[0:08] Know that it typically takes about 30 seconds for Zoom
[0:11] to bring members of the public into the session as
[0:14] attendees and just a friend reminder to all posTC members,
[0:18] presenters and public speakers, please make sure you're within two
[0:21] inches of the microphone when speaking. This helps ensure we
[0:25] maintain an accurate public record. Members of the committee. Are
[0:29] you ready? We are. Recording in progress. All right, we're
[0:35] recording and ready to go. All right, thank you, Nick.
[0:39] Welcome, everyone, to the Thursday, July 24. Boulder County Parks
[0:46] and Open Space Advisory Committee meeting. My name is Janet
[0:50] George, and I'll be chairing the meeting tonight, and we'll
[0:53] start with. The roll call. Trey speaker. Present. Carol Bileriley.
[1:01] Present. And Janet George. I'm present. Christine johnson. Here. Vicky
[1:08] Lawrence. Present. Tony lewis. Here. Joan lutz. Derek turner here.
[1:18] And john white. Present. All right. Thank you. So the
[1:22] next agenda item is approval of last month's minutes. Postac
[1:27] members, do we have any comments? This is Trace Baker.
[1:31] I will abstain because I was not at the meeting.
[1:35] Christine. I saw you had your hand up. Christine Johnson
[1:38] Posack. There's. Derek asked a question about. The range view
[1:46] property. And it said designated lot. And I think we
[1:51] need to clarify. The minutes because I think it should
[1:56] be designated. Spot. Okay. Is it a typo who you're
[2:01] thinking? I don't know. I was trying to figure out
[2:05] what it was when I was reading. It. Designated spot
[2:08] just came in my head right now. But if you
[2:10] read it, it doesn't. Make sense. It just needs to
[2:12] be fixed. Whatever the deal is. Okay. All right. I'm
[2:18] pretty sure. You did not say designated lot. I'm trying
[2:24] to remember, but I think I could have said designated
[2:27] parking lot or spot. My comment was a place for
[2:31] people to pull off the road. Okay. Are you looking
[2:37] at the minutes? Do we have a recommendation for what
[2:39] it should say? I would recommend that we amend it
[2:47] to, say designated spot. Okay. Designated spot. Carol Bailey,
[2:56] Posac I think we should like parking spot or viewing
[3:02] area. Something that. 's more. Sure. Okay.
[3:12] Parking spot. I suppose we're going to have to get
[3:17] into amendments here. We're going to have to open that.
[3:21] That was editing. All right, so we are going to
[3:26] ask for one amendment just to clarify that. It's a
[3:31] designated parking spot. Do we have anything else on the
[3:34] minutes? Okay. I'm thinking. And correct me if I'm wrong.
[3:42] We can just vote on approving the minutes as long
[3:45] as we have that amendment. Okay. All right. Is that
[3:50] clear? We're not, you know what we're talking about. Very
[3:52] good. All right. Do I have a motion to approve
[3:57] the minutes? With the recommendation for an amendment we discussed.
[4:02] So moved. How about a second? I second. All right.
[4:07] Any more discussion. All right, let's go to a vote.
[4:11] All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The minutes passed with.
[4:20] One amendment. And Earl Byerly? I abstain because I was
[4:23] not at the meeting either, okay? Carolyn trace abstain. All
[4:29] right. Very good. Thank you. So we'll move on to
[4:32] our presentations now. We've got two presentations about property acquisitions.
[4:41] That will require recommendation to the Boulder county commissioners. And
[4:44] the first one is the kestrel property. So, Aaron, if
[4:48] you'll take it away and tell us some more about
[4:50] the kestrel. Property. Glad to. Good evening again. I am
[4:53] Aaron Clark. I'm a land officer with the real. Estate
[4:56] division in the parks and open space. I will begin
[4:59] with this for much longer than parks. And open space's
[5:01] history of stewarding open space. The land in this community
[5:04] has been important to american indian, urban, native, indigenous and
[5:08] other cultural communities that continue to live here. We are
[5:11] making meaningful changes. To how we do our work that
[5:14] include them, incorporate their perspectives, and honor their land stewardship.
[5:17] Legacy parks and open space operates within modern legal constructs
[5:20] of landownership to Stewart Boulder county open space and accomplish
[5:24] these efforts on behalf of our community. So Chester property.
[5:29] So start with this. Kestrel property is east of Lions,
[5:33] north of Hygiene, right there near the intersection of highway
[5:38] 66. And the 75th Avenue. Property is 77 acres and
[5:43] two parcels, two nice rectangles right there, each of roughly
[5:46] equal area owners are a family partnership, Asa Hygiene east
[5:51] and Asa Hygiene west. As you can see, the property
[5:54] is currently in irrigated agriculture. It's in corn right now,
[5:58] the proposed acquisition is 3,500,000. Dollars for the land and
[6:03] associated water. Right. So that's two building rights and two
[6:06] shares. In the Palmerton ditch seller has asked that we
[6:10] conduct the sale over two years so the plan is
[6:13] to acquire the western parcel, Castro west, this year, along
[6:16] with one share of Palmerton. And the remaining land and
[6:18] water as early as possible in 2020. Six. Photo break.
[6:24] I like photo breaks. This is the Palmerton right here.
[6:27] You can see it's. Really a lovely spot. This froze
[6:30] from back in May. So this is the Palmerton crossing,
[6:33] the property? On the north end. Here's a little bit
[6:37] farther out. Castro is Jason to the Cottonwood property that
[6:41] was acquired early. Last year. As you can see, the
[6:44] St. Frank corridor is down to the south, and the
[6:46] Rabbit mountain area is up there on the north side.
[6:51] Comprehensive plaid designations. I know I've read this many times,
[6:54] but the maps that follow are intended to be illustrative
[6:57] rather than specific, and the following designations are indicators of
[7:00] importance, but not confirmation that these features exist on the
[7:04] property, so I've got a couple for you. This one.
[7:08] Shares riparian areas, as noted in the comprehensive plan. That's
[7:11] that kind of red hash. That follows streams and ditches.
[7:15] So the riparian areas here are following the two districts
[7:19] across. The property, the Palmerton and the rough and ready.
[7:24] Also shown here are conservation areas for the prebbles meadow
[7:27] jumping mouse. You can see we have zone three. Suitable
[7:30] contiguous habitat areas that are close to a known population
[7:34] but not known to be occupied by the mouse. Next
[7:38] map. These are significant agricultural lands again, as shown in
[7:41] the comprehensive plan. This shows the kestrel property in the
[7:45] area of agricultural lands of statewide importance. According to the
[7:50] comprehensive plan. Finally, a couple more photos. Some old silos
[7:56] out there on the property. The right again is the
[8:00] Palmerton. And on the left. This is a neat part,
[8:02] that barn. In the background is over on the Cottonwood
[8:04] property. You can see just how accessible it is. From
[8:08] Castro. They're just right next to each other. So that's
[8:12] kind of neat for us. And that's what I have.
[8:15] And as I always say, park supports this project, and
[8:17] we hope you do, too. So I'm happy to answer
[8:19] any questions at this time, all right? Thanks, Aaron. Good
[8:24] presentation. And a good write up, too. Thank you for
[8:26] the information. Appreciate it. So questions post act. Joan. Joan
[8:30] Lutz Posack. And this may be obvious to others. But
[8:34] the building rights. Are. Their cost is not included in
[8:40] the total acquisition cost. Because the county won't be using
[8:45] those building rights. Well, it's just how we figure the
[8:50] value in the area. It's a lot. Of how we
[8:52] come to the value of certain spots. So two building
[8:55] rights, value of building this. Area. Is thinking right around
[9:00] a million and a half for a building right in
[9:04] this part of Boulder. County. So you figure 237 acre
[9:07] parcels, each one has one building, right? And that's a.
[9:10] Big chunk of how we. Figure what we're going to
[9:12] offer to the seller. So we are including the building
[9:16] rights. In the acquisition, and I call that out because
[9:19] this is just how we figure the value. Thank you.
[9:24] All right. Trace Baker. Posec. Aaron, very good presentation. A
[9:30] very informative, and I love the vintage map on the
[9:34] opening graphic. That was a nice find. I have two
[9:38] questions. First, in the handout that you gave us, you
[9:43] mentioned two shares in the Palmerton ditch. Which are a
[9:46] priority. My emphasis. For the department to acquire. So are
[9:53] the water shares the driving interest in this property? Or
[9:57] would you pursue them if it didn't have the water?
[10:00] Well, this being irrigated ag I would say certainly the
[10:03] water is very important. Just operating the property as a
[10:07] farm. I say that it's a priority because, and I'm
[10:10] not a water expert, these data come from our water
[10:13] people. We have four tiers of kind of based on
[10:17] seniority. Or yield. As to whether a certain ditch or
[10:22] a shares in a ditch are important for the county
[10:25] and this is two of four, so this is a
[10:27] pretty high priority for us, I think. Again, just based
[10:29] on seniority, but. Yet. This property as a farm would
[10:33] be awful hard to run without those shares. Okay. Thank
[10:35] you. Second question. And this is more to educate me
[10:41] on. The process of acquisitions. In the handout, there is
[10:48] a bullet list that begins. Volder county will acquire these
[10:53] interests and then a bulleted list. Of values. And if
[10:58] I add up the numbers. The total is like 6.4
[11:03] million, which is more than. The three and a half
[11:06] million purchase price. So could you educate me on. Why?
[11:13] There's a difference. There. I think I see what the
[11:15] issue is. We're kind of double counting the land value.
[11:18] If I'm looking at this, I have the value of
[11:21] land per acre, which includes the cost of the building,
[11:24] right, the building rights. Themselves were just showing about how
[11:27] much we're paying for that. I think it's just. We're
[11:30] just double counting there, okay? If you include the cost,
[11:35] the value of the building rights. They will come out
[11:39] to the 38 nine six one per acre. Okay. Thank
[11:43] you. All right, well, we'll just go down the line.
[11:46] How's that? Christine. Sure. Thanks. I know that. In the
[11:55] document that you submitted for the agenda that you said
[11:59] that you can't. That it has agricultural use right now.
[12:03] You won't know that what it will be used. For
[12:07] until it's in your hands. Do you want to speculate?
[12:12] I assume it's going to be continued to be used.
[12:14] Agriculturally. All I can say right now. Is that the
[12:18] plan? Yes. Is there's a tenant farmer. Currently operating the
[12:22] property, and the hope is to keep that farmer there,
[12:24] at least for a couple of years while our planning
[12:26] folks and our ag folks work out next steps and.
[12:32] Is the vote tonight about a recommendation? We will not
[12:36] be revisiting. The east. This is about? Both tonight. Money
[12:45] for west will happen this year. Money for east will
[12:48] happen next year. That's the case? Yes. Can the water,
[12:54] that is water rights that are. With that property. Does
[12:59] it impact? Any of the adjacent land. Can it be
[13:05] transferred? I noticed that. There's other presumably agricultural open space
[13:11] land near it. Do the water rights for this land
[13:16] have any impact on those? I'm not as clued in
[13:19] with water rights as you are. Oh, no, that's. Fine.
[13:22] I love talking about water up. Just make me stop.
[13:26] So basically, the shares are dedicated. They're allocated to this
[13:30] property to take them somewhere else. To require a pretty
[13:32] lengthy and expensive court process, and the plan is to
[13:35] keep them here. That's our policy. All right. Thank you.
[13:39] I think that's it for now. Derek. Derek turner. Posek.
[13:46] Some portion this year's budget. Some portion next year's budget.
[13:50] What's the fund balance. That we have left this year.
[13:55] If you're looking for a number, I'll have to turn
[13:58] to. My savior. Good evening. Posc. Janice Whistman, real estate
[14:04] division manager. And if I may, I just want to
[14:06] go back to the answer you gave for the last
[14:08] question. And actually, these ditch rates are usable in the
[14:12] service area for the ditch so they could be transferred,
[14:15] but we don't. Plan to transfer them because as Aaron
[14:18] mentioned, we need them on this property. So I hope
[14:20] that's helpful. So to answer your question, We have an
[14:26] allocation. From the sales tax funding fund balance every year,
[14:30] and it varies depending on what we expect. Our acquisitions
[14:34] to be for the year. We have 17 million out
[14:38] of sales tax allocated this year, and these properties are
[14:42] as well as the next one that's going to be
[14:43] presented are part of the plan for spending that money,
[14:47] and over the course of the year, We have already
[14:50] done a few deals. The spruce gulchdale. You might remember
[14:52] it was 7.3 million we have. Others that I think
[14:56] I have the list somewhere, but I don't have it
[14:58] actually, right. In front of me. But to answer your
[15:01] question about the actual budget, is 17 million this year
[15:05] with sales tax money. And then. We also got your
[15:09] approval or recommendation last month on the Cliffside property, which
[15:14] is going to hopefully use some conservation trust fund money,
[15:18] which is an additional allocation. And so that's another 1.8
[15:24] million, I believe, for that one. So we have plenty
[15:28] of money. And I just want to take a moment
[15:31] to explain that when we bring these before you, we.
[15:34] Already have figured out. How we're going to fund these.
[15:37] So we're not going to bring something to you where
[15:39] we don't think there's funding available. Does that answer your
[15:42] question? That helps, I guess. I personally think it would
[15:45] be really nice as I've, I think, mentioned before to
[15:48] say, here's how much we've spent. This year. Here's how
[15:50] much that's left. Here's how much. That this costs and.
[15:57] I'm not sure if that's what the county commissioners also
[16:00] would want to see. But to me, I guess, from
[16:04] my experience with governmental entities, especially right now, Here's what
[16:08] we have. Here's our revenue. Here's our surplus. I just
[16:14] really feel like it's important to making these recommendations and
[16:17] advising them, so I appreciate the way that you expressed
[16:20] that this time. I was not here when I think
[16:22] you expressed something similar in May. Although I've talked to
[16:25] staff about it. We can add something to our memo
[16:28] form to do that for you, so. I'm happy to
[16:31] do that. Thank you. All right, Tony, let's go. Down
[16:37] the line, then. Tony Lewis, Postac. Aaron, thanks. Always good
[16:42] to see you. Likewise. Do you know when the leases
[16:46] expire for the current list? So right now they're year
[16:50] to year. Okay? So end of this year. So end
[16:53] of. This year for the first parcel. Well, the current
[16:58] tenant is obviously seeing from the current landowner, and they're
[17:01] on a year. To year basis. December 31. Their lease
[17:05] is up. Okay. Would the Ag division be in talks
[17:11] now about releasing us to keep it in production? Well,
[17:15] I did just speak to the Ag division about a
[17:17] new lease with us. When we purchased the property so
[17:22] that that operation will continue. And do you think the
[17:26] lessee is interested in continuing to. I know they are.
[17:30] Great. I just am hopeful that we can keep it
[17:32] in production. Absolutely. And now my perennial question, to drive
[17:36] Janice Wisman over the edge. Which should happen almost any
[17:40] time now. There's two development rights with this that we're
[17:45] purchasing. Do those extinguish upon our purchase. And management or.
[17:52] Can they be saved and used at a future date?
[17:55] If someone can figure out how to use them. Thank
[17:58] you, tony. Janice wizman again. They don't extinguish. The county
[18:02] owns the development rights. Our open space program is about
[18:06] removing development rights from property so that it can become
[18:09] open space. So they're not really usable anywhere else, and
[18:14] we don't. Dedicate development rights to open space properties. So
[18:19] I don't know of a clear way to say that,
[18:21] but if you want to. Ask another question. I'm happy
[18:23] to try to answer it differently. I think that makes
[18:26] sense. You don't keep those development rights associated with that
[18:29] property, because once it becomes an open space property. There's
[18:34] no need for a development, right? For that property? That's
[18:37] correct. Is that. Correct? Yeah. Okay, great. Thanks. Anything. Carol.
