[0:01] Good evening everyone and welcome to the

[0:04] October 23rd,

[0:06] 2025 meeting of the Boulder County Parks

[0:10] and Open Space Committee. My name is

[0:13] Janet George and I'll be chairing the

[0:14] meeting tonight and we got a pretty good

[0:18] size agenda here. We have six

[0:20] presentations

[0:21] and we have four that we will need to

[0:24] have a recommendation for the

[0:25] commissioners and two are informational

[0:28] and there'll be an opportunity for the

[0:29] public to comment on each agenda item or

[0:33] each of the presentations

[0:35] and then at um towards the end the

[0:37] public has a comment period for items

[0:40] not on the agenda. Um so we'll start

[0:44] with call to order and then roll call.

[0:48] Trace Baker,

[0:49] present.

[0:50] Carol Berley,

[0:52] present.

[0:52] Janet George, present. Christine

[0:54] Johnson,

[0:55] here.

[0:56] Vicky Lawrence,

[0:58] present.

[0:59] Tony Lewis is absent or excused.

[1:02] Joan Lutz

[1:03] here.

[1:05] Derek Turner should be here in about 15

[1:07] minutes.

[1:09] And John White

[1:10] here.

[1:12] All right. Thanks everyone. Next agenda

[1:14] item is approval of last month's

[1:16] minutes. And good job, Renata. Another

[1:19] great

[1:21] um detailed set of minutes. Um does

[1:23] anybody have any discussions? Carol um

[1:27] Carol Berly Posac. I'm going to put in

[1:30] my periodic complaint about um acronyms.

[1:34] And um as a historian, somebody would

[1:36] come back and look at these minutes, you

[1:38] know, decades from now. They would have

[1:40] no idea what some of these programs

[1:42] were.

[1:43] So, um, in fact, well, I'm here, right?

[1:45] And I didn't know what POS E TBA was and

[1:51] then I it TB. Anyway, so I would suggest

[1:55] that, um, first time we mentioned

[1:57] things, uh, write them out. Um, and, um,

[2:01] sorry to interrupt. We're having a

[2:03] slight technical difficulties with the

[2:05] online. So, um, we're just going to have

[2:07] you hold on just one second while we can

[2:09] get this sorted.

[2:12] All right, we're on the approval of last

[2:14] month's minutes and Carol Berley was

[2:18] saying something. She had about

[2:20] I was um having my um semianual

[2:24] complaint about u acronyms and said that

[2:28] as a historian and if I was coming back

[2:30] several years or decade later read these

[2:32] minutes, I wouldn't know what the

[2:34] organizations were. um and that even

[2:37] today I should know and I didn't know

[2:40] what POSITBA

[2:42] was. Um so I would just request that the

[2:46] first time um a department is mentioned

[2:49] that it be written out um for for

[2:52] posterity if if not um for us. So that

[2:59] is my request. Thank you.

[3:01] Thanks Carol. Good request. Good point.

[3:04] Yes, John. Do you care about knits like

[3:07] misspelling?

[3:09] You can bring that up.

[3:10] Okay. The uh uh stringent is misspelled

[3:14] in the third paragraph under wild

[3:16] wildlife mitigation.

[3:19] I don't have anything substantive like

[3:21] Carol did.

[3:23] Okay.

[3:25] All right. Anyone else on the minutes?

[3:29] Okay. Do we have a motion to approve the

[3:32] minutes with acronyms spelled out the

[3:35] first time and a correction to the

[3:38] spelling?

[3:38] So moved.

[3:40] A second. Got a second. Who seconded?

[3:43] John.

[3:43] Okay. Thanks, John. Um, let's do a vote.

[3:46] All in favor say I. I.

[3:48] I.

[3:50] All opposed. All opposed.

[3:53] Any abstensions? I think we were all

[3:55] here. We're good. All right. The minutes

[3:58] pass.

[4:00] And on to the presentations. So the

[4:03] first one we're going to have Aaron

[4:04] Clark tell us about the paintbrush

[4:07] conservation easement acquisition.

[4:10] Take it away Aaron.

[4:12] All right. Uh I don't know what ITBA

[4:14] means either. And I work for POS. So um

[4:19] all right. We'll begin with this. I get

[4:21] this thing nice and close to me. Ah, for

[4:23] much longer than parks and open spac's

[4:25] history of stewarding open space, the

[4:27] land of this community has been

[4:28] important to American Indian, urban,

[4:30] native, indigenous, and other cultural

[4:32] communities that continue to live here.

[4:34] We are making meaningful changes to how

[4:35] we do our work that include them,

[4:37] incorporate their perspectives, and

[4:38] honor their land stewardship legacy.

[4:40] Parks and open space operates within

[4:42] modern legal constructs of land

[4:44] ownership to steward Boulder County Open

[4:46] Space and accomplish these efforts on

[4:48] behalf of our community. All

[4:50] right. So, I'm Eric Clark, land officer

[4:52] with Parks and Open Space, and I'm here

[4:54] for number one, uh, acquisition of a

[4:56] conservation easement on what we're

[4:58] calling the Paintbrush property.

[5:01] Property is right about there, southeast

[5:03] of Ned in, uh, kind of upper Cole Creek

[5:06] Canyon on Highway 72, east of the Peak

[5:09] to Peak. Uh, here's a nice little

[5:11] vicinity map. Uh, it's in a cluster of

[5:14] property, uh, owned by either Boulder

[5:16] County or by the Forest Service. Uh

[5:18] nearby we have the Bearberry open space

[5:21] which was acquired earlier this year

[5:23] there on the south side. Uh Elk Tracks

[5:26] is immediately to the east acquired back

[5:28] in 2024. Up on the north is Reynolds

[5:31] Ranch. Um just as a note, Highway 72

[5:34] here at this point is part of a scenic

[5:36] protection corridor. Uh and since I've

[5:38] been doing a lot of work up here, I can

[5:40] know it's a very pretty drive.

[5:43] Uh property is primarily forested or

[5:46] wetlands. There's plenty of aspens up

[5:47] there. I am not expert, but I'm fairly

[5:49] sure I saw limber pine. Have to get

[5:52] somebody up there to make sure. Uh

[5:54] property is approximately 35 acres owned

[5:57] by a very nice man named TJ Price. Uh

[6:00] there are no structures at this time.

[6:03] The conservation easement we propose uh

[6:05] we've worked out with the property owner

[6:07] restricts development to one of two

[6:09] agreed upon building envelopes. When one

[6:12] is chosen, the other will be immediately

[6:14] extinguished. Um it permits a small

[6:17] cabin and associated out buildings um no

[6:20] more than 2,000 square feet on the

[6:22] cabin. Uh the easement also contains a

[6:24] router first refusal for the county. Uh

[6:27] agreed upon price is $215,000.

[6:32] Ah I went way too fast. All right. Uh

[6:36] comprehensive plan designations. Uh

[6:39] you've all heard me say this before.

[6:40] These maps are intended to be

[6:41] illustrative rather than specific. And

[6:43] the following destinations are

[6:45] indicators of importance but not

[6:46] confirmation that these features exist

[6:48] on the property. Uh number one, you see

[6:51] we have the environmental conservation

[6:53] area Magnolia immediately to the north

[6:56] and uh a B3 high biodiversity area over

[7:00] there on the west and really close

[7:02] proximity.

[7:04] Uh here we have quite a few things. Uh

[7:07] riparian areas as noted in the

[7:09] comprehensive plan. Uh you can see it

[7:11] cuts right through the middle of the

[7:13] paintbrush property uh based on kind of

[7:15] an ephemeral stream uh that is a

[7:17] tributary to Beaver Creek which is in a

[7:20] tributary of South Boulder Creek. Up on

[7:23] the north of that purple hash is a u

[7:25] marked wildlife migration corridor.

[7:28] Everyone I've worked with in this area

[7:30] always going on about moose, elk. Uh TJ

[7:33] here had video of a pine martin that he

[7:35] saw. Uh there's wildlife everywhere up

[7:38] here. Um and finally that red hash on

[7:42] the west there is mapped critical

[7:44] wildlife habitat. Uh here we have

[7:46] wetlands. Uh again you'll note that they

[7:48] kind of share the same area as that

[7:51] ephemeral stream right there. And uh the

[7:53] lighter green is significant natural

[7:55] communities.

[7:58] Uh just a few more photos for you. I

[8:00] haven't been up there for a while. I was

[8:01] up there back in the spring. Uh so again

[8:03] you can see forest, some light snow, a

[8:05] little bit of the wet area. um fairly

[8:08] fairly gentle slopes. Uh lastly, I want

[8:12] to make a note on the funding source

[8:13] we're proposing to use for this purpose.

[8:16] Uh paintbrush is about 5 milesi from G

[8:18] reservoir. So we propose to acquire this

[8:21] easement with funds from the 2021 G

[8:23] reservoir settlement between Denver

[8:25] water and Boulder County. That

[8:27] settlement allowed $5.1 million to

[8:29] Boulder County for acquisitions of fee

[8:32] properties, conservation easements, or

[8:34] trail corridors. Uh and so the board's

[8:37] direction to us has been to look for

[8:40] acquisitions that uh meet community

[8:43] priorities of habitat protection,

[8:44] passive recreation, or both. And uh also

[8:48] to find it in the gross reservoir area.

[8:51] Um since the area right around Gross is

[8:53] largely developed, we've had to look a

[8:54] little farther a field uh and so we feel

[8:57] that this uh this property meets the

[8:59] criteria that we've been instructed to

[9:00] look for uh and is an excellent

[9:03] candidate for protection. So staff

[9:05] supports this and I'm hopeful that you

[9:06] do too. And at this point I'll take any

[9:09] questions.

[9:11] Um thanks Aaron. Appreciate the

[9:14] presentation.

[9:15] Um POSC we got questions. Looks like

[9:17] John's got something.

[9:18] Um I don't have the the write up in

[9:22] front of me, but the uh yeah it says in

[9:26] the text that uh you're going to use the

[9:28] gross reservoir money and at the bottom

[9:30] it says it's funded by tax. Uh,

[9:33] I believe that's what we call a

[9:34] whoopsie.

[9:37] That's fine. As long as it's an oopsie,

[9:39] that's then I'll vote for it.

[9:44] All right, Trace.

[9:45] Uh, Trace Baker, POSAC. Um, I noticed in

[9:48] the write up we received,

[9:51] um, it did not mention water rights. Is

[9:54] this because it's a conservation

[9:56] easement rather than an acquisition?

[9:59] Uh well partly because it's a

[10:00] conservation easement not an acquisition

[10:02] but also because uh you know there are

[10:05] no water shares of any kind on the

[10:07] property so we're not really acquiring

[10:09] anything like that.

[10:10] Thank you. Okay, Christine.

[10:13] Um, Christine Johnson, POSAC. I was

[10:16] really curious um particularly with this

[10:19] uh property um when there's a

[10:22] conservation easement um what

[10:26] where does Boulder County stand in terms

[10:29] of making recommendations regarding

[10:31] thinning? because I'm aware um for

[10:35] forest health for for wildfire um I'm

[10:39] aware that there's a lot of really dense

[10:41] um forest um up there and a lot of it on

[10:46] uh private land and I have wondered

[10:49] about um the risk of wildfire and uh

[10:52] particularly um around residential

[10:57] um spots and I'm just I'm wondering how

[10:59] that works when um it's aer conservation

[11:02] easement as opposed to something we own

[11:04] outright.

[11:06] I I just know I saw somebody from

[11:07] forestry walk in while I was talking, so

[11:10] I would love a little backup.

[11:13] [Laughter]

[11:20] I'm Mike Lang. I'm the natural resources

[11:23] um division manager um formerly forestry

[11:26] supervisor. We don't do forestry work on

[11:28] conservation. We're not allowed to do

[11:30] that. So, but we do on our fee only

[11:32] properties of course.

[11:34] When um when walkthroughs are are

[11:37] happen, do you guys like make any

[11:39] recommendations to folks or is it just

[11:42] it is what it is?

[11:44] Um in my experience, I mean, we might

[11:46] note, you know, if we're doing a

[11:48] monitoring visit, it might say, "Hey,

[11:49] this is fairly overgrown." Um I mean,

[11:51] Michael's correct. This is private

[11:52] property. We can't do anything

[11:54] ourselves. Um I I just wasn't aware if

[11:57] if your staff ever go on private

[12:00] property and make recommendations.

[12:01] We don't. But we do have um we do have a

[12:03] a conservation program that would go out

[12:05] and visit these properties every 3

[12:07] years. They talk with the land owners.

[12:09] They can make those recommendations

[12:10] particularly wildfire partners which I

[12:12] think was here last month. Um Jim

[12:13] Webster gave a presentation. That's the

[12:15] avenue to help those um individuals do

[12:18] work on their own private land.

[12:20] Thank you.

[12:21] Yeah. Thanks.

[12:23] Okay. Okay, I saw Carol and then Derek,

[12:25] we'll go down there.

[12:27] Um, Carol Berley Posak, I really like

[12:30] the maps that um showed the criteria and

[12:33] I think that's a really great tool to

[12:36] help us understand um what we're um

[12:39] talking about. Um I also like the fact

[12:42] that you put up the amount of money in

[12:44] the gross reservoir um payment and so

[12:49] then but I would suggest arithmetic that

[12:51] we say okay 5.1 million minus 1.5

[12:55] million equals that leaves us with 3.6 6

[12:58] million um for future um uses to just

[13:04] kind of do our

[13:05] only 250k. 215K.

[13:08] This is only 215K.

[13:10] Yeah, this is $215,000.

[13:13] Okay. Well, that the So, the math would

[13:16] have even been better if if you had done

[13:20] it.

[13:21] So, something cost.5. Uh, I think you

[13:24] might you might have been thinking of uh

[13:26] Bearberry was the last property we

[13:28] purchased with these funds and that was

[13:30] around $1.6 million.

[13:31] Okay. So, how much do we have left?

[13:33] Uh, I'm going to say right around 3.4 if

[13:35] I'm doing the math. Now, what I'm going

[13:37] to say is I'm not aware if anybody else

[13:40] is spending money out of this fund. I'm

[13:41] not aware that I don't think anybody is.

