffer against surrounding towns

11. What was your group's controversial topic? List one argument on each side of the controversy.