[18:45] How about Vicky? Yeah. Vicky Lawrence Posak. This is kind
[18:48] of a relevant question. What are they growing on that?
[18:52] Is it right now? It's in corn. It's in corn.
[18:54] And I assume that's. Not sweet corn. No, I don't
[18:57] think so. Okay, Don. Thanks for your patience. John. Mike
[19:02] Posek. Why do you mention. The mouse. I know it's
[19:12] endangered and all that. If it's on the other side
[19:15] of 66. And you've plowed this field. It doesn't seem.
[19:24] That they're not going to be in a plowed field.
[19:26] Well, the mouse, as I understand I'm not expert in
[19:29] this, but I understand that the mouse habitat focuses on
[19:32] the repairing areas on the moving water. So specifically, it's
[19:35] the area near the dishes that is of interest here,
[19:38] okay? Thank you. Okay, looks like no more questions. I
[19:45] have a couple of questions. I see that. We're getting
[19:50] 100,000 of mineral rights with this deal. What kind of
[19:54] minerals are they? It says there's no oil and gas
[19:57] right for this. There really aren't any mineral rays. There's
[20:01] nothing special about it. It's a figure that we say
[20:03] we are purchasing. The mineral rights associated with this nobody
[20:06] else owns any part of that. It's a budgeting figure
[20:11] we throw in there to indicate that we are buying
[20:12] them. If they have not been separated. Okay, got you.
[20:17] And by the way, I'm Janet. George. Posack. I guess
[20:19] I should say that if I'm going to ask questions.
[20:22] All right. The last question, I'll kind of put it
[20:24] together. A couple of past issues with this cornfield, and
[20:29] one of them is drainage, and I don't know if
[20:32] there's some of the tiles of collapse, the old tiles
[20:34] that drain. Under it. So it looks like maybe your
[20:38] egg folks haven't talked about that. The other issue that's
[20:42] happened, which I'm sure your wildlife staff know about, is
[20:45] it's been elk damage there for quite a while, and
[20:47] I don't know if there's still elk damage that CPW
[20:50] is paying for, so I was going to ask moving
[20:54] forward, what might be some of the plans to deal
[20:57] with those two issues. It's a little beyond my expertise.
[21:01] I'm glad she's here. Janice Wism again. So as we've
[21:05] described and talked briefly tonight, and we've always put this
[21:08] in our memo so that everyone, including the public, understands
[21:11] that we don't do planning. For these properties before we
[21:14] acquire them. It's just too fast of a process to
[21:16] try. To get through that. And staff don't have the
[21:21] ability to drop what they're doing to plan for a
[21:24] piece of property. So for a number of reasons, those
[21:25] are just two. We wait until after we've adopted a
[21:29] property in order to figure those things out, so. We're
[21:31] happy to pass that information along. We might not have
[21:34] necessarily, as a department known those things? Because this is
[21:38] a private property we have no current interest in. And
[21:42] would have no reason to even talk with CPW about
[21:44] damages on this property or about the drainage issues. With
[21:48] the landowners. So happy to pass those along and then
[21:53] the planning for that and what to do with them.
[21:55] Will happen later. So, as Aaron has described, We will
[21:59] be entering into a lease with the current lessee at
[22:02] closing so that they're. Under a county lease, not just
[22:04] under a year to year lease with the landowner, because
[22:07] now the landowner is gone. Right? So they need to
[22:09] be under a county lease, and our activision. Has asked
[22:12] us to enter into a two year lease, I believe.
[22:15] Is that right, Aaron? So that they have time to
[22:18] work. With the lessee to learn about the property. And
[22:22] address whatever issues those are. So that drainage issue would
[22:24] be one of them, I believe, and then we're happy
[22:27] to relay the information to our wildlife staff about the.
[22:32] Know, but we don't know because we're in a different
[22:34] division and we're. Acquiring land that we know nothing about
[22:37] other than what we're doing during the acquisition. Process. So,
[22:45] because we are not involved in the conversations with CPW
[22:48] about damages anywhere. That's why we don't. Expect to have
[22:53] those details to bring before you. Okay. All right. Fair
[22:56] enough. Thanks for that detailed. Answer. Sure. JOAN LUTZ, Posac
[23:03] I was just wondering, I know you don't do planning.
[23:05] In advance, but whether part of the interest in this
[23:08] parcel is that it is close to rabbit. Mountain much
[23:11] larger and down flats. And I see there's already a
[23:15] tie in with the potential for too many elk. Yes,
[23:21] Janice Whistman again, good points. Agreed. Those are things we
[23:24] recognize. Thank you. All right. See no more for POsac.
[23:32] We'll move on to any public comments if we have
[23:35] any. We'll take any public comments for people that are
[23:38] here first and then check. Online. Do we have anybody
[23:41] here that wants to comment on this? Okay. Thank you.
[23:46] I see none. Do we have anybody? Nick signed up
[23:48] online. Hey, this is nick. For those who are on
[23:53] zoom. If you could use the raise hand feature and
[23:56] we can call on you. I know we had a
[23:59] few people signed up at the last minute to speak
[24:01] on. This agenda item. We've got tess McDonald. Hi there.
[24:14] I'm calling to say it's my understanding that pesticide usage.
[24:21] Is increasing in Boulder county parks and open space. After
[24:24] all the outreach and education. Can I just interrupt? Sure.
[24:29] Yeah. So is this specific to this topic, or if
[24:33] it's. Just about pesticide use. Let's wait until the. It's
[24:40] about rabbit mountain and more of that area being tested
[24:45] on with aerial spray is it on this property acquisition
[24:49] specifically. Yes, because it's so close to where. They've already
[24:53] sprayed, and I'm concerned about. The lack of. All right.
[25:01] You can go ahead. If it's about this property and
[25:05] you have three minutes. So this property. Was already sprayed
[25:11] aerially and. It was after it was given to Native
[25:16] Americans, and it was their ceremonial ground, and they weren't
[25:21] notified when the Ariel sprayed it. And what they sprayed
[25:25] there, according to your records, is esplanade. And it's not
[25:31] meant for range land, so I'm concerned they're just. Picking
[25:35] another area to test on, and I don't think it's
[25:39] right after all. The outreach and education that the independent
[25:42] citizens have presented over the years. It's just astounding to
[25:48] me. That we, the citizens, own the land that you
[25:53] are acquiring, and we are the boss, okay? And. We
[25:56] don't want any more poisonings like Rachel Carson, moms of
[26:01] Boulder County. Detox Moulder county will never be okay with
[26:04] pesticides being sprayed from the sky. Pesticides create a dependency
[26:10] on big chemical. Soil health creates abundance, abundant diversity, abundant
[26:16] clean air, abundant clean water and abundant life. Boulder county
[26:20] needs real. Wealth, real abundance. Whose bright idea was it
[26:26] to help native plants by killing pollinators with aerial spray
[26:32] of pesticide. Seriously, I would like to know. I would
[26:35] like an answer. Who in their right mind. Thinks you're
[26:41] going to save native plants. By killing pollinators from a
[26:48] helicopter. You're spraying everything. Your broadcast brain. It makes zero
[26:54] sense. Anyone that has common sense. And that has not
[26:59] been brainwashed in college. By the. Corporations that are benefiting
[27:05] knows this is a bad idea, but guess what? We
[27:09] have a pedophile in the White House. We have corporate
[27:13] billionaires running the show. And my only question for you,
[27:16] besides whose bright idea? It was is at this point
[27:21] right now, are you going to be a coward or
[27:23] are you? Going to be a revolutionary. You can start
[27:26] now by ending this insanely ineffective practice. That is aerial
[27:31] spray of highly flammable. Petrochemicals on our public land. So.
[27:38] B note. You're spaying petrochemicals that are flammable all over.
[27:43] The land. Thank you. All right, thank you, Tess. Any
[27:49] further public comment, and let's restrict the public comment. To
[27:56] the Kestrel property acquisition. There'll be time later on the
[27:59] agenda for other types. Of public comment. Last chance for
[28:04] those on Zoom. If you want to make comments, please
[28:06] use the raise hand feature. I don't see any other
[28:11] raised hands. All right. So that's it for public comment
[28:17] on this? Anything else? From posac, all right? Do I
[28:23] have a motion? The motion would be a recommendation to
[28:27] the Boulder county commissioners for approval. Of the project as
[28:30] described above and as further described by staff at the
[28:33] Postac meeting and this would be for the Castrel property
[28:37] acquisition. So moved. Okay, so, Tony. We've got a motion.
[28:44] Trace baker. Second. Okay. And we have a second. So
[28:47] any discussion? All right, let's go to a vote. All
[28:51] those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes.
[28:58] Thank you. Thank you. All right, moving on to the
[29:02] next one, which is also a decision item, and it's
[29:06] the gateway property acquisition. And we'll have Melissa Arnold here
[29:11] presenting. Hello, Melissa. Hello. Give me one moment to pull.
[29:16] This up.
[29:28] Okay. Hello, Poseac members. Melissa Arnold, land officer in the
[29:32] real estate Division. And tonight I am going to. Be.
[29:42] I brought to you the gateway property acquisition. So the
[29:48] gateway property is located in southeast Boulder county at the
[29:52] address of 1716 South 96 street. There's the little circle.
[29:59] It just floated in, and then we're just going to.
[30:01] Zoom in here to get closer and closer. So the
[30:05] property indicated in red is located at the intersection of
[30:10] South 96 street in. Dylan. Dylan. Road and Northwest Parkway
[30:15] is the darker red road just to the south. It's
[30:19] also in close proximity to the city of Lewisville. As
[30:22] you can see, the property is right against the southern
[30:25] annex boundary of Louisville. And then also you can notice.
[30:30] City of Lafayette to the northeast and city and county
[30:32] of Broomfield to the south. And I'm going to be
[30:35] mentioning these municipal partners throughout the presentations, so just wanted
[30:39] to make sure you all saw the proximity of the
[30:41] property to those cities. Coming in closer now, looking at
[30:46] some of the surrounding open space as well. So you
[30:53] have to the west, the admore east and west, open
[30:56] space, and to the east. You have the trillium open
[30:59] space, and both of these are jointly owned with the
[31:03] city. Of Louisville. And Broomfield and Lafayette hold conservation easements
[31:09] on these open space properties and then to the south
[31:12] is a conservation easement property, so that's privately owned with
[31:16] restrictions. It's located in Broomfield county. They are the lead
[31:21] holder on that conservation easement and the other three partners
[31:24] that we've talked about, County La. Lafayette and Lewisville all
[31:27] hold an undivided interest in that conservation easement. And just
[31:31] a little Google Earth view to get a little more
[31:33] perspective on. This property's positioning to the city of Louisville
[31:40] and the open space around it. All right, now, coming
[31:45] in as close as we can, we have some property
[31:47] facts. Gateway is 72.72. Point 42 acres in size. It
[31:54] is irrigated with 69.99 shares of good. Hue Ditch and
[31:59] reservoir company water. There are no residences on this property.
[32:07] There used to be a house. It was there and
[32:10] inhabited. By the previous landowner for years, the Striders. But
[32:14] after they sold it to the current landowner, in 2019.
[32:18] It was demolished shortly thereafter. And there are two agricultural
[32:23] structures existing on the property now that were there as
[32:25] part of the original home area. You can also see
[32:30] that the property is bisected by Burlington Northern Railroad. And
[32:36] I mentioned that the current owners who bought it from
[32:38] the longtime landowners, the shriders, they're the sellers, the ones
[32:42] we're working with. And that is the northwest quarter holdings.
[32:46] LLC, and then they currently lease the property to an
[32:50] agricultural tenant for cattle grazing. Some pictures. So here is
[32:59] the property. Looking east, you can see Dylan Road off
[33:02] in the distance, kind of. To the left of the
[33:04] screen, and South 96 street is directly behind where I'm
[33:08] standing. Taking this picture. Here are the two structures that
[33:11] are remaining. We have run and shed for cattle and
[33:17] a livestock below, and then. A hay barn above, and
[33:21] then that's the gate to the property off of South
[33:24] 96. Street. That was the driveway entrance to the residence.
[33:27] And now is the way to get into all the
[33:29] two structures that remain. And then just one more slide
[33:32] with some photos. We're graced with the presence of a
[33:37] great horned owl who. Was in that open hay shed
[33:41] when we got there and then watched us from the
[33:43] trees. Also, I saw many deer beds out in the
[33:47] grasses. And then. That's just a photo. Of the railroad,
[33:51] the Burlington Northern Railroad. Okay. Boulder county comprehensive plan designations.
[34:00] As Aaron said in his presentation, same applies here. These
[34:03] maps are intended to be illustrative. Rather than specific in
[34:06] the following designations, an indicator of importance, but not confirmation
[34:11] that these features exist. On the property. And we have
[34:15] one map showing. The presence of the significant agricultural lands
[34:21] of national importance. Over the gateway property.
[34:33] So there is a document called the Southeast County Intergovernmental
[34:37] Agreement, or IGA. It was entered into in 1999 between
[34:42] the four partners that I've mentioned, county of Boulder City.
[34:46] Of Louisville, city of Lafaya and the city and county
[34:49] of Broomfield. That IgA identifies the gateway property as being
[34:54] within a rural preservation area, recognizing its value as a
[34:58] community buffer. In its agricultural and other open space attributes.
[35:05] The southeast county Iga does limit the gateway property. Currently.
[35:11] To two development rights and prohibits it from being annexed
[35:14] within the city of Louisville. However, that IgA was set
[35:18] for a term of 30 years and it expires in
[35:21] four years. In 2029. That IGA also states that any
[35:27] of those four partners may purchase this property as open
[35:30] space. And those not participating in the acquisition will still
[35:34] receive an undivided interest in a conservation easement over the
[35:37] property. So because of the property's value, as I was
[35:43] describing, as a community buffer, and with its other open
[35:46] space values, such as agriculture. It has always made it
[35:50] on a high priority acquisition for open space. And also
[35:55] considering that the IGA expires in four years, at which
[35:57] time a landowner could apply for annexation into the city
[36:00] of Louisville. Makes this a great opportunity to purchase it
[36:05] now while it's available. When it came on the market.
[36:09] The county entered conversations with the seller, and we quickly
[36:12] came to a deal and decided we had to act.
[36:17] So for the 72.42 acres, the deal terms are that
[36:20] two development rights will be removed. From this property. The
[36:25] total for the land and development rights will be $2,630,000.
[36:32] And the water rights will total $70,000. That's the 69.99
[36:38] shares. Of the good Hugh ditch and reservoir company. For
[36:42] total acquisition costs of $2,700,000. The IGA, as we've talked
[36:48] about, has four partners. So the proposal is that the
[36:55] county would act now while this property is available and
[36:58] the seller is very motivated to close quickly, which was
[37:02] part of the negotiation. So we would close now for
[37:05] the 2.7 million and the county would own the fee.