[13:44] Um, but with the work that I have done,

[13:46] this gross is kind of my my area, my

[13:48] project. Um, between this and Barberry,

[13:51] we're looking at about $3.4 $4 million

[13:53] left over.

[13:55] Okay. Well, then that's an even better

[13:56] point. Um, so I think it helps for us to

[14:00] have a sense of where the um what the

[14:02] money situation is so that we can be

[14:05] responsible and and um have a sense of

[14:08] the landscape as it were uh the

[14:10] financial landscape as well as the

[14:12] natural landscape. So thank you.

[14:16] Okay, Derek

[14:17] Derek Turner Pac said it better myself.

[14:21] Um is do you know if there's a time

[14:24] limit for spending that money?

[14:25] Uh according to the settlement um

[14:28] there's no particular time limit on it.

[14:30] No.

[14:32] Um yeah and just to echo that I think it

[14:35] would be super helpful and potentially I

[14:37] would think the county commissioners

[14:38] would also want to know you know what

[14:40] what is left. Um

[14:43] my other question is um if so I see that

[14:46] the restrictions will allow building

[14:49] 2,000 foot and then a res a

[14:52] non-residential structure. If there was

[14:54] no conservation easement, what could

[14:56] they do?

[14:57] Well, I'm not an expert planner, but the

[14:59] structure could be considerably larger

[15:01] that much I know with more associated

[15:04] out buildings and there will be a lot

[15:07] wider latitude as to where on the

[15:08] property they could put it. So what this

[15:10] easement does, it restricts the size of

[15:12] the buildings, the size of the

[15:14] outuildings, and where on the property

[15:16] they can be placed. I'll also note uh

[15:19] that just because we are permitting a

[15:21] little bit of building on the property,

[15:23] that does affect the price of the

[15:24] easement. This is less than it would be

[15:27] value-wise than it would be if it was a

[15:28] clean sweep, all the rights removed, and

[15:31] we'd be paying a lot more for that.

[15:32] Okay. And then there's also a right of

[15:34] first refusal.

[15:36] Yes. And is that valued into the

[15:38] It's hard to value that. Um, you know,

[15:41] the day may come someday when the owner

[15:44] wants to sell it and at that point we

[15:46] will have the right to make an offer.

[15:48] Um, it's it's not really part of the

[15:51] value calculation. It's just something

[15:53] we try to get if we think we might

[15:55] conceivably be interested in the future.

[15:57] Thank you.

[15:59] All right. Um, let's go to Vicki.

[16:02] Vicky Lawrence Posac. So what would

[16:05] happen if

[16:08] it's determined that the gross reservoir

[16:10] uh dam has to be renicked on? Does this

[16:15] money have to be given back to Denver?

[16:17] Not that I am aware of. Uh I think that

[16:20] is a legal underwater question beyond my

[16:23] ken. But uh the settlement doesn't say

[16:26] anything about that. I can tell you

[16:27] that.

[16:28] I I have one more quick question. Is

[16:30] this riparian stream is that a perennial

[16:32] stream or It's pretty ephemeral. It like

[16:35] shows up and snow melt and fades away

[16:37] again in the summer.

[16:40] Okay, John.

[16:41] Um John White Bozac, the um when they

[16:45] build the the building whatever the

[16:49] cabin there, does that white trailer go

[16:51] away or is that

[16:53] Well, um that's where he likes to camp

[16:56] now when he goes up there. So, I mean,

[16:57] it'll be up to him whether he wants to

[16:58] park it there or not, but uh he I I

[17:01] expect it might go away. if he has a

[17:04] cabin to stay in.

[17:05] There's no nothing in the uh easement

[17:07] about whether he can keep a trailer in

[17:09] the cabin.

[17:10] No, it doesn't limit whether he can park

[17:11] a vehicle on that that spot of dirt

[17:13] there along the road. No, he can keep it

[17:15] there if he wants to.

[17:16] Okay.

[17:19] All right. So, let's move on to public

[17:22] comments. Do we have anybody in the

[17:24] audience that wants to make a comment?

[17:28] Seeing none, do we have anybody online?

[17:30] back.

[17:32] Hey, for those on Zoom, if you would

[17:34] like to comment on the current agenda

[17:36] item, please use the raise hand feature

[17:37] so we can call on you.

[17:43] I'm not seeing any raised hands.

[17:46] Okay, so POSAC, one last chance. Any

[17:49] more discussion?

[17:51] Yes, Vicky Lawrence again. And I'm

[17:53] sorry. Oh, I was going to ask how many

[17:55] acres this is. 36. Is that what we're

[17:57] looking? Okay, thanks. Okay. All right.

[18:01] Let's uh take a vote on this. Um or

[18:04] well, let's first have a motion. And the

[18:07] motion would be or go ahead. Is somebody

[18:10] Trace Baker or POSAC? Um I move that uh

[18:14] POSAC approve the uh paintbrush

[18:17] conservation easement as described in

[18:20] the handout and by staff.

[18:22] I second it if you fix the uh the tax

[18:26] line at the end.

[18:27] Okay.

[18:29] All right. So, the motion has been

[18:31] approved and seconded. Um, so let's take

[18:35] a vote. All in favor say I.

[18:39] I. Any opposed say no.

[18:42] Seeing that it passes unanimously.

[18:45] Thank you.

[18:46] Thank you.

[18:47] So Erin, you still have the floor. Oh,

[18:49] I have one more for you.

[18:50] Yes, we have an easement. The Long Seth

[18:52] Lynch and IBM PVA easement.

[19:04] Okay, and we're back. All right, so what

[19:07] I have for you is uh as you said, Long

[19:09] says Lynch IBM property power line

[19:12] easement. Uh so where this is at, you

[19:15] all probably know where the IBM property

[19:17] is right there where 119 and 52

[19:19] converge. Um the actual matter we're

[19:23] discussing is a little farther west

[19:25] closer to 63rd Street and Mineral Road.

[19:28] Uh we're going to live on this map for

[19:30] the rest of my presentation. So uh the

[19:33] IBM property is there in bright green on

[19:36] the right uh co-owned by city and county

[19:41] uh under an agricultural leach lease

[19:43] leachch lease and the purpose uh is a

[19:46] preservation. Uh, so our a folks came to

[19:50] us and asked for some help with this.

[19:52] Apparently the grades on IBM are wonky

[19:55] and they make flood irrigation really

[19:58] difficult. So they've been trying to

[20:00] irrigate with sprayers and a large pump.

[20:03] And right now they're using a diesel

[20:05] generator for that. And what they would

[20:07] like to do is bring power from 63rd

[20:10] Street to the site so they can power

[20:12] this pump and these sprayers uh just a

[20:15] lot more cheaply and efficiently than

[20:17] continually buying diesel.

[20:20] So we're trying to get three-phase power

[20:22] from 63rd across two private properties

[20:27] over to the county property on IBM. So,

[20:30] since we're crossing two private

[20:31] properties, we're looking to acquire two

[20:34] easements, uh, 10- foot wide easements

[20:36] to run underground power lines from

[20:38] 63rd. Uh, first across that little lot

[20:42] there on the west, um, owned by a couple

[20:44] of fellows named Tino and Shar and then

[20:47] across the one there in the middle that

[20:49] is called the Long Seth Lynch property.

[20:51] It is private but held under

[20:54] conservation easement again by both

[20:55] county and city. I will note that both

[20:58] agencies have approved of this use um

[21:01] because it supports the agricultural

[21:03] purpose of both the Long Seth Lynch

[21:06] property and the IBM property. So we are

[21:10] bringing power. Um the reason we're kind

[21:13] of doing it this way, uh PVRA is the

[21:16] agency we're working with the utility

[21:17] provider. They will install but they

[21:20] don't maintain. Their stance is

[21:22] basically that line any facilities are

[21:25] the property of the land owner on whose

[21:27] land they sit. Uh so we're not asking

[21:30] these private land owners to maintain

[21:31] our power lines for us. So we're we're

[21:34] acquiring these ements so we can go on

[21:36] there install and then have access to

[21:38] maintain the lines that serve our

[21:40] property. Uh cost for all of this will

[21:44] be $9,866.

[21:47] uh 6180 for uh Tino and Shar and 36.86

[21:52] for uh the Long Sath property there in

[21:55] the middle and uh that's what I have. So

[21:59] happily have any questions.

[22:02] All right, POSAC any questions?

[22:07] All right, let's go to Trace first. Uh

[22:10] Trace Baker, POSAC, uh nice simple

[22:13] presentation. Thank you. Um, so this

[22:17] will be an underground

[22:20] uh will it be installed with a ditch or

[22:23] through horizontal drilling?

[22:25] Uh, I understand that we're going to

[22:26] trench it, but that is not my expertise.

[22:29] Okay. So then there will be something in

[22:33] the easement, some language about

[22:35] restoring

[22:37] the surface regardless of how it's done.

[22:40] Yes. And then in the future if they have

[22:43] to dig that up to maintain it then they

[22:47] are also uh required to restore the

[22:51] surface.

[22:51] Of course that that they of course is

[22:53] we. So yes we will be maintaining it.

[22:55] Okay.

[22:57] Okay. That's all I have. Thank you. All

[22:59] right. Any other question? Vicki yours

[23:01] was covered. That was a good question.

[23:03] Yep. I think we several. So I have one

[23:05] question. Um you said sprayers. Do you

[23:08] mean are they are you using sprinklers

[23:10] out here to irrigate?

[23:11] Uh how they put it to me? They said

[23:13] tiered sprinklers. Uh again, not my area

[23:15] of expertise. I just know that it draws

[23:17] a lot of power and so I need to get them

[23:19] power.

[23:20] All right. All right. Very good. Thank

[23:22] you. So, do we have anybody in the room

[23:26] that wants to comment on this? Nobody

[23:29] from the public in the room. How about

[23:31] online? We got anybody wanting to

[23:32] comment?

[23:34] I'm not seeing any raised hands.

[23:36] Okay, one more time. Posacy any more

[23:39] discussion? Nope. All right. Do I have a

[23:42] motion?

[23:45] I Carol Berley Posac

[23:48] uh recommend approval of the easement on

[23:51] this um property as described by Aaron.

[23:55] Thank you, Carol. About a second.

[23:57] Vicky Lawrence, I second.

[23:58] Okay, Vicki seconds. Um let's go to a

[24:02] vote on this.

[24:04] So all those in favor say I. I.

[24:06] I. Any oppose say no.

[24:09] Seeing no no nos. It passes unanimously.

[24:12] Thank you Aaron. Very efficient.

[24:14] Thanks very much.

[24:16] All right.

[24:16] All right. Next we'll have up Tina

[24:20] Burkart.

[24:21] Close.

[24:22] Give us two seconds to do a little

[24:24] technology flip here.

[24:25] Over here. Don't pull out the big cord.

[24:26] Oh no. I'm just trying to pull out my

[24:28] jump drive. I might jinx us and say

[24:30] we're actually a little ahead of

[24:32] schedule.

[24:36] I know at home

[24:37] that doesn't look like Boulder County.

[24:39] Oh, thank you.

[24:41] United States.

[24:43] Uh, what am I doing first? Four mile,

[24:44] right?

[24:45] Yes. You're doing four mile property

[24:47] acquisition.

[24:48] Thank you. Um, hang on. Wait, don't take

[24:50] Oh, that's fine.

[24:51] Speed your mind.

[24:52] Okay. All right. I'll get let Aaron take

[24:55] a second to

[24:57] get get himself sorted.

[25:01] Okay,

[25:04] thanks Aaron. Good evening. Tina

[25:06] Burkart, land officer, parks and open

[25:09] space. Um

[25:11] I'm my first item is a four mile

[25:13] property. Um it is a second right there.

[25:18] It is located at um west of the city of

[25:20] Boulder at the intersection of Four Mile

[25:23] Canyon and Boulder Canyon Drive.

[25:27] There's a nice map. Uh the property is

[25:29] 6.63 acres and the owner is Michael

[25:32] Sandrock. Uh this this map and a few

[25:35] others will show um the property's

[25:37] proximity to uh the county's Passo

[25:40] Preserve open space.

[25:43] Again, this property is 6.63 acres. The

[25:47] proposed purchase price is $1.5 million.

[25:50] Maybe that's what you were thinking

[25:51] about. Um, it has one native building

[25:54] right and it is encumbered by a historic

[25:56] preservation conservation easement

[26:00] which uh protects the historic features

[26:02] of the property.

[26:04] I got a few pictures for you. This photo

[26:06] captures four mile which runs along the

[26:09] east edge of the property. Um, looking

[26:11] north here, uh, you can see portions of

[26:13] a structure, um, to the adjacent

[26:15] property, which is, uh, the Adventure

[26:17] Lodge property, which you may not be

[26:20] familiar with.

[26:22] Um, this photo is taken from the

[26:25] property looking southwest and um, this

[26:28] looks onto Boulder Canyon Drive and you

[26:30] can see the end of the Boulder Creek

[26:31] path from here. That's kind of that blue

[26:34] I think it's a um, port potty.

[26:39] And then this photo is taken from the

[26:41] southwest portion of the property. As

[26:42] you can see, the property's hilly and

[26:44] forested. Uh, and this view is also

[26:47] looking over Boulder Canyon. I think

[26:49] that's Chapman Drive across the across

[26:52] the valley there.

[26:55] And, uh, a few more photos. Uh, this top

[26:58] photo is looking mostly south. And what

[27:00] you're seeing there is the, uh, roaded

[27:02] for the historic Gordon Mckenry Road.

[27:05] Um, and this roaded is actually mostly

[27:07] intact. um to where the property joins

[27:10] Picasso to the west. The bottom right

[27:13] photo is looking to the northeast, I

[27:15] believe. And I'll talk a little bit more

[27:17] about the historic features on the

[27:19] property later.

[27:21] Uh so there are also some structures on

[27:23] the property. Two of them are um

[27:26] residences and then there is a detached

[27:28] uh garage and a studio. The two existing

[27:32] residences are considered non-conforming

[27:34] since only one building right is

[27:35] associated with the property under the

[27:37] land use code.