[37:08] Simple interest in the land and manage it. And then,
[37:12] after closing, the county would grant as was described in
[37:15] the Iga. The county would grant each of the partners
[37:18] Lewis, Phil, Lafayette and Brimfield, a partial interest in a
[37:22] conservation easement. And we hope for some support with the
[37:26] funding. So the city of Lewisville and possibly the city
[37:30] and county of Broomfield intend to contribute toward the cost
[37:33] of the property. Postclothing. So reimbursing the county for some
[37:38] of the acquisition cost. Those amounts are to be determined
[37:42] by. Future direction from their respective city councils. So while
[37:48] we don't have those numbers yet, we anticipate receiving some
[37:51] partnership funding after closing. So for tonight, I would ask.
[38:02] PosaK members to please consider recommending this to the board
[38:05] of County Commissioners for approval. As described in my presentation,
[38:09] and I'd be happy to answer any questions. All right.
[38:12] Thanks, Melissa. Good presentation as always. Thank you. So, do
[38:17] we have any questions? We'll go with Carol first. Thank
[38:21] you, Melissa, for that presentation. I have two questions. One
[38:26] is the bird's eye view showing the property? I was
[38:29] wondering. If those were prairie dog mounds, yes. So that
[38:35] property. Is pretty. Devastated, isn't it, by the prairie dogs?
[38:42] It has based on the prairie dog holes we see
[38:44] in the imagery, it has a population of prairie dogs
[38:47] on it, okay?
[39:01] But it's currently being grazed. That's right. It's currently being
[39:03] grazed for. Cattle. Okay. And the cattle get along with
[39:06] the. Yes. Grazing. What I understand from our agricultural and
[39:11] wildlife staff is that grazing cattle and prairie dog habitat
[39:16] can be compatible. Okay. Thank you. And my second question
[39:21] is, on another map, you said there was land of
[39:24] national interest, and I'm wondering if you could tell us
[39:27] what that interest is. So the national. Significant. So the
[39:33] Boulder County Comprehensive plan identifies the gateway property is having
[39:37] significant agricultural lands of national importance, and this is based
[39:42] on data and studies from the. That has identified different
[39:47] soils and. So we pulled that and based our data.
[39:56] In our Boulder county comprehensive plan off of the NRCS
[39:58] data. And so that means that the soil is valuable
[40:03] for agriculture and that is in the national interest. Yes,
[40:09] and that. It is any more addition to this. Aaron
[40:15] or Janice, please add in. But that elevated higher quality
[40:19] agricultural soil. Okay. Please. Hi there. Aaron Clark again. It's
[40:25] funny that you asked her this, because I had a
[40:27] whole bunch of stuff in my presentation, just in case
[40:29] you happen to ask. So, as you recall, my presentation
[40:35] involves statewide importance, and it's really about the quality of
[40:37] the soil. Whether it's very rocky. The slopes, how well
[40:43] it holds moisture. Predicted productivity. If you have water or
[40:48] not on it. It's really about. It's fantastic ground for
[40:52] getting. A good product out of it just based on
[40:55] those characteristics of the land itself. And is this. A
[40:58] product of a survey, USGS survey or something. NRCS Natural
[41:04] Resource Conservation Service went around and did all of this?
[41:06] Yes. Okay, good. Thank you. Sure. Thank you, Aaron. All
[41:12] right, Vicky. Yeah. Hi, Michelle. Thanks. Of course, I'm very
[41:18] interested in this property, since I live fairly close to
[41:21] this property. All things considered. Can you explain a little
[41:25] further about the conservation easements and. What is the advantage?
[41:32] And why do those. I mean, I understand it was
[41:35] in an agreement that. Those would be split between the
[41:38] cities. What advantage is that to those cities to have
[41:43] those? Excellent question. This joint management of open space. And
[41:51] sort of dividing out some ownership in it is a
[41:53] sort of belt and suspender way. Of it has a
[41:56] couple of purposes. One is a belt and suspender way
[41:58] of ensuring protection. Of that land. So you have, first
[42:01] of all, Being acquired with sales and use tax dollars
[42:04] from Boulder county. And we've put it now. We will
[42:07] be putting it into open space protection. But then these
[42:10] partners then also get a conservation. Easement, they get an
[42:14] undivided interest in one conservation easement. So 33% each. That
[42:19] will also layer restrictions on top of that. And then,
[42:22] just like we would hold a conservation easement as the
[42:24] county on a land that's owned by a private landowner,
[42:27] they will do the same as we would with them,
[42:29] enter into a relationship or we check in over the
[42:32] years and do stewardship visits. We communicate with them about
[42:35] changes that are happening and they watch. To make sure
[42:37] that the terms of that conservation newsmen are uphel. Upheld
[42:40] over time so that if there were to be a
[42:42] change, At the county, they would need to know, or
[42:45] with the land management, they'd be kept. Apprised of that,
[42:47] and it just makes that protection extra. And then the
[42:52] other way to look at it. Is that. It's a
[42:55] way for the partners to show that. For themselves and
[43:00] their residents that they have participated in some way and
[43:05] making sure this protection happened. And it's that joint partnership
[43:08] show of this is important to all of us, and
[43:10] we are all going to step forward in some way.
[43:14] And make sure that land is protected. So Vicky Lawrence
[43:17] Posek again. Let me ask further. So you're making it
[43:23] sound like it's just sort of a policing each other.
[43:27] In a way. I want to be sure you're not
[43:29] going to do anything. So there's three. Of us involved
[43:33] here, and we're all sort of watching each other. Way
[43:35] to look at it. It's also quite a partnership to
[43:37] ensure trust and success of in stewardship care. Of the
[43:41] land in the future. Okay, and so what do you
[43:44] know about. Other governments helping to pay for this. I
[43:48] mean, I know you say that. Will be determined after
[43:51] the property is purchased. But are you getting a sense
[43:55] that that's going to happen? Yeah, great question. Because obviously
[43:58] that's the part that we don't have the answers to
[44:00] at this meeting. And we're asking you. To. Give your
[44:06] recommendation on? It's just the acquisition of the land right
[44:08] now. So what we know is that the IGA that
[44:11] was created in 1999 does not have any specific. Terms
[44:16] saying which partners will acquire or how much each will
[44:19] contribute, which sometimes can be the case. With other igas,
[44:22] it might offer percentages that they step forward with that
[44:25] is silent and so currently, the city of Lewisville has
[44:30] indicated that they are intending to put money toward this
[44:33] acquisition. We don't have that dollar amount yet. That conversation
[44:37] is not happening with me directly. It's happening with county
[44:40] and city leadership. And this county and city of Broomfield
[44:45] is having its own conversations with its council, and they
[44:48] are going to see if there's something they can contribute
[44:51] and they haven't made. A definite commitment at all, but
[44:54] they're looking at it. So that's all I know. At
[44:57] this point. As soon as we can more, we'll. Be
[45:00] able to share it. But I think because of the
[45:03] importance of this land and its availability right now. We
[45:06] wanted to just acquire it on the timeline that the
[45:09] seller put forth and. Know that that was the most
[45:11] important thing, and then we'll lean on that partnership that.
[45:15] We've built over the years with our partners to hope.
[45:17] They come to the table with some meaningful contribution. Thank
[45:20] you. Go ahead. John white posek. So each one has
[45:27] a 33% interest, but. What's undivided if it's divided by
[45:33] three? Yeah, maybe I misspoke. By saying 33, it's undivided
[45:37] interest in that somebody can't take their piece and walk
[45:39] away with it. It's all connected and. All three own
[45:43] it together. Or nobody can leave with just their part.
[45:48] Thank you. Tony. Go ahead, and then we'll go this
[45:51] way. Great. Thanks, tony. Lewis posac nice to see you,
[45:54] Melissa. Thanks for good to see the presentation. Could you
[45:58] go back to the map showing the national significance? The
[46:03] agricultural land? Yeah, please. Oops. I think I just. So
[46:08] I'm struggling with this one. I'm thinking about Baldwick county
[46:15] as a whole. Where development should happen and where development
[46:20] shouldn't happen. And I'm trying to figure out with a
[46:23] limited budget to buy open space. We're the most important
[46:27] open space lands should be. So when I look to
[46:31] the north, I think I'm seeing both houses and industrial.
[46:37] Is that. Yeah, there's no residential. Development there. That's business
[46:40] park. It's commercially. In the city of Louisville, and that's
[46:43] their annex boundary. Okay. And to the south of the
[46:47] northwest Parkway. Similar. Brimfield and that's all. I actually haven't
[46:53] looked into the. Residential. Okay. Regana says that's residential to
[46:58] the south of the North Parkway. Yeah. Mixed youth. Yeah.
[47:04] So here's my struggle. And I had this when I
[47:05] was working at EPA when you're trying to protect an
[47:08] isolated wetland that's bordered between. Highways, Northwest Parkway. Railroads running
[47:15] through the property. Prairie dogs all over the property. Industrial
[47:19] to the north. It doesn't feel like a high priority
[47:23] to me now. Maybe NRCs thinks the soil is good.
[47:27] That's awesome. But I think to myself, how else would
[47:33] I spend this money? On what other property? So I'm
[47:37] struggling with this one. Yeah. If I may, let me
[47:41] go back to this map and highlight that with the
[47:46] IGA and this being identified between the municipalities in 1999.
[47:51] It is primarily, it has all those attributes. That agricultural.
[47:58] And. It is also tucked between this open space land.
[48:03] A community buffer in its acquisition and prevention of having
[48:06] it be annexed into the city of Louisville. Would just
[48:08] hold the city boundary up where it is and keep
[48:11] this area conserved as a stretch. Of open space. And
[48:16] just basically keep the development within the current annex boundaries
[48:19] has been like one of the primary. Open space interests
[48:22] of this property. And Janice just sat down next to
[48:24] me. I'm going. To pass it to her, which always
[48:26] makes you nervous. Should be. Yes. Can you go back
[48:30] to the more vicinity? Matt? Melissa, please. Do you want
[48:32] me? To go back one more. Even that one's good,
[48:34] right? Well, that one's probably. Good right there. Unless you
[48:36] have. No, you do have. Okay. This isn't quite what
[48:42] I was thinking, but maybe go back even further to
[48:45] that other. One. Yes, thank you. So, Janice Wisman, again,
[48:49] I just want to provide some more context if you
[48:51] think back to 1999, this was before Broomfield was actually
[48:55] a county. So this iga. Melissa said, is with the
[48:57] city and county of Broomfield. But it was only a
[48:59] city at that time. So you've got Broomfield. As a
[49:02] city. You also have Boulder county not having the chunk
[49:05] that's now taken out. Of it. That's now part of
[49:07] Broomfield, so our county was more of a right. Angle
[49:12] there in that area included a piece of land that
[49:14] was now in Broomfield. So you've got Broomfield growing. You've
[49:18] got Lewisville growing, Lafayette growing, even superior down in that
[49:21] area as well. They're not a party to this particular
[49:23] agreement in 1999. The county didn't have any confidence that.
[49:31] These other cities that had interest in open space around
[49:35] them would be able to develop their own open space
[49:37] programs. We also have all of our sales taxes say
[49:41] that we're going to not only collect these sales taxes
[49:44] and use them on priority acquisitions, but that we're going
[49:47] to consult the communities about what those priority acquisitions should
[49:50] be. This property has been on the list for Lewisville.
[49:54] As a gateway, which is why we named it that.
[49:57] And a community buff. Buffer for them for well over
[50:01] a decade. We don't have records that go back much.
[50:03] Farther than that, but it's safe to say since 1999,
[50:06] when this IGA was entered, into that identified this property,
[50:10] and along with the others that Melissa described as being
[50:12] designated for rural preservation that the cities in the area
[50:16] and the county together felt that the. Best way to
[50:20] preserve some space between these communities was to agree on
[50:24] which properties should be within the city's municipal influence areas
[50:27] and which areas should be in the rural preservation area
[50:30] and then they agreed that they would, as she's described,
[50:33] work together in one fashion or another. It wasn't known
[50:36] at the time. To protect these properties. And the reason
[50:40] in my mind. Why there's no specific. Designation of how
[50:45] much the city is going to put in, and that
[50:48] city is going to put in is you don't know
[50:49] which property we're talking about in the case. So thinking
[50:54] back to Mayha for farm, a little bit different situation
[50:57] that one involved only Lewisville. And Lafayette. They both were
[51:01] very interested in that one, and we had a separate
[51:04] Iga that did specify what they would contribute in that
[51:08] case, because. They were so interested in making sure that
[51:12] those two communities didn't grow together in that location. We
[51:15] don't have the same situation here because Lafayette is not
[51:18] involved. They're not down that far. Broomfield. Was just becoming
[51:23] a thing to be a county, not just a city.
[51:26] So they were identifying and thinking about their own open
[51:29] space program. But what was clear was that they all
[51:32] agreed that this property should not be developed, and they
[51:35] wanted it to be an urban community buffer, and we
[51:38] don't hear about that a lot here at Kozak because.
[51:42] Our department. As a whole. If you think about our
[51:45] work groups, we've got the wildlife group, the plant ecology
[51:48] group. The AG group and the Cultural Resources group and
[51:52] all those other things that you hear about and think
[51:54] about as part of open space. But community buffers are
[51:58] something that the real estate division and the planning division
[52:00] are the two that think about. And so we're in
[52:03] a position here, where we are to implement the county's
[52:08] foresight back to 19. 99 to designate this property for
[52:12] open space. And that's why we're going after it, and
[52:14] we have to move. Just like I was describing earlier
[52:17] on the Kestrel acquisition. We have to do these acquisitions
[52:21] quickly on the seller's time frame and work out all
[52:23] these other details later. So that's why we are where
[52:26] we are today with this property, Tony. Lewis pose. Posek.
[52:31] Thank you. Can I make a comment about your question?
[52:34] Sure. What's your name? John white. Person who left
[52:44] a comment. On the website. She had a really good
[52:51] point. Where one advantage to this is you got wildlife
[52:55] corridors, whereas if you look at the map here, it
[52:58] says that this area is national importance, but they have
[53:01] a 711 on it. So that. This would. It's not
[53:07] just the fact that it has industrial to the north
[53:09] and a railroad. There are other advantages. There could be.
[53:16] Thank you. I have another question now. So, like tonight,
[53:21] we're seeing this property. And it's been identified by these
[53:26] entities and. How many other properties are there like that?
[53:32] And especially. What are those properties look like? So I
[53:35] need context, I guess. Like, all of a sudden, it's
[53:37] like, here's a map. Here's an important property. It's been
[53:40] identified by these entities. We've all agreed we're going to
[53:44] buy it when it comes up. How many? More of
[53:46] those are there and where are they? And how do
[53:49] I put it in context of wow. Let's spend the
[53:52] money on this. But in a month, this other big
[53:55] property is coming available over here. And we've all agreed
[53:57] from the 99 iga that we're. Also going to purchase
[54:00] that. The context is hard, the lack of context. Appreciate
[54:05] that, Tony. Janice Wiscon again, and I want to remind
[54:08] you and make an offer to everyone again. Because we
[54:12] have some new members who haven't seen this. But annually
[54:15] at your retreat, we give you the context in an
[54:17] executive session. We can't give you that context today. In
[54:22] this instance. We need to have those conversations in executive
[54:26] sessions so that we can tell you about them. I
[54:27] can tell you. Over time and have develop. Developed pretty
[54:33] recently, an updated version of what we think are priority
[54:37] properties, and we are refining that. List, knowing that over
[54:41] time, our acquisition. Monies are going to. We're at the
[54:46] end. If you look at that, to me, that looks
[54:47] like a puzzle. That map that you're seeing, that's a
[54:50] puzzle. We are at the end. We're finishing the puzzle
[54:53] for what open space should be for Boulder county. We
[54:56] still have a lot of. Parcels to acquire, and there
[54:59] are dozens, I will say. But that number is being
[55:03] refined as we try to go after the ones that
[55:05] are super important. And not bring you the ones that
[55:08] are not important. So I just want you to understand
[55:11] what I'm saying here that we are not going to
[55:13] come to you with a suggestion that we buy a
[55:16] property that we don't as a department think is important
[55:19] to finish that. Puzzle. So if you could keep that
[55:22] in mind as you think about these. There's a context
[55:25] that I can give you in open session, and happy
[55:29] to sit down. Either as a group and do a
[55:33] mid year executive session or individually if anyone wants a
[55:37] refresher we can do that individually with each one of
[55:39] you or several of you or whoever. Wants to do
[55:41] that. But that context is Boulder county has been acquiring
[55:46] land. Diligently, especially since we got our sales tax passed
[55:51] in 1993. And we have been very successful in completing
[55:55] this puzzle of what's left from the federal lands, the
[55:59] lands that the cities are pursuing and what can the
[56:01] county do to contribute to the vision that this entire
[56:05] community has. And we are saying no on a daily
[56:09] basis. In fact, Aaron wanted to go after something. I
[56:14] put him on the spot here. He brought something to
[56:16] me a couple of days ago and said, wouldn't this
[56:18] be a great one. And normally. In the previous days
[56:21] when we were going after just about everything we could.
[56:24] Maybe so, maybe so. However, we are trying to focus
[56:28] our acquisition money on the things that are truly important.
[56:32] And I told him we're not going to pursue that
[56:34] particular one. It's a small property, and it's in a
[56:36] completely different area of the county, et cetera. This one
[56:39] and, like, other ones. And so I want you to
[56:41] understand. In the several dozen that we have left to
[56:43] go after. It includes. Community priorities. And this one is
[56:49] a Lewisville priority. Has been a Lewisville priority forever. We
[56:52] are supposed to. Share the wealth of that sales tax
[56:55] with the properties that the communities want to acquire. And
[57:01] so I can't state it any differently in open session,
[57:05] but. I do hope that you appreciate what I'm saying,
[57:09] that we're coming to you. With things that we believe
[57:13] meet the mission, meet the priorities. Keep us focused on
[57:17] what we can do with what's left, and at the
[57:19] same time, I hope that you can understand too that
[57:21] we are not operating. Yes. There eventually will not be
[57:26] any more acquisitions to do. Or. Yes, maybe eventually we'll
[57:29] decide. We don't want to spend more money on acquisitions
[57:32] because. The tax picture changes over time, but this community,
[57:37] last time that we ran a sales tax ballot, and
[57:40] there are several that we have. So last time we
[57:41] did an initiative, it passed at over 80%. So this
[57:45] community still really supports the open space program? We believe
[57:49] they will continue to do that. As the sales taxes
[57:52] are asked to be extended over time, hopefully someday made
[57:56] permanent. That sort of thing. So we're not operating in
[57:59] our division or in the department from a position of
[58:01] scarcity. We are doing what we can to go after
[58:05] property now because it's never going to be any cheaper,
[58:07] right? Too bad we couldn't have done this 130 years
[58:12] ago when it probably first got on. The list. But.
[58:17] We have the money to do what we need to
[58:18] do, and we're bringing you priorities. So I hope you
[58:22] can go home with those two things. I think I
[58:24] can. Thank you. Thank you for the lengthy explanation. I
[58:29] hope you don't take these questions as we don't believe
[58:32] that you're. Bringing us priority properties, but I think it's
[58:35] incumbent upon us to ask some of these questions. Sure,
[58:39] and we're happy to answer your questions. I'm just trying
[58:41] to. Say that. When the perspective is we shouldn't do
[58:46] this one, because if we do this one, we can't
[58:48] do that one. That's a scarcity mindset, and we don't.
[58:51] Have that situation. That's what I'm trying to say. Well,
[58:56] that's interesting. We'll have to have a longer discussion about
[59:00] that because I think the people of Boulder county also
[59:03] voted for this open space tax to acquire and manage
[59:06] these properties, if I'm not mistaken, they did. And we
[59:09] have that responsibility as well, I think. What would be
[59:12] helpful. And I appreciate the offer. I think it would
[59:15] be great to. Do a mid. Year session with Posac
[59:19] to look at the properties again. In closed session, and
[59:23] I think it'd be really valuable. To see some of
[59:26] the properties that you declined. I think that would, again,
[59:30] give us some context. For how you're prioritizing making decisions.
[59:36] Happy to do that. Thanks. Thank you for that discussion,
[59:41] Tony and Janice. I'm going to go this way, and
[59:45] then we'll come back, Vicky, okay? Joan. Joan Lozac and
[59:50] I just had a comment in favor of purchasing it
[59:54] first. It's in southeast county. The other one was in
[59:57] north central. And it's good to have especially property near
[1:00:02] populations, beginning. Some interest. From county open space. But the
[1:00:08] second thing is that. It's not only in my opinion.
[1:00:13] The soil, the good soil that. Makes it agricultural land.
[1:00:18] Of importance, national importance, but also that we're losing so
[1:00:21] much to development of our good. Farmland. And this is
[1:00:26] not only good soil, but I would say that it's
[1:00:29] a large enough size. And it's sort of squareish, and
[1:00:34] so it's farmable with conventional tools. And also, although it
[1:00:38] does have that business park to the north of it,
[1:00:44] There is some connection to other farmlands, and that also
[1:00:47] makes it more enticing. I would think to a farmer
[1:00:51] to be connected in that way. That's all. Thanks, John.
[1:00:55] Okay. Trace. Trace Baker Posac. Thank you, Melissa. A couple
[1:01:00] of things. I mean, literally two things. To bring up
[1:01:03] here. One is that in several of your aerial views,
[1:01:07] you had red dots on the. Western section of the
[1:01:11] property. And what are you trying to indicate there? Yeah.
[1:01:16] I saw those. Probably just heard a fan. So this
[1:01:20] is the Boulder county assessors parcel layer. And those dots
[1:01:26] indicate that there's another interest. So those indicate mineral ownership.
[1:01:30] And one of the things that I. Or lease, which
[1:01:35] this way. So one of the things that I had,
[1:01:37] because. We are moving at a faster pace than usual.
[1:01:42] We haven't finished the full evaluation with the county attorney's
[1:01:45] office on the title. So what I can tell you
[1:01:47] is that it is very likely, and we're working on
[1:01:49] that final determination that the minerals have been reserved from
[1:01:53] this property and that they will likely not be available
[1:01:56] for purchase with the land. And those dots can also
[1:02:00] mean leases. We're also looking at that and whether there
[1:02:04] are any leases that could have been active and unitized.
[1:02:08] We're still determining that. I can say there's no oil
[1:02:10] and gas wells, okay? But. I
[1:02:20] just learned something new. Okay, that these red dots can
[1:02:25] also mean that there's an agricultural lease interest. With Megan.
[1:02:30] So the assessor collects taxes on possessory interest in land,
[1:02:34] and so they could. Mean leases as well, and that's
[1:02:36] part of our due diligence process. I don't know if.
[1:02:40] And I'll just. Maybe I shouldn't say this. But Melissa.
[1:02:43] This is Melissa's project. She knows all the details. I'm
[1:02:45] not into. The details on it, but because the property
[1:02:48] changed hands, it could be possible the assessor still has
[1:02:52] a possessory interest marked for. At least that's no longer
[1:02:54] in effect. An agricultural lease. Had no idea about agriculture
[1:02:58] leases. Thank you. Yeah. So those are the little dots.
[1:03:03] Okay. Thank you. Second question. In the handout that you
[1:03:07] gave us. The county will purchase any minerals mineral rights
[1:03:13] that are available. So if your research does find that
[1:03:18] mineral rights are available and worth purchasing, then that will
[1:03:22] be funded at some future time. Good question. No. It's
[1:03:28] in the letter of intent that the county, with this
[1:03:31] 2.7 million, will be buying any and all water right
[1:03:34] and mineral right interests that are available. If we had
[1:03:37] that. Answer today, we just would have broken out the
[1:03:39] number with a clear $100,000 allocated. Toward the minerals. Okay,
[1:03:44] but it comes along, we get it at closing. If
[1:03:48] it's there. Okay, thank you. All right. Going down the
[1:03:53] line. Do you have anything? Christine. Christine Johnson? Posack. I
[1:03:59] also want to reiterate. Support for this purchase. Janice knows
[1:04:05] this, but. I have a rural western Colorado. Background. And
[1:04:14] my grandfather was a farmer. And. I have been on
[1:04:21] the front range. Off and on since the late eighty
[1:04:25] s and I've watched the development of Boulder county with.
[1:04:30] Great dismay. And. I've watched agricultural land of high quality.
[1:04:39] My background. Is plant and soil ecology. I really value
[1:04:44] the nrcs. I've watched high quality farmland get snapped up
[1:04:50] and turned into sprawl, and I realized that sprawl is
[1:04:54] also homes. But I think that we need to plan
[1:04:58] our communities. Intentionally, and I think that that's part of.
[1:05:03] What this is about and. I fully support the comprehensive
[1:05:06] plan. And keeping our cities separate from each other and
[1:05:12] retaining. Farmland and the capacity for farming. Within the county.
[1:05:20] And. We're not just about recreation. We're also about preservation,
[1:05:27] and I was thinking about the list of priority properties.
[1:05:32] If you're up for reviewing it with us again, I'd
[1:05:35] love to see it. Again. I also want to. Comment.
[1:05:41] That farmland and rangeland. Provides us with the capacity to
[1:05:47] store carbon based on how it's managed. And development, or
[1:05:52] sprawl, goes against that. Thank you. Derek. Thank you. Derek
[1:06:01] Turner. I appreciate the presentation and all of this context.
[1:06:04] I admit I had similar concerns to Tony. When just
[1:06:09] hearing this, so this has been really helpful. I guess
[1:06:13] I am a little struck with the idea that the
[1:06:15] seller of property like this at this price is rushing.
[1:06:21] To close. Is there any kind of context about. Is
[1:06:25] there another offer or somebody competing for this? Yeah, and
[1:06:29] I would say. That when this property became available, We
[1:06:35] were able to negotiate a very good price on this
[1:06:39] property. Without them turning to other offers. With this request
[1:06:44] as part of the negotiation that it closed within 60
[1:06:48] days. I think it ended. Up being a little more
[1:06:49] than that because we needed to accommodate the public process.
[1:06:53] So. That was one of the pieces of the negotiation
[1:06:56] that allowed us to get to it. Yes. So. I
[1:06:59] can't speculate on the rush at all, except that this
[1:07:01] was part of what needed to happen. And part of
[1:07:05] my comment is I think this would be a slam
[1:07:06] dunk if you had a commitment from these other communities.
[1:07:11] To contribute, and I am concerned that. Yes. I hope
[1:07:15] that their budgets are in good shape and they see
[1:07:17] the value of this property. And Janice, your comment about
[1:07:22] part of the fund. Boulder County's obligation to share the
[1:07:28] wealth. From the communities that contribute. That was something I
[1:07:32] hadn't heard before. And so that helps me understand it,
[1:07:35] because I do feel like. This as a buffer interest.
[1:07:39] It's really a Lewisville. Broomfield interest. And you're helping me
[1:07:44] understand the county's interest. Because to the extent that these
[1:07:48] communities. Can pay some of this cost, I would feel
[1:07:51] much better about it. And I will admit. Talking about
[1:07:56] the scarcity mindset after last month. Talking about. Recommending approval
[1:08:02] of this $4 million cost next year for the cardinal
[1:08:04] mill, and knowing that that could be something. That's a
[1:08:09] hole in the budget. And potentially growing every year. I
[1:08:13] appreciate your optimism with that. That's not going to affect
[1:08:16] priorities. So thanks for allowing me to ramble. I appreciate
[1:08:23] that presentation. All right, thanks, Derek and Vicky. You had
[1:08:27] one other thing. Yeah? Vicky Lawrence with Posac. Would you
[1:08:30] mind going back? One more frame, I think here. Or
[1:08:35] maybe even one more. I guess I don't see it
[1:08:38] all necessarily here. But. This area. Is part of the
[1:08:44] home territory of appear bald eagles that has been nesting
[1:08:48] in the sterns. Lake area since 2011 2012, and I've
[1:08:53] been monitoring. That pair of eagles for Boulder county, and
[1:08:57] they have moved around various reasons. There's been all kinds
[1:09:00] of things that have happened with their nest, and they've
[1:09:02] moved to several different locations, but this definitely would be
[1:09:05] included in their hunting grounds, in their territory. So the
[1:09:08] presence of prairie dogs is actually a good thing from
[1:09:12] eight bald eagles perspective. The other thing that I like
[1:09:16] about this property specifically is the connectivity. Although, of course,
[1:09:20] connectivity costs highways. And railroad tracks isn't such a problem,
[1:09:24] but across highways is somewhat problematic. Anyway, I just wanted
[1:09:29] to bring up that wildlife piece that I see that
[1:09:31] as incredibly crucial and. Beneficial to these eagles as they
[1:09:36] watch. More and more of their land and their prairie
[1:09:40] dogs get. Admittedly, bald eagles are not necessarily native to
[1:09:46] Colorado, but they're here now, and we all like them.
[1:09:52] Thanks, Vicky. Anything else? Okay, I think Tony had one
[1:09:56] more question. Tony Lewis. Green on. Melissa, you were saying
[1:10:01] that we don't know about the mineral rights yet and
[1:10:04] whether they've been severed or if they're whole. If they
[1:10:08] have been severed and we can't purchase them. There was
[1:10:13] brief mention of oiling gas. Could there be oil and
[1:10:16] gas on this property? If the mineral rights are severed
[1:10:20] and somebody else decides to drill. Yes. And that is.
[1:10:27] How am I on cancer? And that is how we
[1:10:30] have had to make some open space purchase decisions over
[1:10:33] the decades. Where? It is decided that it's more important
[1:10:37] to protect that land and the development and what we
[1:10:40] can, and then. Because typically the mineral owners. Come to
[1:10:46] the surface owners, even though they have the right to
[1:10:48] enter and drill, there are usually surface use agreements, and
[1:10:51] there are conversations, and we can help direct some of
[1:10:54] that harm. So, yes, it would be a possibility. But.
[1:11:02] That would not stop the acquisition from occurring, knowing that
[1:11:04] could be the case, because we could have an impact
[1:11:06] on how that would look. So if they were severed,
[1:11:12] could somebody do aggregate mining there? I don't have that
[1:11:16] answer. Janice does. Janice whistman. So the mineral rights? Yes.
[1:11:24] There's all kinds of mineral interest, right? Not just oil
[1:11:27] and gas. You're right. There's aggregate coal, et cetera. We
[1:11:32] have no knowledge that there's any aggregate under this piece
[1:11:34] of property. So, yes, technically. It could occur, whether it
[1:11:38] would be feasible and something that somebody would pursue. Is
[1:11:43] fairly doubtful. It's not in a string bed. Yeah. There's
[1:11:47] no streams identified nearby. Thanks. Okay, Derek. Sorry. One last
[1:11:53] question on that topic. If they have been severed, do
[1:11:56] you expect to. Negotiate a price decrease. No. Is that
[1:12:01] because. You're under contract and. That's just not. That seems
[1:12:11] like a significant interest in this area. Janice Wisman again,
[1:12:15] Melissa has negotiated an awesome price on this piece of
[1:12:18] property, and we hope that the minerals will come with
[1:12:20] it. But we knew when we were negotiating that price
[1:12:22] that they may not. Thanks, Janice. Okay. Anything else? It
[1:12:31] has been a great conversation. I think it goes beyond
[1:12:33] even. We've learned a lot. Going even beyond this purchase.