[27:41] All right, comp plan designations.

[27:42] There's a whole bunch on this property,

[27:44] so I kind of combined a few on each map,

[27:46] so bear with me. And uh as you know,

[27:49] these maps are intended to be

[27:50] illustrative rather than specific. And

[27:52] the following designations are ind are

[27:54] indicators of importance, but not

[27:56] confirmation that these features exist

[27:57] on the property.

[28:00] Okay, so the oranges shading on the

[28:02] western third of this property indicates

[28:05] the B3 high biodiversity area. The

[28:08] purple hatching on the sort of east part

[28:11] of the property um show the riparian

[28:13] areas based on four mile creek which you

[28:16] you saw earlier in the photo that runs

[28:18] through the east side of the property.

[28:20] Uh and then the red on the map indicates

[28:23] um the Prebles Meadow jumping mouse zone

[28:26] 7 foothills perennial stream.

[28:30] And on this slide we have uh the purple

[28:33] line designating riparian habitat

[28:36] connector area that runs along the east

[28:38] side of the property again along four

[28:39] mile creek. Um the light green yellow

[28:43] and greenish yellow shading that pretty

[28:45] much covers the whole property uh is

[28:47] designated as having significant natural

[28:49] communities. And um as for view

[28:52] protection corridor, both Boulder Canyon

[28:54] Drive and Four Mile Canyon Drive give it

[28:56] a view protection corridor uh element.

[29:00] Lastly, uh the yellow shading that

[29:02] covers the whole thing and more um

[29:06] indicates the property is in in an

[29:07] archaeologically sensitive area.

[29:11] Okay, this is kind of the fun stuff. Um,

[29:15] so the property is uh received a Boulder

[29:17] County landmark designation in 1993

[29:20] recognizing the historical significance

[29:22] to the Oriel town site, which is where

[29:25] the property lies. And the town sites

[29:27] goes a little beyond the property, but

[29:29] the property was right where the town

[29:31] site was. Um, it was once located at the

[29:35] junction of Four Mile Creek and Boulder

[29:36] Creek. Um, the townite is historically

[29:39] known for its water powered sawmill. So

[29:41] that was a hydro plant railard and

[29:44] contributed significantly to the

[29:46] development of ore processing industry

[29:47] as well as serving as a major juncture

[29:50] for travel and transportation between

[29:51] the mountains and the plains. Uh the

[29:54] town site was also known for the Saddle

[29:57] Rock in I have a picture of that in a

[29:58] minute. A public resort that operated

[30:00] from the years 1932 to 1941 until it

[30:03] burned to the ground in the end of 1941.

[30:06] Shortly after that, the construction of

[30:08] uh 119 or Boulder Canyon Drive began in

[30:11] the location to be the primary activity

[30:13] area of the Oridel town site. So the

[30:17] photo above shows the hydropowered

[30:19] sawmill. So Boulder Creek is in the for

[30:23] foreground there and the rail line

[30:24] coming down from Four-Mile Canyon um I

[30:27] believe was part of the Switzerland

[30:28] trail.

[30:31] Uh here's another fun shot. Um this is

[30:35] you can see the Gordon Mckenry row that

[30:37] I mentioned earlier up on the kind of

[30:39] top right and then um that that's the

[30:42] while the hydroelectric plant was being

[30:44] constructed in 1906

[30:47] and that hydro project began in 1906

[30:50] halted in ' 07 during an economic

[30:53] depression. Work resumed in 1909 but it

[30:57] was only in operation for one year.

[31:00] All right, a few more few more fun

[31:02] photos. Um that on the top left, this

[31:05] house sits kind of roughly where those

[31:07] structures that are currently on the

[31:09] property, maybe a little closer to the

[31:11] stream. Um and it is, I think, circa

[31:16] 1880, 1895.

[31:18] So in 1991,

[31:21] excuse me, 1891, uh much of Oriel was

[31:24] destroyed by fire and then subsequently

[31:27] rebuilt. Three years later in 1894, a

[31:30] major flood destroyed a bunch of the

[31:32] town again rebuilt. Um, and then the

[31:35] Saddle Rock in, as I said, was built in

[31:37] 1932. And that picture on the bottom

[31:40] left with the ice skaters is the inn.

[31:43] And like I said, it burned in 1941.

[31:46] And then again, the construction of

[31:48] Boulder Canyon Drive pretty much kind of

[31:51] covered what was left of the town site.

[31:56] All right, just a few more photos. Um

[31:59] the top left is looking southeast from

[32:01] above the structures. So you can kind of

[32:03] see them down in the in the uh hollow

[32:06] there. I guess it's um bottom left is

[32:09] looking west from the south end of the

[32:11] property and the top right is looking

[32:14] south down Boulder Canyon Drive. Um you

[32:16] can see that kind of in the top middle

[32:18] of that photo. Um and Boulder Creek.

[32:23] So uh not surprisingly staff supports

[32:26] recommendation to the commissioners for

[32:27] approval of this acquisition due to the

[32:29] property's historic significant its

[32:32] adjacency to Bataso open space possible

[32:35] trail connection from Boulder Canyon to

[32:37] Bataso and its numerous comp plan

[32:39] designations. So I'm happy to answer any

[32:42] questions.

[32:43] Thank you Tina. That was a great

[32:45] presentation. Very detailed and the

[32:47] history part was

[32:48] fun.

[32:48] Yeah that's fun part. Yeah. All right

[32:51] post questions. We'll go down to Joan.

[32:53] Um, well, it said that you weren't able

[32:56] to tell for sure whether there were um

[32:59] was any previous mining and obviously

[33:02] there's not structures related to mining

[33:05] and no obvious addits or anything, but

[33:08] is there any way we can be sure well

[33:11] some assurance that it won't be another

[33:14] cardinal mess? I mean, you know,

[33:17] whatever.

[33:17] Fair question. Um, we will be conducting

[33:20] a phase one environmental assessment of

[33:22] the property and that should um, let us

[33:24] know if there's any mining activity we

[33:27] should be concerned about. I I don't I

[33:29] haven't seen any up there. I've been up

[33:30] there a few times. Um, you know, the

[33:32] mill was there to process ore for

[33:36] mining, but I don't think anything was

[33:38] mined right there. But again, we'll

[33:40] we'll do the phase one.

[33:41] Okay. Well, but that will that be after

[33:44] you purchase it?

[33:45] No, no, no. We we we um we conduct the

[33:48] phase one uh prior to closing. And so

[33:50] built into the purchase agreement are is

[33:52] our ability to address any issues or to

[33:56] decline to um go through the acquisition

[33:58] if there's something gives us heartburn.

[34:02] Vicki Vicky Lawrence Posacing

[34:06] because I grew up in Form Canyon. I know

[34:08] that road very well. I drive it

[34:09] regularly. My brother still lives up

[34:11] there. And I've always wondered about

[34:13] actually there was a girl that got on

[34:14] the bus from those houses. Are those

[34:16] houses going to be remain or are you

[34:19] going to remove them?

[34:20] Um we don't know yet. Uh staff will

[34:24] again we're going to do the phase one.

[34:26] We will do a survey. We will do home

[34:27] inspections and then we will assess what

[34:31] what we want to do with those

[34:32] structures. Um, and depending on what's

[34:36] ultimately how the property is managed

[34:38] and what happens on the property, it's

[34:41] going to take some time for staff to go

[34:42] through and figure that all out.

[34:43] Okay. Um, I have one other question. My

[34:45] recollection is is that the water line

[34:48] from the Batassa water plant goes

[34:50] through that.

[34:51] There is a there is a waterline easement

[34:52] that I think was on one Well, let me

[34:55] see. I think it's Let's see. I believe

[34:58] on that bottom left photo, it looks kind

[35:01] of like there's a road there, but I

[35:03] think that is kind of the Is it the

[35:05] Silver Creek line?

[35:06] I don't know. It made it made a big scar

[35:08] back in the late60s, early '7s where

[35:12] they put it in.

[35:12] Yeah. Um but it's it's covered, but

[35:15] yeah, you can you can still see sort of

[35:17] the the slope.

[35:18] So, they just have an easement for that

[35:20] tore maintain it or potentially enlarge

[35:23] it. Uh, and there's probably no more

[35:26] water up there. So, we won't even go

[35:28] there.

[35:29] Well, easements are typically

[35:32] set with,

[35:33] right?

[35:33] So, whatever they can do in that

[35:34] easement is

[35:35] so they they could dig things up and

[35:37] whatnot,

[35:38] but they would have to reclaim because

[35:39] that's standard in in those easements.

[35:42] Right. Well, fascinating. I'm I'm

[35:43] thrilled that Boulder County might get

[35:45] that property.

[35:47] John

[35:48] John White Posac uh one thing that's

[35:52] really missing from these pictures is

[35:53] that giant power line. Uh yes. Doesn't

[35:56] that affect a conservation ement? Cuz

[35:59] when we were going to buy a house near a

[36:01] power line um that affected seriously

[36:05] affected the price.

[36:06] Uh agreed. Um it it we factored that

[36:10] into the purchase price. Uh it's seven

[36:14] acres. It has a building right. Um, I

[36:17] think it would be worth

[36:18] the Tower has a building right.

[36:19] Excuse me.

[36:19] The property

[36:20] The tower has a building right?

[36:21] No, no, the property has a building

[36:22] right. So that we value the property as

[36:24] a whole and it's and it has one building

[36:27] right. So if somebody were to buy it and

[36:29] want to develop it, they would have to

[36:33] contend with the fact that there's a

[36:34] power line going across the property

[36:36] which would limit where they could put

[36:37] the home. So that was built into our

[36:40] calculations of what the value is.

[36:42] Okay. So yeah, it is it it it does

[36:44] affect value if if that's what you're

[36:46] asking.

[36:46] Yeah. Thank you,

[36:49] Trace. Uh Trace Baker, POSAC. Um and one

[36:52] of your slides mentioned the pebbles

[36:55] jumping mouse. Uh do the mice actually

[36:58] live there or is that simply appropriate

[37:00] habitat for them?

[37:02] Because I am not a wildlife biologist, I

[37:04] can I can tell you what I wrote in my

[37:06] notes in case you guys asked me.

[37:11] Hang on a second. Um, we probably have

[37:13] some uh biologists back here that are

[37:16] going to be cringing. Um, it is areas

[37:19] are areas of suitable habitat along

[37:21] foothill perennial streams up to 7600

[37:23] ft. Um, and they are known to occupy

[37:27] riparian habitat up to this elevation.

[37:31] Okay. But they've not been observed on

[37:33] not not specifically that I know of

[37:34] there, but that's that's how these

[37:36] layers work.

[37:37] that would be where they would be if

[37:39] they were there.

[37:40] Okay. And finally, for um archaeological

[37:44] sensitivity,

[37:46] is that strictly

[37:48] uh from the mining days or is there any

[37:51] indigenous stuff there?

[37:54] I don't know about the latter. Um and I

[37:58] my understanding and again I have small

[38:00] notes about the archaeological

[38:02] significance. um that layer the

[38:05] archaeologically sensitive area are

[38:07] areas where conservation and

[38:08] preservation are encouraged because

[38:10] there might be I think cultural

[38:11] resources there. So there are um I know

[38:15] there's some parts of this the old

[38:17] structures from the town site pieces of

[38:21] those old structures I believe were used

[38:22] to build the structures that are there

[38:24] now. Um, but there was not much left

[38:28] once Boulder Canyon Drive was I think

[38:31] they put in 20 feet of

[38:33] fill just covering most of the town.

[38:36] Okay. Thank you.

[38:37] Mhm.

[38:38] Okay. Any more? Yeah. Go ahead,

[38:40] Christine.

[38:41] Um, Christine Johnson post can you

[38:45] explain to me um what the impact of the

[38:48] buildings being nonconforming means?

[38:50] Does that mean that they need to be

[38:52] removed?

[38:52] Um, I have notes.

[38:55] Um, they do not need to be removed.

[38:58] However, hang on a second. Sorry, I'm

[39:00] going to make you all dizzy while I go

[39:01] through my uh slides here.

[39:04] Um, so under the code, if they they're

[39:08] non-conforming because they were there

[39:10] prior to when the code established one

[39:13] right for the property. So, if somebody

[39:15] were to want to build a new residence,

[39:19] they would have to um build outside the

[39:21] floodway because the structures existing

[39:24] now are in the floodway. And shockingly,

[39:26] this property did not get flooded in the

[39:28] it did not. I I asked over and over.

[39:30] He's like, "Nope."

[39:31] Anyway, it is in the floodway. So the

[39:34] existing buildings would need to be

[39:35] recatategorized as historic units

[39:37] because there is that historic

[39:38] preservation conservation easement on

[39:40] the property and go through a limited

[39:42] impact special review process.

[39:46] And so only one house would you could

[39:49] build a new residence but you'd have to

[39:50] get the existing ones categorized as

[39:52] such.

[39:54] Right. Um, and then this might be too

[39:58] speculative a question, but I'm I'm

[40:00] wondering about um the value of the the

[40:04] property to wildlife um being so close

[40:07] to um especially um Boulder Canyon

[40:11] Drive. Um and if that if it's of lower

[40:15] value to wildlife because of the the

[40:18] nearby traffic, you know, I I don't know

[40:20] the answer to that question. And I mean

[40:22] you, you know, it it has all those

[40:25] elements that I described and I honestly

[40:28] don't know if those elements take into

[40:30] account roadways cuz you know it just

[40:32] kind of goes blob right on top. So I I I

[40:35] don't know the answer to that.

[40:36] Can I make a comment to that?

[40:38] Sure.

[40:39] Cuz when you go to that look at that

[40:40] property, there's a big cliff where the

[40:43] side was cut aside. So the wildlife

[40:46] would be way above the the road. Well,

[40:49] and the property itself is down low.

[40:52] Um, and I think it it's it would be

[40:54] pretty hard to get to the road from the

[40:57] property. And again, the other side of

[41:00] the roads up high. So,

[41:02] yeah, I don't I don't know the answer.