[1:12:36] So thank you, everybody. Posac and Melissa and Janice. So
[1:12:41] let's move on. I think we do have some public
[1:12:44] comment on this one. So anybody inside right here now
[1:12:49] that wants to comment on this? Yeah, come on up.
[1:12:54] And you have three minutes. And if you state your
[1:12:57] name and relatively where you live, like the city. You
[1:13:00] don't have to give us a street address or anything.
[1:13:03] Sure. I'm happy. Close to the mic. As close as
[1:13:06] you can. You're good. I'm Catherine Smith. I'm a Lewisville
[1:13:11] resident, and I am also a member. Of a group
[1:13:14] called the Louisville open space advocates. And we were formed
[1:13:20] at the time that Lewisville. Last put through its open
[1:13:24] space sales tax. And then we stayed involved. And. Basically.
[1:13:35] Advert hate for all things open space in Louisville. We
[1:13:41] are very supportive of this acquisition, and I think your
[1:13:45] conversation. Brought out a lot of the reasons that we
[1:13:48] are. Some of what I'm going to say. I think
[1:13:54] it might be useful to understand that Louisville City charter
[1:13:59] also is guiding a lot of what we are doing
[1:14:02] because it sets out the criteria for what happens with
[1:14:06] open space. And so the wildlife connectivity is something that
[1:14:13] ties directly into our city charter. The agricultural. Uses of
[1:14:20] the land is also something that ties directly into our
[1:14:23] city charter. And unfortunately, and it's interesting to me because
[1:14:28] I see this throughout Boulder county, the ecosystem services and
[1:14:33] the climate benefits. Tend not to be reflected in the
[1:14:37] legal framework that affects open space, and that's true. In
[1:14:42] Louisville also. We have already sent a letter to our
[1:14:46] city council. Encouraging them. To support financially and have suggested
[1:14:56] to them that. Based on prior acquisitions that have occurred.
[1:15:02] That at a minimum, they should contribute 25%. We will
[1:15:06] continue to lobby our city council. For. A financial contribution
[1:15:12] in that range. One thing that I think is important
[1:15:16] that hasn't been talked about a ton here is that
[1:15:19] once it's developed, it's gone. And similarly, our city charter.
[1:15:30] Recognizes the buffering, the visual buffering. That's. Part of what
[1:15:39] the property offers. But I think that the map that
[1:15:41] the city staff put together just shows how beautifully it
[1:15:45] connects to properties in Broomfield. And other east boulder properties,
[1:15:51] including properties with conservation easements on them. So it does
[1:15:55] do a lot. In that part of the county. It's
[1:15:58] a sizable chunk of land. I wanted to say, really
[1:16:02] appreciate the county's leadership in this area. Lewisville does not
[1:16:06] have a comparable staff. I am really impressed by what
[1:16:12] the county is offering. To its residents in this regard.
[1:16:18] The depth of staff is really remarkable. And is a
[1:16:22] real benefit to all of us. I wanted to thank
[1:16:25] you all for your service. To the community, and I
[1:16:30] hope you will approve it. Thank you. Thank you, Catherine,
[1:16:34] for your comments. Appreciate it. Do we have anybody else
[1:16:38] from the public in house? Here that want to comment.
[1:16:43] All right, moving on. Nick, do we have anybody online?
[1:16:47] To give a chance. For those on the zoom call.
[1:16:49] If you want to make comments, please use the raise
[1:16:51] hand feature. I'm not seeing any raised hands. All right.
[1:17:02] That's it for public comment, I guess I will mention,
[1:17:05] I think all of us read that there was one
[1:17:08] written comment in support of this. So I hope everybody
[1:17:12] saw that. I guess. Any more discussion? Comment? One last
[1:17:17] comments from postac. Tony's got to have one, Tony. Lou,
[1:17:22] I just want to thank you for the good conversation.
[1:17:27] I think there were some good questions asked and really
[1:17:30] good answers provided, and I think it helped. Educate all
[1:17:32] of us. So thank you. Me too. I learned. It
[1:17:36] looks like Janice has something. If you don't mind, Janice
[1:17:40] Wisman, I'd like to make a couple more. Comments. Melissa
[1:17:44] has described this for you and is formerly known as
[1:17:46] the schroider property. This writer family sold it. To either
[1:17:51] the current owner or the current owner bought it out
[1:17:52] of bankruptcy from the people who bought it from Schwiders.
[1:17:55] I don't remember the exact details, but the plan. Has
[1:17:58] been to develop the property. The purchase price a few
[1:18:02] years ago for this property was $5.7 million, because they
[1:18:06] were speculating they could do something with it. So there's
[1:18:08] your development pressure right there. Okay. And the awesome price
[1:18:13] that Melissa has negotiated. Good job, Melissa. Thanks, everybody. Perspective.
[1:18:21] I have a question. All right, Carol. Carol Byerly. So,
[1:18:25] just out of curiosity, why didn't you tell us that
[1:18:30] in your presentation? Are there proprietary reasons or professional reasons?
[1:18:37] Janice Whistman again, I'll say. So, having said that, We
[1:18:45] don't have eyes into the depth of that sale to
[1:18:49] be able. To. We can't see everything. And sometimes properties
[1:18:54] get sold in batches and there are things. That happen
[1:18:56] behind the scenes that you can't really see through, the
[1:18:58] deeds that get filed. And we also didn't really anticipate
[1:19:03] that. You would be. As concerned as you are or
[1:19:10] questioning about the development pressure in the area and the
[1:19:13] development pressure. I think one of you pointed out earlier.
[1:19:15] There's the CTC to the north, the tech center in
[1:19:18] Lewisville. In the area to the south, that's a lot
[1:19:21] of residential but has a lot of mixed use as
[1:19:23] well. And we're hoping that that would be adequate without
[1:19:27] having to go on too long, because we know you
[1:19:29] have other things on your agenda. We're making a decision
[1:19:32] about how much. Detail to give you. Thank you. All
[1:19:36] right. Thank you, everyone. Derek. Sorry for prolonging it. I
[1:19:40] just wanted to thank the citizen. Carolyn, thank you for.
[1:19:43] Being here and being a citizen. Bridge between. The agencies
[1:19:47] and continuing to lobby for more partnership. Janet, this is
[1:19:53] Nick. We do have. A zoom participant, Leslie Cushman, would
[1:19:59] like to make comments. Leslie, you can unmute yourself. And
[1:20:04] you can go ahead. Leslie, we can't hear you. You're
[1:20:13] still muted. There's nothing I can do on my end
[1:20:16] other than. You have to unmute yourself. Got it. There
[1:20:24] we go. We can hear you. Hi. My name is
[1:20:27] Elkman. I live in. I guess it's Longmont, Colorado, but.
[1:20:32] It's actually hygiene and just a few things. My. Family
[1:20:40] settled here in 1858. This is the cushion property, which
[1:20:42] is not adjacent to Ligerman. I noticed that in your
[1:20:46] last month's meeting, that Cushman. Was indicated to be adjacent
[1:20:52] to Lagerman. It is not. At 6.1 mile north. On
[1:20:56] North 75th Street. I also wanted to say that the
[1:20:59] castrel property. In the graphics, the. Road near it is
[1:21:06] listed as 75th Avenue, but it's North 75th street, and
[1:21:10] its address is zero. The address of Kestrel is listed
[1:21:14] as. Zero North 75th street, which, to me, I think
[1:21:19] that's the address of Cushman. Also, which is it seems
[1:21:22] like Kestrel might already be an open space property, if
[1:21:24] that's. Its address? Anyway. I've just sent you guys a
[1:21:29] very detailed email along with attachments that we have. Been
[1:21:33] in communication with the department. And the commissioners. We cherish
[1:21:41] these lands. This is our home. We want to renew
[1:21:47] and continue. Our leases. Dwayne has hay here that needs
[1:21:51] to get put up. This is his business. This has
[1:21:56] been his life's work. This is his livelihood. And I
[1:21:59] need you guys to read that email I sent, please.
[1:22:02] Every word. Thank you, Leslie. We'll look for the email.
[1:22:07] I think this was about a different topic. So we'll
[1:22:10] consider this. As you have spoke on public comments other
[1:22:14] than what are on the agenda. But thanks for those
[1:22:18] comments, and we will read the email you sent Nick.
[1:22:22] Anything else? Especially pertaining to the topic here with the
[1:22:28] gateway property acquisition. Last chance. Any more hands? Use the
[1:22:34] raise hand feature for those on zoom. I don't see
[1:22:38] any raised hands. All right. Looks like we can move.
[1:22:44] Do I have a motion? And what we're talking about
[1:22:46] doing? Is a recommendation to the Boulder County Commissioners for
[1:22:50] approval of the project as described and further described by
[1:22:54] staff at the Postac meeting. So moved. Second, I guess.
[1:23:01] Let's pick one of you. Four of them at once.
[1:23:07] Let's try it again. Will somebody make a motion? So
[1:23:10] moved. All right, we got one. We'll call Christine. How?
[1:23:13] About a second. 2nd all right, Vicky seconded it. Any
[1:23:19] discussion. I think we've had a lot, but I'll go
[1:23:22] through the motions. All right, let's go to a vote.
[1:23:24] All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? No opposed
[1:23:31] and no abstention. So it passes unanimously. And thanks again
[1:23:36] for. Everybody, all the conversation. I learned a heck of
[1:23:41] a lot, and thank you. Thank you. So let's move
[1:23:47] on. Now we're going to move on to an informational
[1:23:50] item about limber pine and Bristolcombine conversation conservation in Boulder
[1:23:56] County. Yeah, and conversations. So, Shane, if you want to
[1:24:00] come up and tell us the status of limber. And
[1:24:04] bristle cone. Tom. Yeah, I've been waiting for this. This
[1:24:08] is a good topic.
[1:24:32] Sort of horrifying, isn't it? That's what it used to
[1:24:40] look like. Good evening, Hozak members. My name is Shane.
[1:24:43] Milni. I'm with the forestry work group at parks and
[1:24:46] open space. I just want. To thank you for hearing
[1:24:50] me out tonight. This is a new area of focus
[1:24:53] for the forestry group. And we're super excited to tell
[1:24:57] you what we've been up to, and I say we,
[1:24:59] because there's two other forestry staff members that aren't here
[1:25:02] tonight, but. They have been integral in moving this program
[1:25:05] forward, and that's fellow named Dan Bilo. He's a forest
[1:25:08] technician with us and Zach Price, who is a long
[1:25:11] term employee and he's a resource senior resource special. Specialist
[1:25:16] with us. So I just want to acknowledge those fellows.
[1:25:20] All right. So before I get into the interesting stuff,
[1:25:24] I have to acknowledge that none of. This work. And
[1:25:29] knowledge that we've gained really would have been pursued if
[1:25:32] it weren't for a policy, actually, which was included in
[1:25:35] the last update to the Boulder county comp plan in
[1:25:37] the ere portion of that count plan, and it states
[1:25:40] that Boulder county will develop. Conservation and recovery plans for
[1:25:45] priority species of special concern. So in the forestry world,
[1:25:49] that turned out to be limber pine and Rocky mountain
[1:25:51] bristolcombine. And I'll probably be referring to Rocky Mountain, Bristol
[1:25:56] and pine going forward, just as bristolcomb pine. There is
[1:25:59] another species of bristlecombine. Does not occur in Colorado. What
[1:26:02] is called. A great base in Bristol cone pine. So
[1:26:07] I'll just be calling Bristol Combine and referring to Rocky
[1:26:09] Mount Briscoe mine. So these species were picked as priority
[1:26:13] species because of their high ecological value as well as
[1:26:16] the many threats that face them. So in 2020, we
[1:26:20] finished those conservation plans. This is just the front. Cover
[1:26:23] of both of those. Pretty straightforward documents. They kind of
[1:26:30] outline the story of the species, why they're important. What's
[1:26:34] threatening them. And probably the most important part of the
[1:26:37] document is what can be. Done to help. So I
[1:26:40] did write you guys a memo, and that's kind of
[1:26:42] a really abbreviated version. Of what is in this document
[1:26:46] because I don't have a ton of time here tonight.
[1:26:49] I'm going to touch on some of the highlights, some
[1:26:51] of the threats, but want to spend most of the
[1:26:53] time talking about what we've actually been doing to help
[1:26:56] conserve the species. All right, so some species highlights. These
[1:27:00] two species are similar in a lot of ways, but
[1:27:02] different. In various ways, and so we'll just kind of
[1:27:05] go through that. So these two species are in a
[1:27:12] kind of a special group amongst the pines. Among the
[1:27:16] 48 pines, true pines, that are native to North America.
[1:27:22] Only eleven are in the special group called white pines.
[1:27:25] White pines have. Their needles. All current bundles of five.
[1:27:31] So of those eleven in that white pine family, nine
[1:27:34] are in the US and Canada. And two are in
[1:27:39] Boulder county limber pine or Rocky Mountain brisket pine. So
[1:27:42] this is a bundle of five limber pine needles. Here's
[1:27:47] a picture of Rocky Mountain, Briscoe and Pine. Also, of
[1:27:50] course, needles and fives, but if you notice on the
[1:27:53] needles, they have those little white specks on them. Those
[1:27:55] are just resin specs, and it's a great way to
[1:27:57] identify that that's. In fact, what you're looking at, and
[1:28:00] not a limber pie. And then, of course, the cone
[1:28:02] there has the bristles. Another thing they have in common
[1:28:08] is that they can live in some pretty inhospitable environments.
[1:28:13] In fact, They can live where a lot of other
[1:28:17] trees just couldn't have the chance to live. And so
[1:28:20] this is a picture of a limber pine grown out
[1:28:23] of a rock at our fable property. That's a property
[1:28:25] we have near Allens Park. The other cool thing about
[1:28:30] them is they kind of reach their height of glory
[1:28:33] in the sub. Alpine and treeline environment. And this is
[1:28:38] kind of a representation of those two environments. So they
[1:28:42] kind of reach their highest ecological value at these higher
[1:28:45] elevation sites. This is actually looking in the distance, not
[1:28:50] up at tree line, just a little below that at
[1:28:52] one of our properties called. The forest property. Forest with
[1:28:56] two r's and I'll talk a little bit more. About
[1:29:00] that and why it's special. Maybe a little bit later.
[1:29:03] So at this elevation, they play a role as a
[1:29:06] foundation species and a keystone species, facilitating forest. Succession. As
[1:29:12] well as kind of holding things together, increasing biodiversity and
[1:29:15] stabilizing some of those ecosystem processes that happen in those
[1:29:18] environments. And in those environments, these trees can live to
[1:29:22] be really old. Limber pine can reach ages. Of 1000
[1:29:25] years old. And Rocky Mount Bristol pine can live to
[1:29:31] about 2000 years old. I have to say, this is
[1:29:35] not on our property. This is in Liverpie Grove and
[1:29:39] fair. Play, but it's just an example of kind of
[1:29:42] those inhospitable environments and. What a really old tree looks
[1:29:45] like. another big difference is there's seed On the far
[1:29:54] left is the seed from limberpine, the middle is from
[1:29:57] Bristol pine and on the far right. So. Is ponderosapine,
[1:30:01] and so you'll notice. The size difference. Limber pine seed
[1:30:06] is huge, and it lacks the wing that those other
[1:30:09] two have. So the wing is for wind dispersals, so
[1:30:14] that's how the seed is dispersed on. The landscape, but
[1:30:18] the limber pine doesn't have that. Some of you may
[1:30:20] know this. Is the primary disperser of lemorpine seed, the
[1:30:25] clerk's nutcracker. So very unique foraging strategy. You can see
[1:30:30] those cones. Well, so this Clark's nutcracker is sitting on
[1:30:33] a limber pine tree. This is up at Brainerd Lake,
[1:30:36] and it's in February. So those cones are open, but
[1:30:39] you can see how they're oriented on the tree. So
[1:30:42] these combs open at maturity, and that heavy seed pretty
[1:30:45] quickly drops out of the cone. So the Clark's nutcracker
[1:30:49] kind of takes advantage of this, like, two month period.
[1:30:51] Where the seed is available to them. It's a really
[1:30:55] smart bird. It knows it's a big, nutritious seed. It
[1:30:57] knows. It's not around for a long time. It wants
[1:31:00] it around for a long time, so. What it does
[1:31:02] is during that season. When the seed is dropping, it
[1:31:06] harves many seeds as it can, and it does this.
[1:31:09] By going to cones and popping these seeds into a
[1:31:12] sublingual pouch. It takes those seeds and then it distributes
[1:31:15] it to various different caches throughout its home range, and
[1:31:19] it can cash up to 100,000 seeds in a season.
[1:31:23] Over hundreds, if not thousands, of cash sites. And then
[1:31:27] what it does is it goes back. It goes back
[1:31:29] and retrieves. Those seed caches throughout the year. Inevitably, some
[1:31:35] of those go unretrived and those limber pine seeds then
[1:31:38] have the chance to germinate. And so that's why you
[1:31:40] get limber. Pine occurring in some of these odd places
[1:31:45] where you don't think trees can grow, and it kind
[1:31:47] of explains why. Its distribution is really patchy and scattered
[1:31:51] across the landscape. So. Here's a map that's included in
[1:31:59] the conservation plan. This is kind of. The potential location
[1:32:04] in the county of Limberpine and. That is. The large,
[1:32:10] light purple area, and it's pretty much the whole county
[1:32:12] or the whole western. County. What's cool about Limerpine is
[1:32:16] it can grow across a wide elevational gradient. There are
[1:32:19] limberpine that exist in the poni butts. Out at about
[1:32:23] 5300ft in elevation. And it's also the tree that defines
[1:32:28] tree lines. So wide elevational gradient and so the dark
[1:32:32] purple here are known locations, and this is not. An
[1:32:37] incomplete map. But I just want to show you that.
[1:32:43] So this is kind of where limberpine exists. Known locations.
[1:32:47] Difference between it and bristolcoat pine is this is the
[1:32:52] potential range. For bristolcombine and then that small little dot.
[1:32:58] Of dark purple is. The prism pine that occurs in
[1:33:01] the county, and that is where the forest property is.
[1:33:06] So this population sits on about 30 acres, so it's
[1:33:09] very small, and it's. Partially on the forest property, and
[1:33:12] it's partially on us forest service and what's cool about
[1:33:15] this is. This population. Is considered the northernmost extent of
[1:33:20] Rocky Mountain bristle cones range. It's so few in number
[1:33:24] that we've actually stem mapped each individual tree that exists
[1:33:28] on that forest property. All right, so that's kind of
[1:33:32] the good news. That's the cool stuff. Threats. There are
[1:33:34] many. One is mountain pine beetle. Native insect. I'm sure
[1:33:41] you've all heard of it. We're actually in an uptick
[1:33:44] of mountain pine beetle right now, so it's. Always in
[1:33:46] our forest. But when the conditions are right, when it's
[1:33:52] hot and dry and there's too. Many trees and they're
[1:33:55] stressed. in small numbers Their population numbers can swell and
[1:33:57] we can get into epidemic conditions. And limberpine in some
[1:34:03] of the literature is considered a preferred host for mountain
[1:34:06] pine beetle and in the last epidemic, we did have
[1:34:10] significant tree mortality. In limber pine populations due to mountain
[1:34:14] pine beetles. So mountain pine beetles, always a threat to
[1:34:18] these two species, limpopine more than Bristol, combine. Dwarf missile
[1:34:23] toe, also a native. Parasitic plant that we have in
[1:34:26] our forest. This is a fascinating plant. It's a parasitic
[1:34:29] plant. It's species specific. And usually it can hang out
[1:34:33] on a tree. And just slowly kill the tree. The
[1:34:36] tree can persist for decades with limberpin it's. A little
[1:34:39] bit different. It's a pretty quick killer of limberpine. I
[1:34:41] don't know why, but that's kind of something we noticed,
[1:34:43] if, you know, grassy top. All the dead trees on
[1:34:46] the top of grassy top. Those are limber and we
[1:34:48] think that that. 's from dwarf mistletoe. Oh, there's the
[1:34:54] picture of it. All right, so this is the big
[1:34:59] one. White pine, blister rest. This is a disease. Caused
[1:35:03] by. A non native fungus. Also fascinating. Just. An incredible
[1:35:12] organism. It's an indiscriminate killer. Of all white pines, actually.
[1:35:19] It can kill young trees, old trees, everything in between.
[1:35:23] Complex lifecycle, five spore stages that are carried out on
[1:35:27] the white pine and an alternate host. So the alternate
[1:35:30] hosts. Are in the ribies genus Castileja genus, as well
[1:35:38] as padicularis. genus so that's
[1:35:47] paintbrushes and laoswarts that can also be the alternate hosts
[1:35:52] so pines can't infect other pines it has to go
[1:35:55] to this alternate host to carry out its lifecycle So
[1:35:54] the picture there, those orange whitish blisters are erupting through
[1:35:59] the bark and. Within those blisters are the spores that
[1:36:03] would then go and in fact, the alternate host. So
[1:36:06] when this occurs on a branch, The tissue underneath of
[1:36:11] those blisters is killed. And this progresses down the branch,
[1:36:16] and if it gets to the main stem of the
[1:36:17] tree, it. Can girdle the tree and disrupt transport of
[1:36:21] food and nutrients up and down the tree. And that's
[1:36:22] when it kills the tree. So older trees kind of
[1:36:26] hang on a little bit longer. Young trees, it can
[1:36:28] kill them pretty. Quickly. There is some good news. Even
[1:36:32] though. It's a disease caused by a non native fungus.
[1:36:37] There is some natural resistance to the disease in our
[1:36:42] populations here in Boulder county. And there's two types of
[1:36:44] resistance there's. What's called. Complete resistance. And there's another kind
[1:36:49] called partial resistance. Complete resistance. One gene is responsible for
[1:36:55] it, and in partial resistance. It's multiple genes that give
[1:36:59] it its resistance, and you might think complete resistance is
[1:37:02] the better one. It's actually not. The fear is that
[1:37:06] virulent strains of the fungus can overcome that one gene,
[1:37:11] whereas the multiple gene, the partial resistance would be a
[1:37:14] little more. Able to, well, not be overcome by that
[1:37:18] virulent strain. Here's a picture of the rust on the
[1:37:23] ribies. Took us, like, five years to find this picture.
[1:37:31] To find it. In the wild and take the picture.
[1:37:36] So wildfire and wildfire exclusion are also threats. Wildfire because
[1:37:41] it's killing potentially. Resistant trees as well as cone bearing
[1:37:45] trees that are helping naturally regenerate these populations. Wildfire exclusion
[1:37:51] as well as a threat because. Like moss pines, limber
[1:37:55] pine, bristlecombine are considered pioneer species that quickly colonize disturb
[1:38:00] sites. Wildfires can create those disturbed sites, and with a
[1:38:04] lack of wildfire in some of those ecosystems, they don't
[1:38:09] really have sites to occupy. In a warming climate. Warming
[1:38:13] climates can increase insect populations, disease populations, and. If a
[1:38:21] warming climate happens over a long period of time, a
[1:38:23] tree's typical response is to move up in elevation and
[1:38:26] because. These trees occupy those high elevation sites, those won't
[1:38:31] have anywhere to go. So. Those are the big threats.
[1:38:37] So what can we do about it? So I have
[1:38:39] to confess, these management focus areas are not our own
[1:38:43] ideas. There was a document that came out in 2019.
[1:38:48] From some prominent researchers was called. Limberpine proactive limber pine
[1:38:55] conservation strategies for the Greater Rocky Mountain national park area
[1:38:59] which Boulder county is definitely a part of. And this
[1:39:03] document is amazing. It outlines everything that's in our conservation
[1:39:06] plan, as well as. These management focus areas. So one.
[1:39:11] Of course, if you want to conserve a species and
[1:39:13] do something with the species, you have to know where
[1:39:15] it is. So we needed to map the populations, and
[1:39:18] this proved very difficult. Because of its scattered and patchy
[1:39:21] distribution. So what we decided to do is kind of
[1:39:25] focus on fringe properties. We know that our properties between
[1:39:29] 8000 and 10,000ft. Pretty much guaranteed to have lember pine
[1:39:33] on them. So we just kind of highlighted those properties.
[1:39:37] And then we, I think, searched about 40 properties that
[1:39:40] were below 8000 and above 10,000. Just to see if
[1:39:43] there actually were limberpine there and a few showed up,
[1:39:46] so. What's in red here? 's the properties we own
[1:39:50] that limberpine is some component of those forests. So now
[1:39:56] that we know where it is, we want to set
[1:39:57] up long term monitoring plots to know the current health
[1:40:01] of what we have in our forests, as well as
[1:40:04] track future changes. And it also will help us make
[1:40:11] future management decisions, perhaps where to plant or seed limber
[1:40:15] pine. So in 2023. We set up 30 long term
[1:40:23] monitoring plots throughout the county. We tried to pick ones
[1:40:26] in the north part of the county, south part of
[1:40:28] the county, east, west. Different aspects, all kinds of things,
[1:40:32] to just get the best representation of what's going on.
[1:40:35] Out there. These plots are about a quarter acre in
[1:40:39] size, and we look at limberpine regeneration and we count
[1:40:43] those, we look at non limpopine species and collect some
[1:40:46] basic data on that. But what we really care about
[1:40:49] is the limber pines that are included in those plots.
[1:40:56] So we tag each limber pine tree, assign it a
[1:40:59] number, and then. Take kind of your basic forestry measurements
[1:41:03] about those trees and what we're really focused on. Are
[1:41:06] those big first three threats that I mentioned. So, mountain
[1:41:11] pine beetle. Or if there's present or past activity. We're
[1:41:15] noting that if there's dwarf missileto we're noting that as
[1:41:19] well as. Rating the severity of those infections, and we're
[1:41:23] doing the same with white pine blister. Us, noting its
[1:41:25] presence and then rating its severity. So we visited all
[1:41:30] those in 2023, all 30 of them. Going forward, we're
[1:41:33] doing ten a year. So after three years, we'll have.
[1:41:39] Another. Full set of data from all those 30. So
[1:41:41] in that first year, 13% of our. Well, I should
[1:41:46] say there's 1855 of these tagged limber pines. That were
[1:41:51] basically tracking individually. In the first year, 13% of those
[1:41:55] limber pines surveyed were dead. 70% of the plots had
[1:42:02] white pine blister rest, 63% had dwarf missile tow 50%
[1:42:07] had past mountain pine beetle activity. We haven't seen any
[1:42:10] current mountain pine beetle. Activity in there. So in 2024
[1:42:14] 2025, we visited ten more so. We've visited 20 since
[1:42:21] 2023 and. We haven't really noticed any new mortality. But
[1:42:28] the severity of dwarf missile to Anne white pine blister
[1:42:31] us has definitely increased. So here's just a picture of
[1:42:35] a tag on a lumber pine tree if you're ever
[1:42:37] wandering around, you see a tag with some numbers on
[1:42:39] it? We've been there. And this is some of our.
[1:42:45] Staff assessing these trees during these plot visits. And so
[1:42:48] we're getting binoculars out and literally looking at every needle
[1:42:52] cluster, every branch, to see if it has dorge. Missile
[1:42:55] tower, white pine. Blister. Rust. The rust is super hard
[1:42:58] to see. There's a very short period of time when
[1:43:01] it's actually visible to about a two month period from
[1:43:04] mid may to mid July. So it kind of takes
[1:43:09] a trained eye to see it, but once you see
[1:43:11] it, boy, it jumps out. And is very visible. Another
[1:43:18] strategy to help conserve the species to get more limber
[1:43:21] pine on the landscape. How do you do that? You
[1:43:26] need seed, I guess you could buy in limber pine
[1:43:28] and. Plant them. But we want to plant locally genetic
[1:43:31] material. So we had to learn a lot about cones
[1:43:35] and sea development. Totally fascinating, love. This part of our
[1:43:40] work. So this is a picture of limber pine cones.
[1:43:45] Collecting these cones is all about timing. If you collect
[1:43:49] them too early, the seed's not mature, and then those
[1:43:51] seeds probably aren't. Viable and won't germinate if you collect
[1:43:54] them too late. The seeds probably already dropped out of
[1:43:57] the cone and you've missed your window. So how do
[1:44:00] we know when the seed is mature? Well, you make
[1:44:02] the tool that we see. Here. Zach made this tool.
[1:44:08] It's our cone cutter. So. You literally pick cones off
[1:44:13] the trees before you think they're mature. And you use
[1:44:16] this handy tool. You slice them open, and this is
[1:44:19] what a cone looks like. After you slice it open.
[1:44:21] So this is what we call the cut face of
[1:44:23] a cone, and. Here you're looking for. If seeds are
[1:44:27] developing, if they're empty. We're looking at the number of
[1:44:30] seeds developing, so I don't know, it's. Kind of hard
[1:44:33] to tell, but some of those seeds that have kind
[1:44:35] of a white and yellow interior are developing seed. And
[1:44:39] if you have two or three, you're probably not going
[1:44:41] to collect from that tree. Or at that time, if
[1:44:43] you have seven to ten, then you're like, oh, this
[1:44:46] might be a good time, or these cones are producing
[1:44:49] seed, and so you might continue to monitor these. Populations.
[1:44:54] If you want to get really fast, you cut them
[1:44:56] open, you put them under a scope. This allows you
[1:44:59] to better determine if they're mature or not, so that
[1:45:02] in the very middle of that seed that's been cut
[1:45:04] open is kind of a yellow. Thing. That is the
[1:45:09] embryo. So we are looking to see. That embryo. Elongate
[1:45:14] to 85% of the cavity that it sits in, and
[1:45:18] when it hits that point. You know that if you
[1:45:19] collect that seed and you dry it right and do
[1:45:22] some other things right, that it will germinate and be
[1:45:25] viable. If you know it's ready to go, you get
[1:45:29] your pole pruners out and. You start collecting cones. So
[1:45:32] this is a picture. Of Zach and Dan doing that.