[41:04] On the other hand, being very familiar

[41:06] with the area in general, those houses

[41:08] are when they came in and built Boulder

[41:10] Canyon, they raised it way up, and these

[41:12] houses are way below Boulder Canyon, and

[41:15] there's quite a large concrete bridge

[41:18] for Four Mile Canyon to go through. So,

[41:20] in a sense, there is some animal

[41:23] accessibility under Boulder Canyon

[41:25] there, for whatever it's worth. I mean,

[41:28] I don't have a camera there. I don't

[41:29] know how much happens there.

[41:33] Joan

[41:33] Joan Lutz Posac I agree. Um there's that

[41:37] big box cover culvert so it would be

[41:40] convenient for maybe like amphibians to

[41:44] use. Um but my other thing is a comment

[41:48] which is it was described as a possible

[41:51] additional uh trail head for Bataso but

[41:56] uh it although it's quite accessible to

[41:58] people on a bike it would seem that

[42:01] hikers would want to park somewhere and

[42:04] although they have the current owners

[42:06] have um access to their units. I just

[42:10] wonder, it's one thing to have a few

[42:13] residential people going in and out, but

[42:15] another to have um you know, public

[42:18] trail head users coming out onto a curvy

[42:22] section of Boulder Canyon. But you know,

[42:25] like the Benjamin Loop Trail doesn't

[42:28] really have a and people park along the

[42:32] road. Although again, I don't know that

[42:34] there there didn't seem to be a lot of

[42:35] shoulder in that area.

[42:37] Big parking. There's a parking lot right

[42:39] across

[42:39] huge parking on two sides there.

[42:41] I I know there's parking on the other

[42:43] side, but is that you know on the sort

[42:45] of the northeast corner, but is that

[42:49] public parking or does somebody own

[42:51] that?

[42:53] I mean,

[42:53] let's let's hear from Tina. Can you

[42:55] answer that?

[42:56] Well, you mean that that lot to the I

[42:58] guess to the east on the other side of

[42:59] four mile,

[43:00] right? Um I don't know. Was that what's

[43:02] that?

[43:03] There's also one south across B.

[43:04] There's also one across B. Yeah, that hu

[43:08] I I think it's public. I I don't know.

[43:10] And I guess to address the trail head um

[43:14] comment, I don't know that it's going to

[43:16] be a trail head. I could Yeah, I there's

[43:20] staff's going to have to figure out the

[43:22] most appropriate use if if there is a

[43:25] trail connection made. What would happen

[43:27] visav parking or Yeah, I don't know.

[43:31] That's a lot a lot of things to figure

[43:32] out. We just have to

[43:34] get the property first. Okay, Christine,

[43:36] did you still have the floor?

[43:38] I wanted to comment that there is um an

[43:41] existing trail connection from Boulder

[43:44] Canyon, the Bataso link that doesn't

[43:47] have a whole lot of parking and is um

[43:50] bikes.

[43:51] Yeah. Well, it's and it's also steep and

[43:54] but yeah.

[43:56] Anyway, no more questions. Okay, how

[44:00] about Carol? Um, Carol Berley Poszak.

[44:03] Um, my question is, is this one of those

[44:06] properties that your department's had

[44:08] its eye on for a long time?

[44:10] Yes.

[44:10] Okay. Because this seems like just

[44:12] exactly what the program is about.

[44:15] Yeah. It's been on our list for I think

[44:19] decades at least.

[44:20] Okay. Okay. Good. That's what I thought.

[44:22] Yeah. Thank you.

[44:23] Okay. Thank you, Derek.

[44:25] Derek Turner. Um, and I I wonder about

[44:28] if part of the reason it's some been on

[44:29] the list, you already have a a road bed

[44:32] that would be, you know, constructing a

[44:34] trail is you've already have a trail.

[44:37] I think that helps.

[44:38] Yeah. Um, are people living in the

[44:40] houses?

[44:41] Yes.

[44:42] So, it's currently housing.

[44:45] One person is living in one house. I

[44:48] think the other house is not lived in

[44:49] right now.

[44:50] Okay.

[44:51] Um, has there been any discussion about

[44:55] continuing their lease or

[44:56] No. No. No.

[44:59] Um, and then just another, you know, I

[45:01] feel like, especially,

[45:04] notwithstanding, this has been a high

[45:05] priority. I feel like, you know, all of

[45:07] these, uh, decisions to purchase really

[45:10] helps with context. How much money do

[45:13] you have left in the fund? How are sales

[45:16] tax doing this year? are, you know, is

[45:18] there any concern about collections

[45:20] versus what you budgeted? So, I continue

[45:22] to, you know, really I think these

[45:24] decisions would be really helpful to see

[45:27] here's our fund balance. We've got $15

[45:28] million. 1.5 is um

[45:31] 10%.

[45:32] Right. And sales tax this year. Maybe

[45:34] we're a little bit down. I know a lot of

[45:35] communities are down, but it's robust.

[45:37] We have another election coming up. So,

[45:40] um I I still think that that would be

[45:43] really uh helpful context for every one

[45:46] of these purchases where you're

[45:48] especially for a million and a half. So,

[45:50] thanks.

[45:50] I can tell you um this won't close till

[45:53] next year. Um so, and I I don't know

[45:58] what the sales tax money gets allocated

[46:01] based on our expected acquisitions or

[46:04] projected acquisitions. I don't know

[46:06] what the 2026 allocation looks like. I

[46:08] think it's similar to 2025 which was

[46:11] about 20 million I think when it was all

[46:13] said and done. Um I don't know that for

[46:15] sure. I don't I don't my staff don't get

[46:18] to see those numbers. Um but I do know

[46:20] that when we bring these to you we've

[46:23] we've looked at all that and there is

[46:24] money in the fund to pay for it.

[46:29] Okay. Anybody else? Okay. I got a couple

[46:32] things. one is I'll I'll echo what Derek

[46:35] said and I think that we've been asking

[46:37] for that for quite a while and Janice

[46:39] gave a great presentation and you know

[46:41] told us about a lot of what the money is

[46:44] and and how it all works and that's

[46:46] great but it would be nice on all of

[46:48] these to have some footnotes with what

[46:51] the current money is and how what effect

[46:54] it this will have on what's left. So I

[46:57] agree with Carol and Derek on that too.

[47:00] Um, so then the other thing I wanted to

[47:03] ask and this is I mean this property is

[47:05] really strategic and so I'm going to go

[47:07] a little into some general process

[47:10] questions not about this property

[47:12] necessarily but the phase one I've heard

[47:15] that mentioned a lot of times when

[47:16] purchases come to us um and we never

[47:19] hear I mean from what I can tell is

[47:22] probably everything that we've

[47:24] recommended and the commissioners agreed

[47:26] to purchase

[47:28] has there ever been a phase one that

[47:30] has, you know, you found something after

[47:33] we've all approved it and the property

[47:36] purchase didn't go through and then

[47:38] would you come back and let us know if

[47:40] that happened?

[47:43] First question, I not to my knowledge.

[47:46] Um

[47:48] I I don't know. I've been at parks

[47:51] forever, so but as far as I know, um

[47:55] that hasn't happened since I've been

[47:57] there. And would we let you know? Oh, so

[48:00] if you had recommended approval, we do

[48:02] the phase one and there's we're like,

[48:03] whoa, we're not doing it. We certainly

[48:04] could let you know. Um because we

[48:07] wouldn't bring we wouldn't bring it to,

[48:08] you know, if we decided we were going to

[48:10] um decline to pursue the acquisition,

[48:12] then we wouldn't

[48:13] bring it on to the commissioners and so

[48:15] we would let you know and I can put a

[48:17] note in our procedures to make sure that

[48:18] that's done in the unlikely event we

[48:21] have a phase one that has us back out.

[48:25] Okay. So, do you do the phase one before

[48:27] it goes to the commissioners?

[48:29] It depends. We we try it. We have to get

[48:32] a contract out and then we have to

[48:34] schedule it and if it's in the winter,

[48:37] we can't do phase ones when there's snow

[48:39] on the ground because Okay.

[48:40] So, yeah,

[48:41] we try to get them done the moment we're

[48:43] under we have a letter of intent, we try

[48:45] to start getting the phase one

[48:48] scheduled. It just depends on how busy

[48:50] the consultants are. So, in a perfect

[48:53] world, yes. Um, but it doesn't always

[48:55] happen. Okay. All right. Thanks, Tina.

[48:57] Yeah, that was probably an unexpected

[48:59] question you didn't have notes for.

[49:02] Okay. Uh, so I think POSAC, we've had

[49:05] all our questions. Um, how about the

[49:06] public? Do we have anybody here that

[49:08] wants to comment?

[49:10] Yes, sir. If

[49:12] did you sign up?

[49:14] Okay, come on up. Um, and state your

[49:17] name and roughly where you live in the

[49:19] county. Don't give us your exact

[49:21] address.

[49:21] That's okay. I live across the street

[49:24] from this project.

[49:26] So, my name is Patrick Oor. I live

[49:28] That's a great picture right there. Uh,

[49:30] I just came off the

[49:32] I just left the historic Boulder

[49:34] meeting, as a matter of fact, and I

[49:35] brought it up at this meeting. That

[49:37] picture there represents a significant

[49:39] history of of Boulder. Uh, 6 months ago,

[49:42] I was on uh Colorado Public Radio

[49:45] talking about the Switzerland Trail and

[49:48] uh where this property is is you had

[49:51] mentioned it. It's the existing grade

[49:52] because when they put up the the street,

[49:54] they they lifted it. As a matter of

[49:56] fact, the bottom of my property, if

[49:58] you're familiar with it in the the book

[50:00] itself, it's called Profile Rock and uh

[50:03] where they it's a it's a picture of the

[50:05] from the 1900 time period. And when they

[50:08] raised the street, they knocked off the

[50:11] chin of the the chief. As far as I'm

[50:13] concerned, uh three things. Number one,

[50:16] I think this this property is contiguous

[50:18] to Passo. Um I I bought my property

[50:23] about 12 13 years ago. I just built my

[50:25] house and the reason I bought it, it was

[50:27] the end of the Boulder Trail and so now

[50:30] they've continued it up to Poorman and I

[50:32] think that's a terrific access but the

[50:34] people you mentioned uh the connection

[50:36] from Boulder Canyon up to Paso, that's a

[50:40] very dangerous little spot and I could

[50:42] see uh the elevation change from where

[50:45] this property is up to Paso is probably

[50:47] about 300 to 350 ft. And one of the

[50:50] interesting people is I just found out

[50:52] the other day one of the properties

[50:53] adjacent to this uh the original person

[50:56] that started Soldier of Fortune uh lived

[51:00] in that house. So adjacent to this

[51:02] property uh the PBO's mouse it's going

[51:04] to be on anything that's next to the

[51:06] creek. I had to deal with it and my

[51:08] house is 100 ft above the creek and it's

[51:10] usually within two or three feet of the

[51:11] creek itself. um wildlife. Uh I've had

[51:17] eight bears on my property this this in

[51:20] the last 6 months. I have a security

[51:21] system and it's it's very interesting.

[51:24] Uh the creek itself is an essential

[51:27] essential component of the contiguous um

[51:30] access for the bears. They come down my

[51:33] property and they also come down uh

[51:35] Bataso and down canyon whatever the

[51:38] street is right there. So I'm here to

[51:40] support this. I think is a really good

[51:42] strategic addition to the community and

[51:46] if you don't get it now, you never will.

[51:48] So, thank you.

[51:50] Thank you for those comments. Much

[51:52] appreciated. Anybody else in the room?

[51:55] Okay, it looks like Wendy's want. You're

[51:58] up. State your name. You have three

[52:01] minutes.

[52:04] Good evening. My name is Wendyu and I'm

[52:07] the executive director of the Boulder

[52:08] Mountain Bike Alliance. I want to

[52:10] express BMA's strong support for parks

[52:12] and open space acquiring the Oriel

[52:14] property and doing so with the clear

[52:16] intent to complete the trail connection

[52:18] from Boulder Canyon Trail to Bataso.

[52:21] Passo is the closest mountain trail

[52:23] system to Boulder that's open to bikes

[52:25] just 2 and 1/2 miles from here as the

[52:27] crow flies. That accessibility combined

[52:30] with great terrain makes it one of the

[52:32] county's most popular trail systems.

[52:34] Meanwhile, the data shows demand has

[52:36] only grown. According to the 2022

[52:39] visitor survey, Bataso had the highest

[52:41] percentage of visitors who reported

[52:43] biking as their primary activity, 52%

[52:46] overall and 71% if you exclude

[52:49] Wednesdays and Saturdays when bikes

[52:51] aren't allowed. It was also the most

[52:53] crowded property in the county with

[52:55] nearly one in four visitors feeling

[52:57] crowded at the trail head.

[53:00] More than a decade ago, Boulder County

[53:01] recognized the need for a safer Boulder

[53:03] to Bataso connection via trail instead

[53:06] of the highway. The original plan in the

[53:08] 2010s was to extend the Boulder Canyon

[53:10] Trail all the way to the Bataso link

[53:13] trail. When Highway 119 flood repairs

[53:17] began, the county bundled the trail

[53:19] extension with SE DOT's work, but the

[53:21] budget limitations eliminated a planned

[53:23] third bike underpass, so the extension

[53:26] stopped at Chapman Drive.

[53:30] In 2016, county staff studied possible

[53:32] new trail options from Boulder Canyon to

[53:35] Picasso and found the options quote

[53:37] unpalatable.

[53:39] One concept included over 400 stairs to

[53:41] climb the canyon wall. The project was

[53:44] shelved until SOT completed its work in

[53:46] 2021. During that time, staff changes

[53:49] and department restructuring left the

[53:51] idea without a champion and it stalled.

[53:54] The Orid Oradel property changes that

[53:57] this parcel sits exactly where the 2009

[54:00] plan identified a quote feasible switch

[54:03] backing trail connection from Boulder

[54:05] Canyon Trail up to the Canyon Loop. By

[54:08] acquiring this property with the intent

[54:10] to complete this link, the county can

[54:11] finally create a safe carfree route to

[54:14] Picasso and fix the longstanding access

[54:17] gap.

[54:18] And with thoughtful design, we can go

[54:21] further. We can create a new trail that

[54:23] has a grade friendly

[54:25] uh grade friendly for climbing bikes and

[54:27] tied into the Bataso link trail to make

[54:30] a 2.5 mile single track loop that can be

[54:32] open to bikes 7 days a week. This

[54:35] acquisition and planning for a trail

[54:38] desired by both staff and the community

[54:40] would improve safety, reduce car trips

[54:42] and crowding, and bring a long needed

[54:44] connection to life. This is exactly the

[54:47] kind of project Boulder County voters

[54:49] support. One that balances conservation

[54:51] recreation in a responsible way. I urge

[54:54] you to acquire the Oridel property with

[54:56] the intent of completing the missing

[54:58] connection from Boulder to Batasa. Thank

[55:00] you.

[55:02] Thank you Wendy for those comments. Um

[55:06] anybody else in the room? Seeing no one.

[55:09] How about online? Nick, do we have

[55:11] anybody that wants to comment? I'll give

[55:13] a second for anybody online who wants to

[55:15] make comment to raise your hand.

[55:21] I don't see any hands raised.

[55:23] Okay. Thank you. So, POSAC, any

[55:26] discussion? Any more discussion or

[55:28] questions before we ask for a motion?

[55:31] All right. Oh, Joan,

[55:34] I was just thinking that because it is

[55:35] at the con near the confluence of two

[55:38] creeks, four mile and Boulder, um that

[55:42] it it might be a a place where there's

[55:46] some Native American history, which

[55:48] would be interesting.

[55:51] That's what we talked about.

[55:54] Yeah. Thank you. Anybody else?

[55:58] All right. So, how about does anyone

[56:00] want to make a motion

[56:02] to approve

[56:05] the project as described above or as

[56:08] further described by staff in their

[56:09] presentation?

[56:11] I will make that motion.

[56:13] All right, how about a second?

[56:14] Trace Baker second.

[56:16] So, we got Derek making the motion and

[56:17] Trey second. So, all those in favor say

[56:22] I.

[56:22] I. I.

[56:24] Anyone oppose say no. All right, it

[56:27] passes unanimously. Thank you.

[56:30] Great. Thanks.

[56:32] It looks like Tina, don't go anywhere.

[56:33] You're up again.

[56:34] I know, right?

[56:35] You got one more from both of us. Let's

[56:38] And this is the pocket property up there

[56:40] towards Lions.

[56:41] Yes.

[56:42] And Cmax.

[56:43] You got it.

[56:44] Can I just Is pocket a proper noun or is

[56:47] that just a description? Is it the Mr.

[56:49] Pocket? It

[56:52] Hot Pockets. Um, no. It's

[56:56] We It was It's a little property, so we

[57:00] just

[57:00] Oh, it's okay. I just wanted

[57:02] fits in your pocket

[57:03] kind of. No, that was our thinking.

[57:06] Well, or Odell was named after someone

[57:08] else.

[57:10] I'm just waiting for my

[57:11] Don't put us presentation to

[57:14] Don't let us

[57:15] get up there.

[57:16] Next time I'll separate.

[57:18] That happens to me all the time. Okay.

[57:29] It's up there.

[57:30] It is.

[57:32] You might need to unplug and plug in

[57:34] again.

[57:34] Okay.

[57:39] Oh, my computer didn't like that. Okay.

[57:44] Start continues.

[57:51] Try it one more time.

[57:54] Okay.

[58:05] So much better.

[58:06] I know, right? Amazing presentation.

[58:10] What's that? I didn't do I mean, it's

[58:12] the same thing I had on before.

[58:15] Do you want a mouse? Because it touch

[58:17] pets people.

[58:21] Oh, thank you.

[58:22] There it is. Not you, Nick. It was me.

[58:25] Okay.

[58:27] All right.

[58:29] Tina Burkhard, Parks and Open Space. Um,

[58:32] my second item is the pocket property.

[58:35] Um, we are proposing fee acquisition of

[58:38] this property. This one, like you said,

[58:41] is just east of um about 3 miles east of

[58:44] Lions near the intersection of Highway

[58:45] 66 and North 53rd.

[58:49] So, the property is approximately 1.21

[58:52] acres and it's adjacent to um our

[58:55] Montgomery, the county's Montgomery and

[58:57] Western Mobile um open space properties.

[59:01] It is owned by Tom Thomas

[59:05] and like I said, it's 1.21 acres and uh

[59:09] the we're proposing to purchase it for

[59:11] $10,500.

[59:13] Uh this map shows you um its proximity

[59:15] to those two open space properties. Um,

[59:19] it is encumbered by a conservation

[59:20] easement prohibiting any residential

[59:22] development. And this conservation

[59:24] easement was conveyed to the county in

[59:26] 2013 as part of a land use process in

[59:29] exchange for increased density on the

[59:31] parcel to the north across the highway.

[59:34] So the the pocket property is vacant and

[59:37] unbuildable. Upon fee acquisition of the

[59:39] property, the conservation easement will

[59:41] merge with the fee interest. Here's a

[59:45] zoomed in view and you can see the

[59:47] property is biseected by the uh

[59:49] railroad.

[59:51] Um it is bordered on two sides by county

[59:53] open space. As I mentioned, the

[59:55] northeastern part of the property is

[59:57] adjacent to a privately owned parcel

[59:59] also encumbered by a county conservation

[1:00:01] easement. Uh following acquisition of

[1:00:03] the pocket property, staff will explore

[1:00:06] conveying the northeastern portion of

[1:00:08] the property to the adjacent land owner

[1:00:10] and securing a new conservation easement

[1:00:12] across the larger parcel. This will

[1:00:14] simplify ownership structure and

[1:00:16] monitoring obl obligations by county

[1:00:19] staff.

[1:00:21] Second,

[1:00:24] this is a view looking southeast to the

[1:00:26] adjacent property.

[1:00:29] Uh here's a view looking southwest or

[1:00:32] the county's open space properties.

[1:00:35] And um I'm going to show some comp plan

[1:00:37] designation slides.

[1:00:41] So on this slide, this uh pink purple

[1:00:43] overlay indicates a St. Brain corridor

[1:00:45] critical wildlife habitat element.

[1:00:50] On this slide, the bright yellow overlay

[1:00:51] on this map indicates the entire parcel

[1:00:53] is also Prebble's jumping mouse

[1:00:55] conservation area zone one in which this

[1:00:59] area is in which it uh the mouse is

[1:01:01] known to occur, including adjacent

[1:01:03] habitat patches that are likely to be

[1:01:05] occupied.

[1:01:08] It's kind of hard to see. Oh, you can

[1:01:10] see it better up here. Um the purple

[1:01:12] hatching shows the riparian areas. All

[1:01:14] of the southwestern piece is in the

[1:01:15] riparian area and that's St. Ring Creek

[1:01:18] there on the bottom left of the slide

[1:01:20] and I think the layers are a little bit

[1:01:22] off that the corner of the property gets

[1:01:24] pretty close to the creek.

[1:01:28] Um lastly, the subtle yellow shading

[1:01:31] across the whole thing um indicates

[1:01:34] significant agricultural land of

[1:01:35] statewide importance and the view

[1:01:38] protection or corridor element is

[1:01:40] present due to highway 66 to the north.

[1:01:44] So staff uh supports this recommendation

[1:01:47] to um the county commissioners to uh

[1:01:50] acquire this parcel largely because it

[1:01:53] simplifies land management and um eases

[1:01:56] the monitoring obligations for staff.

[1:01:59] Happy to answer any questions.

[1:02:02] Thank you Tina. So we got any questions?

[1:02:04] Derek, it looks like

[1:02:05] Derek Turner Posac could you tell me

[1:02:07] more about that? How does it simplify?

[1:02:09] So let me I'm going to go back here.

[1:02:10] Well any I guess this is good. Um, so

[1:02:15] for one, staff is really interested in

[1:02:18] the south western the little piece of

[1:02:21] the triangle there because of its

[1:02:23] adjacency to the creek and it's also

[1:02:25] adjacent to our existing open space. So

[1:02:28] that could that management of that piece

[1:02:30] could be wrapped into management of the

[1:02:31] existing open space. Um, as I mentioned,

[1:02:35] we will explore trying to um sell the

[1:02:39] top parcel to the adjacent land owner

[1:02:41] and get a larger conservation easement

[1:02:43] over that parcel to the east and that

[1:02:46] top piece. And then that would be one

[1:02:48] conservation easement, one monitoring

[1:02:50] visit. And it's it just this way staff

[1:02:54] won't have to go out and monitor two

[1:02:55] separate conservation easements. I'll

[1:02:58] note that when I mentioned that this was

[1:03:00] this conservation easement was conveyed

[1:03:01] as part of a regulatory process, what

[1:03:04] that ultimately resulted in is that this

[1:03:06] piece is not owned by the same people

[1:03:09] that own the property to the north and

[1:03:12] that that ends up with it's sort of an

[1:03:14] orphan conservation easement with an

[1:03:16] absentee land owner. So, it was acquired

[1:03:19] by the current owner through a

[1:03:21] treasurer's deed. And I think if

[1:03:25] it's a parcel of land that that it's

[1:03:28] difficult because it's so small, you

[1:03:30] can't do anything on it, farm on it or

[1:03:32] anything. So it's tough for a landowner

[1:03:34] to want to invest any care and

[1:03:37] stewarding of the property which then

[1:03:39] when our monitors go out and there stuff

[1:03:41] needs to be done, it takes a lot of time

[1:03:43] to, you know, address issues because

[1:03:46] nobody's out there. So then that would

[1:03:49] obi beate all of that and then that that

[1:03:51] southwest piece would just be folded

[1:03:54] into management of the existing open

[1:03:55] space.

[1:03:56] Thanks. So it's really about the

[1:03:57] triangle.

[1:03:58] It's it's about the triangle. We should

[1:04:00] we thought about calling it the triangle

[1:04:01] property, but it's kind of a mouthful.

[1:04:03] Um but but it is and and it would it it

[1:04:06] would just make things simpler and more

[1:04:10] logical from a management perspective.

[1:04:13] Do you have an idea of how big that tri

[1:04:15] the triangle is? I should have measured

[1:04:18] it on GIS. I'm going to guess it's two

[1:04:21] ten of an acre

[1:04:22] is little.

[1:04:24] And is it do you expect to recoup maybe

[1:04:27] the whole price from selling

[1:04:29] maybe some? Okay.

[1:04:30] But you know the um the not having to

[1:04:35] monitor and have these two easements

[1:04:38] would probably be recovered because this

[1:04:41] is a perpetual obligation.

[1:04:43] Thanks.

[1:04:44] Yep.

[1:04:46] Christine

[1:04:49] uh Christine Johnson POSAC I was a

[1:04:51] little confused by the note in there

[1:04:53] about saying that it could be opened for

[1:04:55] publicly public public use that that was

[1:04:57] a potential Can you explain that?

[1:05:00] Uh the

[1:05:02] unless we have a reason to keep a

[1:05:05] property closed it's open.

[1:05:07] Okay.

[1:05:10] Okay. Trace

[1:05:12] uh Trace Baker POSAC. Um in the handout

[1:05:15] that we received

[1:05:18] um it says the property is currently

[1:05:21] used for passive recreation

[1:05:24] and uh I can't imagine

[1:05:29] anybody wanting to

[1:05:33] uh so what how is it being used right

[1:05:37] now? It isn't really being used at all,

[1:05:39] but I would think the land owner might

[1:05:40] walk on it,

[1:05:42] which is pass of recreation.

[1:05:44] Okay.

[1:05:46] Okay. Um, you know, I I realize this is

[1:05:49] a very inexpensive property. Um, I'm I'm

[1:05:53] having trouble being convinced that this

[1:05:55] is worth uh buying, but uh you can

[1:05:59] convince me.

[1:06:01] I could repeat everything I said. Okay.

[1:06:05] Thank you. Uhhuh.

[1:06:08] Vicki Vicky Lawrence Posac. So, has

[1:06:11] there been discussion with the adjacent

[1:06:13] homeowners about B or the adjacent

[1:06:15] property owners about buying this piece

[1:06:17] back from the county?

[1:06:18] Well, we haven't because we don't own

[1:06:20] the

[1:06:22] But it it seems as though you don't

[1:06:25] really want to own that part of it. So,

[1:06:28] wouldn't you like to know that you're

[1:06:30] not going to own it?

[1:06:31] I think it's okay to own it. It would be

[1:06:32] better if the adjacent it was wrapped

[1:06:35] into the adjacent parcel, but I think

[1:06:37] it's also not a bad thing to own it

[1:06:41] because then we could manage it.

[1:06:47] Yeah. John

[1:06:48] John White Back the So the Southwest

[1:06:52] long term your plan is to have the

[1:06:54] Southwest corner say a conservation

[1:06:57] event or turn it into open regular open

[1:07:00] space where we own. So

[1:07:03] when we if we purchase the parcel, which

[1:07:06] is all the green the two pieces on that

[1:07:08] map, um there will the conservation

[1:07:11] easement that's there now will merge

[1:07:12] into the fee interest. So there will no

[1:07:14] longer be a conservation easement there.

[1:07:16] That's what I was wondering. Okay.

[1:07:17] Thank you.

[1:07:18] Mhm.

[1:07:20] All right. No more questions. I have a

[1:07:22] question. So when the northern part or

[1:07:26] the northeast parcel the biggest piece.

[1:07:29] So are you talking about the adjacent

[1:07:32] land owner if you go all the way to the

[1:07:34] eastern point of this that house down

[1:07:36] there?

[1:07:36] It would seem if I was that land owner.

[1:07:39] I would be pretty interested in it

[1:07:41] considering that it's kind of like in

[1:07:43] their front yard.

[1:07:44] Yes. I without going into too much

[1:07:48] backstory, I I think there were

[1:07:50] discussions with the current land owner

[1:07:52] to see if they were interested in it,

[1:07:54] but there were some outstanding tax

[1:07:56] issues and valuation issues. So, I think

[1:07:58] those land owners were concerned about

[1:08:00] property taxes.

[1:08:03] Okay. All right. Thank you. No more

[1:08:06] questions then. Um, do we have any

[1:08:10] public comment in the room?