[1:45:37] They're up at Cardinal Mill site. That's one of our
[1:45:40] properties that has a ton of limber pine, and this
[1:45:43] was a good coneyear. Not every year is a good
[1:45:45] con year, so scouting for cones is something. We're doing
[1:45:49] quite a bit of. This was the fruits of the
[1:45:53] labor that day. So this is about a bushel and
[1:45:56] a half of limber pine cones that we got from
[1:45:59] Cardinal mill site. You bring those cones back, we put
[1:46:03] them in a burlap sack, and you got to. Let
[1:46:04] them dry out a little bit because they do open
[1:46:06] on their own. And it takes about a couple of
[1:46:10] months. And so we turn them, rotate them so they
[1:46:13] don't get mold on them. And then you start getting
[1:46:17] the seed out of them. So this is kind of
[1:46:18] a rough, clean. You can see there's seed, but there's
[1:46:21] a lot of cone parts in there. As well. You
[1:46:23] don't really want to put this stuff into long term
[1:46:26] storage if it has all that other material in there
[1:46:28] you kind of want pure seed. Limber pine seed collected
[1:46:33] since 2023 140,000 limber pine seed that we have on
[1:46:39] hand. And for Rocky Mountain bristlecombine, we have about 2000
[1:46:43] seeds that we've. Collected from cones. Then once you clean
[1:46:53] the cones really well, you let some moisture come off
[1:46:55] of them, and then. We put them into storage. So
[1:46:59] this is a freezer that we have, and this is
[1:47:01] where we store our seed? Some of the seed will
[1:47:03] just be archived for. Just having that genetic material in
[1:47:09] storage to be able to use. And some of it
[1:47:12] we do. Other things with. So another part of getting
[1:47:17] more limber pine seed on the landscape is to direct
[1:47:21] seed it. Literally putting seed in the ground and hoping
[1:47:24] it germinates. And out planting. So instead of putting seed
[1:47:28] in, you grow out the seed into seedlings and you
[1:47:31] plant that? So we did a lot of direct seating.
[1:47:37] Since 2003, we've direct seated 32,500 seeds on four different
[1:47:43] properties over about eight acres. And what we're basically trying
[1:47:46] to do here is mimic what the clerks does by
[1:47:48] making a little hole, caching seven to ten seeds. Covering
[1:47:53] them up and hoping that they germinate. These two did
[1:47:56] germinate. So this direct seating has a horrible success rate,
[1:48:02] okay? After five years. It's about 2% survival rate. A
[1:48:10] lot of things can happen to this seed. A lot
[1:48:13] of it gets pilfered by. Small mammals. In fact, on
[1:48:15] some of our seating events, They follow us. And we
[1:48:20] also put nurse object around. These seed caches to kind
[1:48:25] of give them a better chance to survive. And I
[1:48:27] think the critters are picking up on our nurse objects.
[1:48:32] This is cool. This was at Reynolds Ranch. We direct
[1:48:39] seated in the fall. And this was a picture taken.
[1:48:42] This June 12. So this is like a little cash.
[1:48:46] You can still see the seed coats on. Top. They're
[1:48:48] about to bust out and hopefully. They'll survive. So probably
[1:48:57] not going to do a lot of direct seating. Because
[1:49:00] the tax rate is so small. We are, however, putting
[1:49:04] a lot of energy into outplanting seedlings, so this is
[1:49:07] a picture of some of our seed that was being
[1:49:10] grown out. At new mexico state university. They've got an
[1:49:15] amazing nursery and produced quality seedlings, and so we went
[1:49:18] with them. For this crop. We grew out 1000. And
[1:49:24] we planted. Last year. Just over 1000 seedlings at Caribou,
[1:49:30] Sherwood and at Reynolds. We've got another 1000 seedlings actually
[1:49:35] being grown at a private nursery called one canopy. That
[1:49:38] we're going to be planting this fall. And then another
[1:49:42] thousand ceilings ready to well, at a nursery that we're
[1:49:45] going to plan. 2026. This is Dan. Dan has been
[1:49:52] instrumental in learning about our seed, establishing relationships with nurseries
[1:49:59] and trying to get us the best seedlings that we
[1:50:01] can have. So this was on a volunteer project? At
[1:50:05] Sherwood. And he's just so happy to be planning a
[1:50:09] tree. And then. We use volunteers quite a bit. We
[1:50:13] use volunteers for direct seating. Seed cleaning actually carries Simo.
[1:50:17] One of our planet ecologists was kind enough to. Lend
[1:50:20] us her robust team of seed cleaners, and they cleaned
[1:50:23] a bunch of that seed for us. And here's a
[1:50:25] group we had out. Helping us plant. Seedlings at Sherwood.
[1:50:32] So that's kind of what we've been up to since
[1:50:34] 2020. And. Where we're going forward, we're going to continue
[1:50:40] the long term monitoring plots of course. We're going to
[1:50:44] continue Cobb collecting. We'll continue out planting. Maybe a little
[1:50:49] direct seating. We're going to fine tune how we collect
[1:50:53] these cones. We overcollected 140,000. Seeds. I don't know if
[1:50:57] that sounds like high number to you, but that's a
[1:50:59] lot of seed, so we're going to be more selective
[1:51:02] with what we. Collect. We're going to be collecting from
[1:51:07] individual trees. And being able to trace that seed to
[1:51:12] that individual tree, and hopefully. There's rust resistant trials that
[1:51:17] come up every now and again, usually through the federal
[1:51:19] government. And if you have the seed ready and. You've
[1:51:24] mapped it, you can submit that seed to these rust
[1:51:26] resistant trials. And so we want to try to get
[1:51:28] in on that, and the only way to do that
[1:51:30] is to start. Collecting from individual trees. We want to
[1:51:34] move this around. So. We're discussing. Seed transfer and how
[1:51:42] we want to do that. One big thing we're actually
[1:51:45] going to try. That may be controversial. But is to
[1:51:51] try to plant limberpine in the Highle Valley ranch or
[1:51:54] in the Cowwood fire footprint at Highlevel Valley Ranch. Like
[1:51:58] I said, it's a species. That can live from 5000ft
[1:52:01] to 12,000ft. So why not try? To not reforest hill,
[1:52:08] but. Maybe a little trial of 100 ceilings or so.
[1:52:12] At highle, where ponderous opine really isn't self regenerating. So
[1:52:18] that's something we're going to try this fall. Follow it,
[1:52:21] of course, and. See how that goes. And the other
[1:52:24] thing we're going to do as well as we're going
[1:52:26] to start climbing trees to collect cones. The best cones
[1:52:29] are usually in the top third of the tree. With
[1:52:31] those pull pruners. It's hard to get up 30, 40ft
[1:52:35] with those. So Zach and Dan are climbers and are
[1:52:38] going to be climbing trees. In a couple of weeks
[1:52:42] here to get cones. That's kind of all I got.
[1:52:49] All right. Thank you. Thank you, Shane. Great information. Maybe
[1:52:55] you need to train some of those Clark's nutcrackers to
[1:52:57] get those. Top. Yeah, we want to. That's probably the
[1:53:00] ones they're getting. We want to. Turn our shop into
[1:53:03] a breeding ground for Clark's. There you go. Two things
[1:53:08] at once. All right. Thanks again. Looks like Vicky's already.
[1:53:12] She's jamming at the bit. Fabulous. Thank you so. Much.
[1:53:15] This is so interesting to me, being more ecological minded,
[1:53:19] but I have a couple of questions. Well, one. Why
[1:53:21] don't you just follow the Clark's Nutcrackers and. See where
[1:53:23] they're cashing and go collect from their caches like the
[1:53:26] little rodents. Do. That's a little bit tongue in cheek,
[1:53:30] but maybe not. Ridiculous. So my question is about your
[1:53:35] seed collecting and growing and then replanting. Are you checking?
[1:53:39] The genetics of the seeds to determine if they are
[1:53:42] partially or completely rushed, resistant. And the second part of
[1:53:48] that question is. What is your rate of success with
[1:53:52] planting seedlings over a couple of years? Do you have
[1:53:55] that information yet? Yes. So definitely, we want to get
[1:54:00] in on these rest resistant trials. We do know that.
[1:54:05] And I don't know who found this out, but the
[1:54:07] complete resistance. That one gene that's responsible for it. In
[1:54:13] these local Boulder county populations, it's as high as 20%.
[1:54:17] So two out of ten trees could have this complete
[1:54:19] resistance. Not much is known about the partial resistance, the
[1:54:24] one we really want to try to find. So, yes,
[1:54:27] we are very much pursuing, trying to find that out.
[1:54:31] So. It's only been one year since we've outplanted, and
[1:54:37] we have. A volunteer who actually lives up near Sherwood,
[1:54:40] caribou, and is going out in the spring. And the
[1:54:43] fall and looking at every single tree. Is it desert?
[1:54:46] Is it alive? Or does it. Have other issues. That
[1:54:49] came back. Our most recent data was 85% survival and
[1:54:53] just a little bit higher at Reynolds, so. That's really
[1:54:57] good. Better than 2%. Way better than 2%. You can
[1:55:00] see why. We're going to spend more of our time
[1:55:01] out planting. I should also say that. The real test
[1:55:07] is after three, four, five years to see what those
[1:55:09] percentages are. So I can't wait to see. If they'll
[1:55:13] stay up in the think would still be pretty darn
[1:55:17] good. Yeah. Excellent. Thank you. Trace, as you mentioned, climbing
[1:55:25] the trees. Are they going to be climbing with protection?
[1:55:31] You mean ropes and helmets and all that? Yeah, absolutely.
[1:55:36] Then do they get credit for the first descent? I'll
[1:55:39] tell them you said that, because. Awards coming. All
[1:55:49] right. Anything else? Oh, Christine. Christine Johnson. Posack. So, I
[1:55:54] noticed that the presentation was about. Bristol cone. And penis
[1:56:00] flexalus and that you focused almost entirely on the limber
[1:56:05] pine. Is there any plan? To do conservation. On Bristol
[1:56:12] cone pine. So we do know that we don't have
[1:56:16] white pine blister rust currently in that population, which is
[1:56:20] great. We have collected seed. We're a little hesitant with
[1:56:27] what to do with that seed. Because it's the northernmost
[1:56:31] extent. Do you try to bump it further north? Do
[1:56:35] you try to bump it down in elevation? Right now
[1:56:38] we're just archiving it so that. We have some. So.
[1:56:44] Yeah, it's just a unique little population that. We definitely
[1:56:49] want to monitor. But other than that, I'm not quite
[1:56:53] sure what we'll do. All right.
[1:57:02] Vicky. Vicky Posak again. So is there any thought. That
[1:57:06] with climate change, the bristlecomb pine should move further north.
[1:57:11] Yeah, you would fully expect that. And every time we're
[1:57:13] up there, we're like, there's got to be more bristlecomb
[1:57:15] pine up here. Why is it just staying? Right in
[1:57:17] this location. You'll find it in Estpark. But that was
[1:57:24] planted there by somebody not naturally occurring, but, yeah, I
[1:57:28] would fully expect that. In many decades or centuries, perhaps,
[1:57:33] but, yeah, that's kind of what you would expect to
[1:57:36] happen with warming climate. You're not inclined to push that
[1:57:40] forward by moving some of them. North yourself? I don't
[1:57:44] know. Personally, I don't know. How I feel about that.
[1:57:50] Now, we did ask one of the authors of that
[1:57:52] 2019. Conservation strategy. Said, try it. And she also gave
[1:57:59] the blessing for what we're going to do with limber
[1:58:01] pine. By bringing them down to highle, you usually don't
[1:58:05] bring seed down. You can take it up a little
[1:58:08] bit, but usually it'll bring it down. But she's like,
[1:58:11] why not? So we might throw Bristol cone pine into
[1:58:15] the mix one of these days. But more conversations need
[1:58:19] to be had for sure. So following up on that.
[1:58:25] Is before you move Bristol cone north. Wouldn't it be
[1:58:29] good to have a conversation with Rocky Mountain National park
[1:58:32] and whether I know, when it comes to mammals, they
[1:58:35] have some concerns about what they consider native and what
[1:58:38] they consider not native to the park. So just a
[1:58:42] thought on that. Yeah, I've got big hesitation with moving
[1:58:45] the bristle column are the bristle cones. Kind of the
[1:58:49] front range of Colorado. Are there some on the west
[1:58:52] slope? I do not think they occur on the west
[1:58:56] slope. Okay, so this would be the front. This would
[1:58:58] be the front line in Colorado and everywhere, okay? Thanks.
[1:59:06] All right. So thank you for that. We really appreciate
[1:59:11] it. That was a good break. Yeah, it was great.
[1:59:15] So we don't have a whole lot of time left,
[1:59:17] but I want to check in. With everybody. Do we
[1:59:19] want to take a quick five minute break? Or should
[1:59:22] we just plow forward? All right, let's plow forward. Sounds
[1:59:26] good. Okay, next agenda item is public comment for items
[1:59:31] not on the agenda, which we've already had a couple
[1:59:34] of do we have. Anybody? Anybody here that wants to
[1:59:38] say anything? I don't see anybody inside. How about. Do
[1:59:42] we have anybody online? Give us a second. For those
[1:59:45] on zoom, call if you'd like to make comments, please.
[1:59:48] Use the Raise hand feature so we can call on
[1:59:50] you. I don't see any raised hands. All right. Thank
[1:59:56] you. Let's move on to postac members comment period for
[2:00:01] items not in the agenda. Do we have anybody? Yes,
[2:00:05] Christine. Christine Johnson Posak. This comment is spurred by the
[2:00:13] letter that we received from Mark Gutridge. And I want
[2:00:18] to express that. I also am disappointed. I feel like.
[2:00:26] In the process of developing a weed management. Policy.
[2:00:37] That. I had the tendency to. Try to give them
[2:00:42] the benefit of the doubt. And if you recall, I
[2:00:48] believe that I suggested a graduated. Decrease in the herbicide
[2:00:52] use. When we were talking about the weed management plan
[2:00:57] last year, scaling down. Toward that 50% reduction. And part
[2:01:03] of my concern was that. As Mark expressed in his
[2:01:09] letter. I was concerned that. The county was going to,
[2:01:15] during this period of decreasing that they were going to
[2:01:18] try to clear their slate of what they wanted to
[2:01:22] spray. And that there would be increased spraying after the
[2:01:28] adoption of the plan. In a ramp up toward that
[2:01:32] 50% reduction, and I feel that. It goes against the
[2:01:40] public goodwill. That I feel that. The county garnered. When
[2:01:49] they worked on that plan. So I'm disappointed, and I
[2:01:54] feel like it violates the spirit. Of. The plan. In
[2:02:00] general. I defer to the county, I defer to the
[2:02:03] staff, I defer to the weed experts and the ecologists.
[2:02:06] I respect their expertise. I don't really ever talk about
[2:02:15] it. I also have a background in ecology. And I've
[2:02:21] been concerned about lack of nuance in the. Counties. Weed
[2:02:27] management. I watch. Speaking of some of.
[2:02:38] The weed management that I've seen elsewhere outside of the
[2:02:42] county, and some of the discussion that I've gotten to
[2:02:45] engage in. One area is that I'm a native plant
[2:02:50] master. I am getting trained. To be an instructor in
[2:02:57] that program because the program in Boulder county has kind
[2:03:00] of withered. Away, and I have been in Rapaho county
[2:03:05] assisting with a native grass course. And one thing that's
[2:03:10] really interesting about. The grass course within the native Plant
[2:03:14] Master program is that as opposed to folks who appreciate.
[2:03:20] Wildflowers. It's mostly land managers and. There's really, really good
[2:03:27] discussion within that program about pesticides, particularly with grasses and
[2:03:32] reguvra. In particular has come up. I've also had some
[2:03:38] discussion with an ecologist at the high planes environmental. Hpec.