[1:08:12] Okay. Anybody online?

[1:08:16] I'll give a second for anybody online if

[1:08:19] you'd like to make comment.

[1:08:21] I don't see any hands raised.

[1:08:24] Okay. So, ah,

[1:08:27] I do have a question. Do you want to go?

[1:08:29] Yes, please come up here and and say

[1:08:31] your name and

[1:08:33] where you live.

[1:08:36] Um,

[1:08:37] and it's more like a comment, but go

[1:08:39] ahead.

[1:08:39] Yeah, it is a comment. Kevin Kevin Abear

[1:08:41] uh live in Gun Barrel and you say the

[1:08:45] property owner to the right would be

[1:08:48] interested in that property. Is there

[1:08:49] another property owner to the left

[1:08:52] along the road to reference to the

[1:08:55] to the west to

[1:08:58] the west?

[1:08:59] Yeah, it's oriented north south. Um

[1:09:00] got a different property.

[1:09:01] It's the county,

[1:09:02] huh?

[1:09:02] It's all county open space to the west

[1:09:04] and it it it it's railroad really. It

[1:09:07] kind of the railroad pinches up into

[1:09:09] Highway 66.

[1:09:10] Okay. So, there's nobody else to the

[1:09:12] left.

[1:09:12] There is not.

[1:09:13] You only have one one person who would

[1:09:14] be interested in this property

[1:09:15] potentially. Yeah.

[1:09:17] Okay.

[1:09:19] Okay. Thank you. All right. Um, POSAC,

[1:09:22] any more comments or questions?

[1:09:26] Nope. Okay. Do we have a second or a uh

[1:09:29] motion

[1:09:31] to approve this project as described

[1:09:33] above and further described by staff in

[1:09:35] their presentation?

[1:09:37] So move Carol Berley Posac.

[1:09:39] Okay. Do we have a second from anyone?

[1:09:41] John second.

[1:09:42] Okay. John second. Carol made the

[1:09:44] motion. All those in favor I

[1:09:48] I.

[1:09:50] Anyone opposed say no.

[1:09:53] Okay. It passes unanimously. Thank you

[1:09:55] Tina.

[1:09:57] Oh, we'll see.

[1:10:00] Okay, next presentation.

[1:10:03] We have a presentation. So, this is

[1:10:05] informational and it will be Amanda

[1:10:06] Hatfield coming up and Alex

[1:10:09] Alex Windorf and you're going to talk

[1:10:11] about the weed warrior program. Give us

[1:10:13] an update.

[1:10:41] That go away.

[1:11:00] Okay. I don't know.

[1:11:02] Sorry about that.

[1:11:04] Uh, thank you so much for letting us

[1:11:06] come and talk about this. My name is

[1:11:08] Amanda Hatfield. I'm a senior volunteer

[1:11:10] work projects coordinator for Boulder

[1:11:12] County Parks and Open Space and I work

[1:11:13] mainly in the resource management

[1:11:15] division. Um, so we're here to talk

[1:11:18] about our weed warrior program that we

[1:11:19] started last year in 2024.

[1:11:23] Um, so we just want to give you a quick

[1:11:24] background of what we're going over. Um,

[1:11:26] really kind about how this came into

[1:11:28] conception uh, uh, last year. Um, a

[1:11:32] little bit of an update about or really

[1:11:34] kind of talk about what it means to be a

[1:11:35] weed warrior. Um, some of our

[1:11:38] improvements we've made this year as far

[1:11:39] as data collection um, and what type of

[1:11:43] um, how much engagement we've had with

[1:11:45] our volunteers and then some some

[1:11:47] highlights we've had from the season

[1:11:49] this year. And then looking ahead, what

[1:11:51] we kind of hope to see um happening in

[1:11:53] the future. Um so as you all may know,

[1:11:57] uh we did just recently improve the

[1:11:59] integrated weed management program. Um

[1:12:02] and this was really um this program came

[1:12:05] out of this and that there was a real

[1:12:06] strong need and want for us to be

[1:12:09] finding new and innovative ways to be

[1:12:11] using less herbicide on our properties.

[1:12:14] Um and one of the things that kept

[1:12:15] coming up was can volunteers do this?

[1:12:18] And um we thought, well, yeah, we can.

[1:12:20] We have volunteers that want to do this.

[1:12:22] And we thought, well, what is that

[1:12:23] really going to look like? Um so we

[1:12:25] really took a hard look at what this

[1:12:27] would mean, what this would actually

[1:12:29] mean, how we could actually see some

[1:12:30] progress through this and kind of rate

[1:12:32] if this would actually be something that

[1:12:34] would work. And so what we did is we

[1:12:37] weeds

[1:12:39] crew looked at different properties that

[1:12:41] would be a good um a good option for

[1:12:43] this. And our goal was to look at a

[1:12:45] property that hadn't had herbicide use

[1:12:47] on it. Um, in this one section of Walker

[1:12:50] Ranch, which is basically where the main

[1:12:52] loop is, the Walker Ranch loop, only

[1:12:54] that side, not the Meyers Gulch side.

[1:12:56] Um, there hadn't been any herbicide

[1:12:58] applied for at least a year on that that

[1:13:00] hadn't been managed with herbicide. So,

[1:13:02] we thought this would be a great one.

[1:13:04] It's a kind of discreet area, um, that

[1:13:06] they have access to all the way around,

[1:13:08] that our volunteers would have access to

[1:13:09] all the way around. Um, so we decided

[1:13:12] that we're going to try um for 5 years

[1:13:14] and we are calling this a pilot program.

[1:13:16] This is something I'm probably going to

[1:13:17] keep mentioning because uh pilot

[1:13:20] actually really means something to us in

[1:13:22] this and that this is an experiment. Um

[1:13:25] we know that volunteers are engaged but

[1:13:27] we don't know how much um work this is

[1:13:30] actually be or how much how successful

[1:13:32] we will be by only utilizing volunteers

[1:13:35] to manage weeds on this property. And

[1:13:37] that is the promise that we made to the

[1:13:39] public and to our volunteers is that for

[1:13:41] 5 years we will not be applying any

[1:13:43] herbicide of any kind on this section of

[1:13:45] the trail. And the only management

[1:13:47] that's going to be done is going to be

[1:13:48] done with staff and with volunteers. Um

[1:13:52] so we uh set this up. We had high hopes

[1:13:54] that we would get 12 people that would

[1:13:56] want to do it. As you can see our first

[1:13:58] year we had 46 applicants um to be part

[1:14:01] of this. About 35 people ended up being

[1:14:03] active in that first year. And then this

[1:14:06] year we had 19 people come back and we

[1:14:09] had 21 new recruits. We have about 35

[1:14:11] still um active in this program. And you

[1:14:14] might be seeing those numbers go up and

[1:14:16] wondering about that. That's actually

[1:14:18] pretty normal. It's something that we

[1:14:20] expect as volunteer coordinators. There

[1:14:22] is a normal amount of attrition. And in

[1:14:24] this program in particular, we ask a lot

[1:14:27] of volunteers. Um we are really asking a

[1:14:29] lot of them. And I think that when

[1:14:31] people are actually doing this, they

[1:14:32] start to realize this isn't actually

[1:14:34] something I can do and we work with

[1:14:36] them. We try to find ways to to work

[1:14:38] around their schedules, but sometimes it

[1:14:40] just isn't for them and they move on and

[1:14:42] sometimes they come back. So that's why

[1:14:44] we expect that attrition.

[1:14:46] Um, so a little bit about what the

[1:14:48] training looks like. Um, we do have a

[1:14:50] general orientation and this year one of

[1:14:52] the things that we've we've changed is

[1:14:54] that we actually have an online option

[1:14:56] for that. and what this orientation

[1:14:57] really is is going over the history of

[1:15:00] the program, what it means to be a

[1:15:02] volunteer for the program. So, what our

[1:15:04] expectations are and then what they can

[1:15:06] expect from us um as far as keeping them

[1:15:08] safe and the kind of the benefits about

[1:15:10] being a volunteer, like you can get free

[1:15:12] first aid and CPR. You get to go places

[1:15:14] that other members of the public don't.

[1:15:17] You get really good access to our staff.

[1:15:19] Um and then there are and then the

[1:15:21] expectations of what there are for the

[1:15:23] program. So you can see in there our

[1:15:25] training sites. We have four training

[1:15:27] days and as a new um weed warrior we

[1:15:30] expect you to go to all of those. Um

[1:15:33] most of those are actually field days.

[1:15:35] So that and orientation is only one and

[1:15:37] we have given people the option of

[1:15:39] actually doing that online this year. We

[1:15:41] encourage everyone to come to that so

[1:15:43] they can meet but everyone has to come

[1:15:45] to the first orientation day in the

[1:15:47] field. Um, and those field days are

[1:15:49] really, really vital because we're

[1:15:51] actually walking through how they are

[1:15:53] monitoring um, at their posts and how to

[1:15:56] treat. And then each time they come out,

[1:15:58] they're at different times in the

[1:16:00] season. They're actually doing weed ID

[1:16:02] with our weed experts. Um, so they

[1:16:04] actually get to walk with us. They get

[1:16:06] to ask questions. They get to we get to

[1:16:08] compare weeds and see what things are.

[1:16:10] Um, so it's really a great way to learn

[1:16:12] a lot. And it really when they come out

[1:16:14] of this, we have some really highly

[1:16:16] trained volunteers um that are really

[1:16:18] really great. Um obviously safety is a

[1:16:21] huge part of this. We talk about being

[1:16:22] safe on the trails. Um we give them

[1:16:24] vests so they are visible. Um and um we

[1:16:28] provide all the tools they need to be

[1:16:30] doing their um what we call treatment,

[1:16:32] which is pulling weeds. By the way, if

[1:16:34] you keep hearing that, we mean pulling

[1:16:36] weeds is treatment. We have other means

[1:16:39] to do that as well, like we actually

[1:16:40] have have weed whips that we're going to

[1:16:42] start utilizing next year for some areas

[1:16:44] as well. And then we also go into what

[1:16:46] our goals are. And I'd say the main

[1:16:48] thing, and I know Alex is going to

[1:16:49] address this, that we talk about is that

[1:16:52] we have eradication and we have

[1:16:53] suppression. There are certain species

[1:16:55] that we want eradicated as you all know,

[1:16:58] we think like our list species. We have

[1:17:00] a couple other species thrown in there

[1:17:01] that we actually trying to eradicate in

[1:17:03] the entire county. So, we make sure that

[1:17:05] people know the difference between

[1:17:06] those, but a large majority of what

[1:17:09] they're doing out there is suppression.

[1:17:11] Um, and we have to constantly remind our

[1:17:13] volunteers is that we are not asking you

[1:17:16] to remove every single weed of this

[1:17:18] property. We know that's not possible,

[1:17:20] but what we're looking at is to contain

[1:17:22] what we have there, especially with

[1:17:23] these certain species where we are not

[1:17:25] looking for eradication, we're looking

[1:17:27] for suppression.

[1:17:29] Um, all right. And then one other thing

[1:17:31] with that, so within this training, they

[1:17:33] then actually choose their trail

[1:17:34] section. So it's split into one mile

[1:17:37] sections this whole loop. Um it ends up

[1:17:39] being about 10 cuz we include the link

[1:17:41] trail that goes from the main trail head

[1:17:43] down to Flag Staff. Um we include that

[1:17:46] section of it as well. So um everyone's

[1:17:48] responsible really only for one mile of

[1:17:51] trail. Of course, because our volunteers

[1:17:52] are incredible, they do way more than

[1:17:54] that. They do everywhere they're

[1:17:55] walking. They will treat and they will

[1:17:56] monitor and they will report back. Um,

[1:17:58] but they're actually only responsible

[1:18:00] for one mile of trail.

[1:18:04] All right, Alex, can take off.

[1:18:06] Yeah, Alex Wendorf, excuse me. Um,

[1:18:09] suppression technician with parks and

[1:18:11] open space. Um, so I'm going to talk a

[1:18:13] little bit about some of our field

[1:18:14] training that we have for our weed

[1:18:16] warrior volunteers. Um, as Amanda was

[1:18:18] mentioning, we the volunteers get quite

[1:18:20] a bit of training um to kind of perform

[1:18:21] their their activities out there. Um, we

[1:18:24] introduced a lot of technology this year

[1:18:27] as kind of a response to

[1:18:30] complaints about how cumbersome uh

[1:18:33] reporting was last year. Um, so we used

[1:18:37] a new um a new program called survey

[1:18:40] 123. It's within the EZRI suite. Um, and

[1:18:43] it's very very simple field surveys that

[1:18:45] you can they can do offline on their

[1:18:46] phone while they're on location. Um

[1:18:49] other technology we have for them they

[1:18:51] have their own website with additional

[1:18:53] resources for weed ID for management

[1:18:57] activities

[1:18:58] um for the uh maps through a Venza which

[1:19:01] is a offline um geo PDF referencing

[1:19:06] applications you can take um basically

[1:19:09] base maps download them offline and then

[1:19:12] use them in the field to get your your

[1:19:14] real-time location.

[1:19:16] Um, discover is our volunteer management

[1:19:19] platform. Um, so one of our trainings

[1:19:23] just all the technology

[1:19:25] um is very very user friendly. So, so

[1:19:30] hope hopefully um they they understood

[1:19:33] their concerns from last year were were

[1:19:35] addressed appropriately.

[1:19:37] Um, we have weed ID and management

[1:19:39] method trainings that we had out in the

[1:19:41] field where basically we go out in the

[1:19:43] field with the volunteers and we walk

[1:19:46] around and see what weeds are growing.

[1:19:48] Um, ID them so they have a good idea of

[1:19:50] what the noxious weed species are on

[1:19:52] site. Um, the growth stage that they're

[1:19:54] at so they can readily ID them and do

[1:19:57] management in the field.

[1:20:01] Um and these are just some of the

[1:20:03] examples of the technology that we're

[1:20:05] asking them to use. Um the discover site

[1:20:07] and then these are all different

[1:20:08] screenshots from um some of our

[1:20:10] different surveys through um survey 123.

[1:20:14] Um there's also our data solutions team

[1:20:17] is fantastic. They were able to add a um

[1:20:20] a quick weed ID guide to every single

[1:20:24] one of the surveys. So even if you

[1:20:25] didn't have a field guide with you, you

[1:20:27] at least had the species of concern. Um

[1:20:31] so you had names of those, you had the

[1:20:34] um pictures of them, and if they were a

[1:20:35] suppression species or an eradication

[1:20:37] species. Um which can be extremely

[1:20:40] helpful. Sometimes you see something and

[1:20:43] you're like, is this diffused napeweed?

[1:20:46] There's a lot of things that might look

[1:20:48] like it, but

[1:20:50] picture can help a lot. Yeah. Up there

[1:20:51] it's most likely napweed.

[1:20:54] I don't know if you any of you have been

[1:20:55] but there's a little bit of up there.

[1:20:59] Um so data that we've able to get

[1:21:02] through survey one 123 and these are all

[1:21:04] the every time they're up there we ask

[1:21:06] them well three times a year we ask them

[1:21:08] to do a post monitoring survey which we

[1:21:11] have monitoring posts out there. We ask

[1:21:13] them to do species recognized within a

[1:21:17] 5ft radius of the post species

[1:21:19] recognized just visually from the post.

[1:21:22] We ask them to do a section monitoring

[1:21:25] survey, which is anything they see along

[1:21:27] the trail while they're out there. And

[1:21:29] then um we also ask them to do the

[1:21:31] treatment survey, which is anytime

[1:21:33] they're pulling weeds, digging weeds,

[1:21:35] clipping seed heads, any actual

[1:21:37] management activities on the noxious

[1:21:38] weed species. That way we can track

[1:21:41] their time, locations, um species

[1:21:44] controlled, things like that.

[1:21:46] Um so for this year there's 126

[1:21:49] submissions. Um, so it kind of rounded

[1:21:53] out to about 310 hours of volunteer

[1:21:55] time. Um, 163 was actually monitoring,

[1:22:00] which is still extremely valuable to us

[1:22:02] cuz I am I am but one man. I can't I

[1:22:06] can't be out on the trail every single

[1:22:08] day. Um, and having the volunteers on

[1:22:10] site gives me a very very good idea of

[1:22:13] what species are active different times

[1:22:16] of year, what species are um, either

[1:22:18] increasing, decreasing, etc. Um, and

[1:22:21] they've had 147 hours of treatments that

[1:22:24] they were out there individually working

[1:22:26] on. Uh, for staff time, we had about 157

[1:22:29] hours, and that's for our initial weed

[1:22:31] assessments, uh, for any treatments that

[1:22:33] we were out there helping the volunteers

[1:22:35] with. Um we had warrior training days

[1:22:38] that we were on site for and then we had

[1:22:40] we we had warrior work days. Um we would

[1:22:43] have staff on site um kind of working on

[1:22:45] priority areas um kind of invited the

[1:22:48] volunteers and you know kind of a drop

[1:22:50] in session. They can drop in help out

[1:22:52] with weeding where they can catch up on

[1:22:53] training that's been missed or the kind

[1:22:56] of opportunity to ask any of those

[1:22:57] questions that they haven't had answers

[1:22:59] yet. Um, and also through the survey

[1:23:02] 123, we were able to get a lot of photo

[1:23:04] points because that's one of the things

[1:23:05] we asked them to do, their monitoring

[1:23:07] posts.

[1:23:09] So, this is post one and not a lot of

[1:23:12] time in between pictures. Um, but this

[1:23:14] is a really interesting one cuz with

[1:23:15] photo points, it's taking the same

[1:23:18] picture from the same location over and

[1:23:20] over and over again. But this was the

[1:23:22] picture on the left was the earlier and

[1:23:24] in the notes they said Mullen had been

[1:23:26] shredded by hail.

[1:23:28] And the picture tells that exact same

[1:23:30] story, but not too much time has passed.

[1:23:34] You can see the the older leaves on the

[1:23:36] base of the mullen has been shredded by

[1:23:38] leaves and lots of vigorous growth

[1:23:39] above. They're doing what weeds do.

[1:23:43] Um, this is a picture from post one. Um,

[1:23:49] and this is yeah, mid June. So, you can

[1:23:52] see it's pretty green out there. Um,

[1:23:55] next picture was from June 26, so not a

[1:23:59] lot of time has passed. You can see at

[1:24:01] least one curly cup gum weed has

[1:24:02] bloomed, but this is from September 9th.

[1:24:06] You can see a drastic difference.

[1:24:08] Um, you can see a lot of diffused nap in

[1:24:10] the foreground. Some of that mullen that

[1:24:12] was, you know, very, very short earlier

[1:24:14] in the season now has been, you know,

[1:24:16] full full bloom. Um, but what's what's

[1:24:19] really nice about this is this is this

[1:24:21] is only a few months of one photo point

[1:24:24] and within a few years we'll be able to

[1:24:26] really really kind of see if there's

[1:24:28] progression of different weed species in

[1:24:30] different areas. Um, cuz we asked them

[1:24:33] to kind of from each of those posts do

[1:24:35] photo point each of the cardinal

[1:24:36] directions. So we'll have four pictures

[1:24:39] per post,

[1:24:41] 20 posts out there. So we'll have a kind

[1:24:44] of a good idea um of like I said

[1:24:47] progression of weed species and things

[1:24:49] like that.

[1:24:51] Um that's one of the posts. Um there's

[1:24:55] that that paracord on there is their 5

[1:24:56] foot radius string. So they can measure

[1:24:58] that out and walk their circle to do

[1:25:01] their radius monitoring. Um through that

[1:25:04] survey 123 we're able to do kind of

[1:25:06] analytics on the back end and put

[1:25:07] together some some charts. Um, so those

[1:25:10] are the the different posts out there,

[1:25:12] one through 20, and the number of visits

[1:25:14] per post. Um,

[1:25:18] the section monitoring surveys that

[1:25:20] we've had them send in. Um, I found this

[1:25:24] is pretty interesting. The most commonly

[1:25:26] IDed weeds were common mullen, cheat

[1:25:29] grass, and diffuse snapweed. And those

[1:25:30] are those species pictured there. Um

[1:25:34] when we look at our treatment

[1:25:37] information, common mullen um diffused

[1:25:40] snapweed and delmatian toad flax were

[1:25:43] the most treated species with chrass

[1:25:46] coming in a little bit before. I don't

[1:25:48] know if any of you ever dealt with any

[1:25:49] chrass before. Yeah, I see some I see

[1:25:51] some pained looks in the audience. It's

[1:25:54] it's terribly hard to manage by manual

[1:25:56] control. You can do it,

[1:25:59] but it's a lot.

[1:26:00] You remove it with your socks. Yeah,

[1:26:02] that's true.

[1:26:03] You can remove a lot of you can remove a

[1:26:05] lot of seed bankank with your socks.

[1:26:09] Um, so with with all these volunteers

[1:26:11] out there submitting their surveys,

[1:26:13] we're getting a lot of interesting data

[1:26:15] that this is kind of year one. So it's

[1:26:17] it's really interesting to see what's

[1:26:19] being submitted. Um, but over a few

[1:26:21] years, I think it'll tell a lot more

[1:26:22] comprehensive story on what species are

[1:26:25] present, their densities, um, if

[1:26:27] infestations are moving throughout the

[1:26:29] the loop system. Um, yeah, it's really

[1:26:33] interesting and they've they've embraced

[1:26:35] the technology. Um, yeah, it's very very

[1:26:39] fun fun program. I think all the

[1:26:41] volunteers have had a good time with I

[1:26:42] very much enjoy all the field training

[1:26:44] sessions and getting to interact with

[1:26:45] the volunteers out there. Lot of very

[1:26:47] passionate individuals that um are not

[1:26:50] such big fans of noxious weeds.

[1:26:54] All right.

[1:26:57] So, we um definitely had some great

[1:26:59] highlights this year. Um there's some

[1:27:01] these are pictures from this year on

[1:27:03] some of those work days. Um so, we had

[1:27:07] these the training events were really

[1:27:08] really well attended. Um I think people

[1:27:11] learned a lot. I think one of the the

[1:27:13] biggest barriers that we find is that

[1:27:15] people come and they're like, I don't I

[1:27:17] don't know what weeds look like. I don't

[1:27:18] know how to ID them. and we really kind

[1:27:21] of like walk them through it slowly. So

[1:27:23] I feel like by the end they definitely

[1:27:24] know and their first year they might

[1:27:26] only know those big three and that's

[1:27:28] really okay because that's the majority

[1:27:30] of what they're seeing out there. Um so

[1:27:32] I think they they really I felt like

[1:27:33] they were a lot more confident this year

[1:27:35] going out there and um getting after

[1:27:37] some of those things. Um the addition of

[1:27:40] those that those work days that he was

[1:27:42] talking about with the staff, those drop

[1:27:43] in days, that was a new thing that I

[1:27:45] thought was actually a really great way.

[1:27:47] One of the things we're really trying to

[1:27:49] do in this pilot program is remove

[1:27:51] barriers for people getting involved in

[1:27:52] this program and training and come

[1:27:55] showing up for training dates is a huge

[1:27:56] barrier for a lot of people. Um people

[1:27:58] work or have other you know they have

[1:28:00] families they want to see I guess and

[1:28:03] other things that they want to do than

[1:28:04] pull weeds. So we are trying to create

[1:28:06] as many opportunities people come and

[1:28:07] get the training that they they need um

[1:28:09] for this program. And so I thought that

[1:28:11] was a really great one. Um cultural

[1:28:13] control efforts. So, one of the things

[1:28:15] we've actually kind of picked a little

[1:28:16] project area right at the trail head.

[1:28:18] There is um drainage that goes right off

[1:28:20] from the trail head. This little gully

[1:28:22] that is packed full of napweed and other

[1:28:24] things, mostly napweed and Canada

[1:28:27] thistle. Um so, we are really choosing

[1:28:30] as a team. We go back every year. We

[1:28:32] work there a lot. But in the fall, we go

[1:28:34] out and you can see on the right what we

[1:28:36] do is we pull or we're taking we will

[1:28:39] bag all the napweed and we um are

[1:28:41] digging up rosettes cuz there's a ton of

[1:28:43] rosettes. Believe it or not, even this

[1:28:45] late in the year, they come up all year

[1:28:47] round. And then we are seeding. So we

[1:28:49] have a seed mix, a native seed mix from

[1:28:51] the area that was collected in the area

[1:28:53] by volunteers as well. Um that um so

[1:28:56] we're putting that down. And you see

[1:28:57] those blue pellets is actually um what's

[1:28:59] it called? It's a paper mulch. It's a

[1:29:01] dry applied um hydro mulch.

[1:29:03] Hydro. Okay. Yeah. So it's like little

[1:29:06] paper pellets basically. So when it

[1:29:07] rains, when there's water on it, it kind

[1:29:08] of expands out and sticks into the

[1:29:11] ground. Um so we're trying to like give

[1:29:12] it even a little bit more of a chance.

[1:29:14] Um so that was really great. Um people

[1:29:17] they love doing that. It's kind of nice

[1:29:18] to complete the cycle. You pull the

[1:29:20] weeds, you cause the disturbance, you

[1:29:21] get some seed down to try to get we're

[1:29:24] trying to out compete that seed bank

[1:29:26] with that nap weed. And it's um it's a

[1:29:28] struggle, but we're getting there. Um,

[1:29:31] and then we had some really great awards

[1:29:33] this year. So, if we the Boulder County,

[1:29:36] um, volunteer program enrichment awards

[1:29:38] for the commissioners. We won a $900

[1:29:41] award from them for this program. Um,

[1:29:43] which is really great. And, um, I'm

[1:29:46] going to be spending that on our

[1:29:47] volunteers. So, anyone that comes back

[1:29:49] and completes their hours is actually

[1:29:51] going to get a nice fancy sun shirt.

[1:29:53] That is a Boulder County sunshirt cuz

[1:29:55] sun exposure is no joke up in Walker.

[1:29:58] So, we're getting them some nice gear

[1:29:59] for them to be able to do their jobs a

[1:30:01] little bit better. And then, um, Amy

[1:30:03] Iwatada, who is one of our longtime

[1:30:05] volunteers, not only with Weed Warriors,

[1:30:07] but does tons of other stuff for us,

[1:30:09] actually won the outstanding volunteer

[1:30:10] of the award year for this year as well.

[1:30:12] Um, which we're very, very proud of. Um,

[1:30:14] and there she's on our next Oops, I

[1:30:16] skipped right over. There she is.

[1:30:17] There's Amy.

[1:30:19] Um, so what's next? Oh, and just I was

[1:30:23] going to point out though, so up on the

[1:30:25] upper left corner, that picture is one

[1:30:26] of our seasonal um weed technicians. Um

[1:30:29] and they were great coming out. They

[1:30:31] actually got to learn a little about um

[1:30:32] volunteer engagement and volunteer

[1:30:34] coordination, which I thought was great.

[1:30:36] Another skill they get to add. Um that

[1:30:38] is a diffuse naped by the way, an

[1:30:39] enormous diffuse nap that he's holding

[1:30:41] up. We found some biorol uh weevils um

[1:30:46] that the state gets um puts out a lot of

[1:30:48] biorol. We were actually starting to see

[1:30:50] some of those head over on our side,

[1:30:51] which was really, really exciting um to

[1:30:53] see. That's what that picture is up

[1:30:55] there on the upper right. Um so looking

[1:30:58] at what's next. So every year we do

[1:31:01] what's called our um December data deep

[1:31:03] dive and it's potluck. So we go over all

[1:31:06] the data with them and it's also the

[1:31:08] chance before that we send out um a

[1:31:10] survey to ask them what worked, what do

[1:31:12] you want to see different. We are asking

[1:31:15] for a lot of feedback from volunteers

[1:31:17] and then we go over that with them. So

[1:31:18] we can talk about like this is actually

[1:31:20] something we plan to do. This was a

[1:31:22] great idea. This is what we're going to

[1:31:23] do about in the future. So they get

[1:31:24] real-time feedback from the feedback

[1:31:26] they're giving us and that's really

[1:31:27] important to us. It's the only way this

[1:31:29] program gets better is it actually works

[1:31:31] to the volunteers that are that are

[1:31:32] doing it. Um recruitment, I would like

[1:31:35] to really kind of up our recruitment

[1:31:36] this year again. Um I think we're going

[1:31:38] to I'm going to try to do a a bigger

[1:31:40] push. We have a great video put out. Um

[1:31:44] my time this year was really kind of cut

[1:31:46] with the amount of the rest of my job

[1:31:48] that I was doing. Um but I'm hoping this

[1:31:50] um winter to put in a little bit of um

[1:31:52] head time with that to get more of that

[1:31:54] and really just more community

[1:31:55] engagement. We are I am currently

[1:31:57] working with other weeding groups um in

[1:32:00] other parts of the county. Um the skunk

[1:32:02] creek weeders and the lines weed posy

[1:32:05] I'm doing individual projects with them.