[2:03:43] I can't remember what the c stands for. And. A
[2:03:52] lot of the conversation has been about concentration of Rejuvena.
[2:03:57] And being careful about. The concentration that's applied in order
[2:04:03] to be able to recede and grow things. And again,
[2:04:08] thoughtful, nuanced conversation about. Restoration. I'm not sure that I
[2:04:15] feel like. There is nuance in what is going on.
[2:04:23] In boulder county. I also feel like we haven't gotten
[2:04:28] adequate updates regarding biocontrol. I want to mention that I'm
[2:04:33] working. With volunteers on a Bumblebee Atlas project for. Again.
[2:04:43] I want to say that I think that there is
[2:04:44] a lot of nuance in restoration in this kind of
[2:04:48] work. And there's nuance with insects and noxious weeds and
[2:04:54] native plants. Especially. As concerns native bees. Most of the
[2:05:00] native bees in Colorado are ground nesting. We are aware
[2:05:04] that rejuvenate does open up ground nesting sites when it's
[2:05:09] applied. To treat grass. But what else are we doing
[2:05:16] in Boulder county to manage habitat and forage for native
[2:05:21] bees? It's not just about nesting. And I feel like.
[2:05:28] The access to the ground is a little bit of
[2:05:30] a beard for. Spraying when access to ground nesting is
[2:05:37] the only thing that we're talking about with the insects.
[2:05:42] I'm aware that native. Bees. Often. Use. Some of the
[2:05:49] noxious weeds as forage. It's really nuanced. It's complicated. Lupidopter
[2:05:56] are a little bit different. And it's been interesting with
[2:06:00] the Bumblebee monitoring that we've been doing. We're seeing some
[2:06:04] use of some of the noxious weeds, and I hate
[2:06:08] telling you. That? Because. I don't particularly like the weeds.
[2:06:17] It's also in some of the research that I've seen
[2:06:21] from entomologists. Coming out. That's not the be all and
[2:06:24] end all. It doesn't mean that. I am pro weed.
[2:06:29] I'm pro. Keeping the weeds. It's just that with biocontrol.
[2:06:35] There's a little bit more of a coexisting, and insects
[2:06:38] are able to use some of those things as they're
[2:06:41] fading away. The pesticide approval.
[2:06:53] Process. Doesn't really look at health and reproduction, and it
[2:06:58] isn't using the diversity of the insects that we have
[2:07:02] here. So I just like to go on the record.
[2:07:06] Thanks. Christine. I noted the letter, too, that Mark Gutridge
[2:07:13] did, and I think it's appropriate, maybe. To get a
[2:07:16] response from staff. Or for. One question I have is,
[2:07:22] when do we get our annual reports? Is there going
[2:07:23] to be a presentation to post that because there seems
[2:07:26] to be the interest or isn't just on the website.
[2:07:31] So that's one question I have. And what you might
[2:07:34] do is you might address. I went back after reading
[2:07:36] this letter this afternoon. And looked at the plan that
[2:07:39] we approved, and you might go over goal one. And
[2:07:45] remind us what is the actual herbicide reduction that we
[2:07:48] approved in the plan. Just to clarify it and relate
[2:07:53] it to maybe goal two and how that might not
[2:07:56] be linear. So if you could do that, Stefan, and
[2:07:59] anything else you think is pertinent, it'd. Be great. All
[2:08:03] right. Thank you, Stefan Reynold. Deputy director of Land stewardship.
[2:08:10] Give me a second here. I get this mic, right?
[2:08:13] So, got a few different answers, but. We obviously received
[2:08:18] the letter as well and kind of reviewed and looked
[2:08:21] at the letter, and so I'm going to kind of
[2:08:23] give an overall. Response. So, first off, the integrated weed
[2:08:29] management plan wasn't signed until November of 2024. So I
[2:08:34] just want to remind her that we didn't get started
[2:08:36] on the process until. Then. And so we haven't even
[2:08:40] had a full year under our belt. And so. In
[2:08:46] terms of. The reporting. Our goal is actually to come
[2:08:49] back in the third quarter here. The third quarter. And
[2:08:56] give a presentation to post act, but also then to
[2:08:58] the commissioners. We actually were asked by Jana to do
[2:09:02] so, and so that's kind of our timing. In terms
[2:09:05] of. Mark made some comments about. An increase in herbicide
[2:09:13] usage. And really what you're seeing. Is the reporting has
[2:09:18] changed. So we used to report whenever we were doing
[2:09:21] treatments on open, open. Space because we wanted to make
[2:09:25] sure the public, when they're visiting our properties, knew that.
[2:09:29] There was herbicide that had been sprayed. And so as
[2:09:32] a part of kind of being more transparent. We actually
[2:09:36] increased and are reporting on all of. Our spraying of
[2:09:40] herbicide, and so that's why those numbers went up. Seems
[2:09:43] like this. Mic is cracking. Sorry. So we also understand
[2:09:49] mark made some comments about water contamination and. We follow
[2:09:55] all the labels and all the laws, and we are
[2:09:58] trying to minimize our use around water. But when we
[2:10:02] have list a species to deal with. Again, we talked
[2:10:06] about this in the plan, and that was what was
[2:10:08] approved by PosAc. And also by the commissioners that for
[2:10:12] list a species. That is one of our viable usages.
[2:10:18] We also have a. We are working on finalizing our
[2:10:22] parameters on testing. Water. So looking at some areas where
[2:10:27] we are spraying herbicides and testing the water in that
[2:10:31] area. And kind of using transec methods to look how
[2:10:35] far outside of where we sprayed and see if there's
[2:10:38] movement of the herbicides. So up to this point, this
[2:10:43] year, We actually have sprayed herbicide on less than 131
[2:10:49] acres. Out of our 30,000 acres that we're focused on.
[2:10:54] So going back to Christine, your questions, one of the
[2:10:57] things we're looking at, right. And that we got approved
[2:11:00] from Postac and the commissioners is we have a roughly
[2:11:04] 3000 acres of cheek areas that have high infestations of
[2:11:09] chee grass. And so you're right. We are going to
[2:11:12] have to increase our spraying. To do that, but as
[2:11:16] we noted during the whole process, When we spray cheekgrass,
[2:11:20] it usually is a one time spray. And so the
[2:11:24] goal is to get that 3000 acres under control over
[2:11:28] this time frame and reduce our usage when we hit
[2:11:31] our 2030 mark. And so. That is the goal. And
[2:11:35] once we get that to that level, then we can
[2:11:38] do spot treatments. To maintain. Our control of Cheegrass. So
[2:11:44] that's what you all approved in the plan. And that
[2:11:46] is what we are implementing at this point. One other
[2:11:50] just piece to note, and this kind of goes to
[2:11:52] the restoration side of things. So we told you that
[2:11:56] we had been collecting a lot of data. And we
[2:11:59] were collecting data on. The increase in native species post
[2:12:04] treatment with Rajivra. And we are also looking at the
[2:12:10] mule deer winner range and the brows on the plants.
[2:12:14] Well, that data has been utilized by researchers, and both
[2:12:18] of those are going to actually be. In articles in
[2:12:21] restoration ecology coming up soon. So again, we're doing everything
[2:12:25] that was asked in the plan. It's going to take
[2:12:29] time for us to see some of the results. So
[2:12:33] I hope that answers most of the questions. Thanks, Stefan.
[2:12:37] Thank you. Just one question here. Am I right? When
[2:12:41] I looked at goal one, it says the goal is
[2:12:44] to reduce herbicide. Applications by 50% by 2030. Not to
[2:12:50] eliminate it, but reduce it by 50%. Yeah. And that's
[2:12:53] correct. And it's tied to our acreage. Use. Yeah. And
[2:13:00] then you said it might not be linear, so it
[2:13:01] might not be a linear line between. Now. And 2030.
[2:13:06] Yeah, that's correct. And again, that's all tied to the
[2:13:09] controlling of gGrass. Okay, great. Yeah, thank you for that.
[2:13:15] Any more questions or comments? Why Stefan's up here. All
[2:13:20] right, great. Thank you. So we'll see something in October,
[2:13:23] November, December, January 4. Yes. All right. Thank you. Great.
[2:13:28] Anymore. No. All right. So, looks like Teresa you're up
[2:13:35] with. The director's update.
[2:13:45] Good evening. Therese Gloaki, director of parks and open space.
[2:13:53] I don't have too many. I have a few things
[2:13:56] for you, though. But I first. Did want to start
[2:13:58] with a couple of things. One, thank you to Shane
[2:14:00] for that amazing presentation. And I think that Shane is
[2:14:05] a good example of the dedication of the staff that
[2:14:08] we have. That is trying to do latest and greatest
[2:14:10] science and management implementing on the ground by getting the
[2:14:15] trees planted. And as you have seen in so many
[2:14:18] of our other disciplines, our wildlife biologists, with beaver dam.
[2:14:24] Analogs. And protection of prebbles metal jumping mouse and growing
[2:14:30] out red belly dais. We really are trying our best
[2:14:34] to be on the cutting edge of what is the
[2:14:38] right thing to do. For the environment out here. And.
[2:14:42] That's true. Up and down. Our whole organization. So I
[2:14:46] just wanted to say thank you to Shane and to
[2:14:49] say that we do understand, so. Much of the nuance.
[2:14:52] And we are trying with latest greatest to really do
[2:14:55] the right thing. And a couple of my updates. Kind
[2:14:59] of touch on that a little bit. Colorado Parks and
[2:15:01] wildlife is launching a beaver management strategy in Boulder county
[2:15:06] parks. Open space is going to be a partner right
[2:15:08] along with them. As you've seen in other presentations, we
[2:15:12] have implemented, we've installed beaver dam analogs. So in our
[2:15:16] creek restoration, we are trying to replicate what beavers do,
[2:15:19] and with the hope that beavers will come out and
[2:15:22] start using those places. We've done beaver relocation. In the
[2:15:26] past. And we are trying to improve areas again up
[2:15:32] in the high country, like in Caribou. Ranch. Where we're
[2:15:36] trying to improve the habitat, not necessarily with the beaverdam
[2:15:40] analog, but to assure that beavers can make their way
[2:15:43] back there. Anyway, we're looking forward to that. Again, latest
[2:15:48] greatest science. There is also this September end of September,
[2:15:52] early October. The Society for Ecological Restoration. It's a national
[2:15:56] society. They are having their conference in Denver and Boulder
[2:16:00] county parks and open space is going to be one
[2:16:02] of the field trips. And we are taking them out
[2:16:06] to see some of our restoration. I believe our field
[2:16:08] trip is going to be on the St. Brain Creek
[2:16:10] restoration, basically. Longmont two lions after the flood with our
[2:16:15] prebbles. And red belly dais and widening the floodplain. So
[2:16:22] good stuff. If anyone is interested in, has free time
[2:16:25] and wants to attend that conference. I think that it
[2:16:28] is great. I've only been to one. But could be
[2:16:32] very interesting. I also understand it's not the cheapest conference,
[2:16:35] so we understand. If you don't make it. So, other
[2:16:40] updates. Range view. That's the property that you approved recently.
[2:16:46] It was the property up on Gunboro Hill proposed for
[2:16:48] a tennis facility. We are closing on it. The goal
[2:16:52] was get it closed by July 31. We're closing. At
[2:16:55] it on July 30. So just under the wire. We'll
[2:16:59] have plenty of time. We have selected a contractor for
[2:17:04] the southwest. Trailhead and trail for prairie run. So we're
[2:17:11] very excited. They came in at a pretty decent price.
[2:17:14] We had four bids. On the project. So we got
[2:17:17] competitive bids, and we are going to be starting that
[2:17:21] contract as soon as we make it through all the
[2:17:22] paperwork. And Boulder county has a goal. We as a
[2:17:27] county did a disparity study and what that basically looked
[2:17:30] at is, who are we contracting? And are our contractors
[2:17:35] representative of the contracting world as a whole. For diversity,
[2:17:40] equity and inclusion, primarily women and minority owned businesses. And
[2:17:45] we found that we are hiring contractors at 13% that
[2:17:51] are women and minority owned. And the population of contractors
[2:17:54] out there is 25%. So the county as a whole
[2:17:57] has a goal of increasing who we contract with and
[2:18:01] our prairie. Run project was the test case for the
[2:18:05] county. So again, pioneers. We're the first one. To say,
[2:18:08] okay, how can we set some goals and targets and
[2:18:11] assure that our contractors are really representative of the contracting
[2:18:15] pool. So we are also doing the same thing. We've
[2:18:20] got some trail resurfacing on the Lobo trail, so that's.
[2:18:24] Also going to take women and minority owned businesses into
[2:18:27] account. Then a few projects you might see as you
[2:18:31] drive by out there or you want to go. To
[2:18:33] your favorite spot, Legion park. We are resurfacing the parking
[2:18:37] up there so that's going to be closed for a
[2:18:40] little while. Lagerman is a much bigger upgrade. This has
[2:18:44] been on our list for. I can't even count. Probably
[2:18:47] five or six. Years, we finally have the time and
[2:18:50] the resources and are implementing that. And it's a six
[2:18:53] month closure for the Lagerman parking lot. You can still
[2:18:56] use the trail. You can. Park along. Oxford road there.
[2:19:00] But Loggerman is going to be closed, and surprisingly, I
[2:19:03] have not heard a whole lot of pushback from it.
[2:19:07] Closed a week or two ago, so people are adjusting.
[2:19:11] On July 31 is World Ranger Day. So if you
[2:19:16] see a ranger out there, tell them thank you for
[2:19:18] all the hard work that they do. And then we
[2:19:23] have. One. Somewhat big news, but it's not official yet.
[2:19:31] And this goes back to Derek and Tony's often raised
[2:19:34] questions. What's our long term goal? How much money do
[2:19:37] we have? The county commissioners are considering the potential of
[2:19:42] putting on the ballot this year as a commemoration for
[2:19:46] our 50th anniversary. Extending. The zero point 15% sales tax,
[2:19:52] one of our four existing sales taxes. It is zero
[2:19:57] point 15%, which in today's dollars brings in about 15
[2:20:01] million. And it expires in 2030, so. They are acting
[2:20:07] proactively. We have seen good results by our neighbors. Or
[2:20:14] municipalities city belong on just extended airs. This would be
[2:20:18] in perpetuity. City of long much is extended. There is.
[2:20:22] Perpetuity St. Frane left Hand Conservation District. Just extended theirs
[2:20:26] in perpetuity. So keep your eyes out. We may be
[2:20:32] asking your support for that ballot initiative if they do
[2:20:36] approve it. If they approve it, it'd be August 13.
[2:20:40] August 13? So keep your eye out for that. And
[2:20:45] that is all I have. Any questions? Teresa, you're going
[2:20:50] to give us a little newspaper thing about the I
[2:20:54] was and they're there. Vivian brought them for you. So
[2:20:58] this again. We are still. Just past halfway of our
[2:21:05] 50th anniversary, and this came out in the daily camera.
[2:21:08] It's also available online. It is in the camera online.
[2:21:14] And I have to thank Vivian Janipore because this was
[2:21:17] really her project. And you'll see. It certainly highlights some
[2:21:23] of the many things parks and if a space does.
[2:21:25] But it's a wonderful way to celebrate 50 years. Thank
[2:21:28] you for the reminder. Otherwise I would have been sitting
[2:21:30] there tomorrow morning. All right. Well, thanks. Great stuff. With
[2:21:38] that. No more questions. We will adjourn the meeting. Thank
[2:21:41] you, everyone.