[1:32:07] My goal is to kind of get them under

[1:32:09] we're like kind of slowly I do public

[1:32:11] projects that are basically in

[1:32:13] partnership with them. Um we would love

[1:32:15] to see this program expanded eventually.

[1:32:17] I mean I think that is our goal to be

[1:32:19] kind of have these this type of thing

[1:32:21] happening and more places in the county.

[1:32:23] Um and having those people in the

[1:32:25] community that already have these set

[1:32:26] these things set up in their communities

[1:32:29] is really key to making that happen.

[1:32:31] These people are members of these

[1:32:33] communities. They get their neighbors

[1:32:34] involved. So, I'm working really hard to

[1:32:36] reach out to those people and those

[1:32:37] groups that are doing that. So, as this

[1:32:39] grows, we actually have some buy in from

[1:32:41] everybody else doing it. And then staff

[1:32:43] training. And this is one of the things

[1:32:44] is that um when weed staff comes on,

[1:32:48] they're not, you know, they're not

[1:32:49] trained or hired to work with volunteers

[1:32:51] and doing more um work with them to

[1:32:54] actually train them to work with

[1:32:55] volunteers um so they can get a little

[1:32:57] bit more out of it and that it's, you

[1:32:58] know, better for our volunteers as well.

[1:33:01] and any questions.

[1:33:04] All right, great Amanda and Alex. That

[1:33:07] was a very informative and enthusiastic

[1:33:09] presentation, a great program.

[1:33:11] Um, much appreciated. So, pose that

[1:33:13] questions. Joan, we'll start down there.

[1:33:16] Joan, let's pose and thank you very

[1:33:19] much. This is a very very important

[1:33:22] initiative to slow the degradation

[1:33:27] of our open space and it also helps all

[1:33:32] the native fauna and even native insects

[1:33:35] which are very important especially

[1:33:37] those that are specialists on natives

[1:33:40] not generalists.

[1:33:41] And I also wanted to say Amy was very

[1:33:44] deserving of this award. She has such a

[1:33:47] great cand do spirit and a positive

[1:33:50] attitude. I I just love her. Anyway, um

[1:33:54] the one other thing was um I would just

[1:33:58] love it if the program could somehow be

[1:34:01] expanded. And I know people think, oh,

[1:34:04] there's volunteers doing this, so

[1:34:07] there's no county money involved, but

[1:34:09] the volunteers need all of this

[1:34:11] coordination. It takes a lot of staff

[1:34:13] time and um so um but it would be great

[1:34:19] if we could have just like once a year

[1:34:23] people tackling the the weeds at trail

[1:34:27] heads and also after um trail

[1:34:31] construction projects cuz somehow it

[1:34:34] always seems to bring in I don't know

[1:34:35] whether it's tires or what more napweed

[1:34:38] that pops up along say Hall Ranch

[1:34:41] trails.

[1:34:42] Um but um just wanted to say again thank

[1:34:47] you very much for

[1:34:48] well thank you thank you Jonah I want to

[1:34:50] recognize you and Christine the work

[1:34:52] that you have done on this program as

[1:34:54] well. So I just want to say thank you

[1:34:55] for that but I also want to let you know

[1:34:57] that we do do other um a majority of my

[1:35:01] other projects my other job is running

[1:35:03] weed uh weed pools with volunteers on

[1:35:06] other parts of our property. What we

[1:35:08] would love in the expansion of this is

[1:35:10] to have them all under this banner of

[1:35:12] weed warrior so they get the same level

[1:35:14] of training. Um I think that is what's

[1:35:16] really important to us and I know Alex

[1:35:17] can speak for this to be able to have

[1:35:19] that level of training of volunteers out

[1:35:21] there is so invaluable. Um the one thing

[1:35:24] we keep running into with this program

[1:35:26] and this is my time to say it so I'm

[1:35:28] going to say it is that it takes a lot

[1:35:29] of staff time. So thank you for

[1:35:31] acknowledging that. Um, this really

[1:35:33] truly um is a program that could be

[1:35:35] someone's full-time job um to do it

[1:35:38] right. Um I really I think and to give

[1:35:40] it the credit that it deserves. It takes

[1:35:42] a lot of lot of time. Um but it's worth

[1:35:45] doing. It's something we will keep

[1:35:46] doing. But yeah, it's that's kind of a

[1:35:49] barrier we keep coming up against the

[1:35:50] staff.

[1:35:51] Now, is Skunk Creek actually a city of

[1:35:53] Boulder?

[1:35:54] It is. And so they are that's just kind

[1:35:56] of the banner that they're under. But we

[1:35:58] are working on in the southern part of

[1:36:00] the county our properties with them. So

[1:36:02] they're actually coming we worked at

[1:36:04] Myers Gulch. In fact pulled at Myers

[1:36:06] Gulch and then we're working on the sing

[1:36:08] the Mayha property

[1:36:10] as well. And then with Lions were doing

[1:36:12] Hall Ranch. No surprise. Yeah.

[1:36:17] Vicki Vicky Lawrence Pzak. Um thanks

[1:36:20] Alex and Amanda. It was a great

[1:36:21] presentation and being a volunteer on

[1:36:24] many different projects, not just for

[1:36:25] Boulder County. Um, I just want to say I

[1:36:28] really appreciate the amount of effort

[1:36:30] you go into train your volunteers and to

[1:36:32] work with your volunteers that they

[1:36:33] really understand the whole process of

[1:36:36] how to do what they're supposed to do.

[1:36:38] And I think that's like I say, not as a

[1:36:41] volunteer on your project. Haven't done

[1:36:42] that. I might, but who knows if I have

[1:36:44] enough time in my life. But um but being

[1:36:47] a volunteer in many projects, I know

[1:36:49] that's becomes a stumbling block a lot

[1:36:50] of times. So I think it's wonderful that

[1:36:52] you're putting that much effort into

[1:36:54] that. Thanks.

[1:36:54] Thank you.

[1:36:57] Okay, Trace uh Trace Baker POSAC. So you

[1:37:01] pull all these weeds and you put them

[1:37:02] into bags.

[1:37:04] What do you do with the bags full of

[1:37:06] weeds?

[1:37:07] Do you want to talk about this? Um,

[1:37:09] usually with the bags full of weeds,

[1:37:11] they have to since they are noxious

[1:37:13] weeds, um, and they, if we're bagging

[1:37:15] them, they're usually at the point where

[1:37:16] they're able to deposit seed, so they go

[1:37:18] to the landfill.

[1:37:19] Okay.

[1:37:21] Oh, and we have there's requirements,

[1:37:23] state requirements on how certain weeds,

[1:37:25] especially those that are eradication

[1:37:27] species, have to be removed. There is

[1:37:29] actually a law of that they cannot be

[1:37:31] going into composting facility, for

[1:37:33] example. They have to be in a um a

[1:37:36] plastic bag that certain thickness.

[1:37:37] There's actually regulations around that

[1:37:39] that we have to follow from the state.

[1:37:41] So, I'm curious that they're not

[1:37:42] incinerated.

[1:37:44] We don't have an incinerator.

[1:37:46] Okay.

[1:37:47] That would make sense, wouldn't it?

[1:37:49] Well, I mean, you have one that you um

[1:37:51] heat the uh park headquarters with.

[1:37:54] You can't put anything other than a

[1:37:56] certain size of chip in that to do it.

[1:37:58] It will mess the whole system up. Yeah.

[1:38:00] Okay. Thank you.

[1:38:01] Yeah. Yeah.

[1:38:03] So, uh, Christine

[1:38:06] Christine Johnson Posac um, the native

[1:38:10] plant master program is restarting in

[1:38:12] Boulder County. Um, and I'm hopeful that

[1:38:16] you are going to coordinate with them

[1:38:19] because um, one of the things that we

[1:38:21] teach is about noxious weeds. So, just

[1:38:25] putting that out there. Um, another just

[1:38:29] to feed into the pipeline is that um

[1:38:32] I've asked before and I would like to

[1:38:34] hear more about bio control. Um, and

[1:38:38] then um the last thing um I'd like to

[1:38:41] say uh no two two more things. Um one is

[1:38:46] um yeah the the reporting last year was

[1:38:48] cumbersome and that's one of the reasons

[1:38:50] you lost me

[1:38:51] this year. Um and just um because there

[1:38:56] was so much

[1:38:59] um we know that we got tremendous um

[1:39:02] public feedback about um the the weed

[1:39:07] program um when when uh it was up for

[1:39:10] review. Um,

[1:39:13] have have have has there been outreach

[1:39:15] to all the people the hundreds of people

[1:39:17] who gave feedback to the weed program

[1:39:20] for recruitment?

[1:39:22] I can address that one and yes, I have

[1:39:24] asked specifically and only I have sent

[1:39:27] personal emails to them to ask um if

[1:39:29] they wanted to be involved in this

[1:39:30] program and also on any of my the

[1:39:33] projects that I do throughout the

[1:39:34] county.

[1:39:35] Yes. And my my personal experience was

[1:39:38] that there wasn't a whole lot of

[1:39:39] overlap. That has been my experience as

[1:39:41] well.

[1:39:41] Yeah.

[1:39:43] Thank you,

[1:39:44] Carol.

[1:39:46] Um,

[1:39:48] I've pulled a lot of weeds as a child

[1:39:51] and um I'm I was scarred. Um, but I'm

[1:39:55] I'm wondering if But I do this. I hate

[1:39:59] thistles. So, is anybody interested in

[1:40:02] becoming a specialist in one kind of

[1:40:04] weed and just being let loose?

[1:40:06] That's how you start.

[1:40:08] There's room for that in this program. I

[1:40:10] like honestly I mean I know it sounds

[1:40:11] ridiculous but I have people that are

[1:40:13] like I don't know I don't know the names

[1:40:14] of any plants. They're like I don't know

[1:40:15] what chr grass is when they come in and

[1:40:17] like I set them loose on mullen. They

[1:40:19] know what mullen looks like and maybe

[1:40:21] that's all they do. That makes a

[1:40:23] difference. So

[1:40:24] okay so that's allowed. You don't have

[1:40:26] to know all the weeds.

[1:40:27] You you really don't you will know them.

[1:40:30] I mean that's kind of the thing is that

[1:40:31] you kind of end up getting pulled in. It

[1:40:32] is a very passionate group. He's right.

[1:40:34] You'll get pulled in. But there is and

[1:40:37] people love there's so many thistles out

[1:40:39] there. We actually have a whole booklet

[1:40:40] on just thistles. Um because there are

[1:40:42] some native thistles up there as well.

[1:40:44] Um but yeah, I there's there's

[1:40:46] definitely a place for that. Yeah.

[1:40:47] Okay. Okay.

[1:40:48] We'll take any help we can get. Carol

[1:40:51] needed.

[1:40:52] All right. Um Vicki,

[1:40:54] so Vicky Lawrence Posac Amanda, I have

[1:40:56] another question and that was or Alex,

[1:40:58] whichever. So I saw you had those

[1:41:00] monitoring posts and people are taking

[1:41:01] pictures. You're not asking them to pull

[1:41:03] the noxious weeds around the posts. This

[1:41:06] is just simply for monitoring and not

[1:41:08] for are we getting anywhere?

[1:41:11] Uh so with with all of our volunteers um

[1:41:14] they have it's kind of like a adopt a

[1:41:15] highway you know kind of a program where

[1:41:18] they have their trail section. Each

[1:41:20] section has two of those monitoring

[1:41:21] posts and we do ask them to do those

[1:41:24] photo points and the monitoring at the

[1:41:26] posts and along those sections. Um but

[1:41:29] it's as far as what kind of treatment

[1:41:30] they're doing uh that's dealer's choice.

[1:41:34] Um, ideally, you know, you would work

[1:41:36] through your entire trail section and

[1:41:38] get every single weed. Um, but that's a

[1:41:42] lot to ask from any volunteer.

[1:41:44] Okay?

[1:41:44] And in those photos, by the way, they

[1:41:46] usually will take the photo and then

[1:41:48] treat afterwards. So, the ones that

[1:41:50] you're seeing are ones that they took

[1:41:51] the photo and then they usually will

[1:41:53] just treat after that. So, what you're

[1:41:54] seeing is the weedy part. That makes

[1:41:56] sense.

[1:41:57] Okay.

[1:41:57] Yeah. We we we kind of want to see what

[1:42:00] state it's actually in. We don't want

[1:42:02] kind we don't want those sanitized

[1:42:04] pictures.

[1:42:05] Gotcha.

[1:42:05] Um yeah, we want to see what weeded

[1:42:07] species are actually out there. Yeah.

[1:42:08] And like Amanda was saying, they usually

[1:42:09] do the treatments after they take their

[1:42:11] photo points.

[1:42:12] Thank you.

[1:42:12] Okay, cool. All right, seeing no more

[1:42:16] questions from Posac. Do we have any

[1:42:18] questions or or do we have any comments

[1:42:20] from the public? Not inside here. So

[1:42:24] Nick, anybody online want to comment?

[1:42:29] I don't see any hands raised.

[1:42:31] Okay. Anything else? Posac one last

[1:42:33] chance. All right. Thanks so much for

[1:42:36] that presentation. Great program. Really

[1:42:39] appreciate the update. And

[1:42:41] makes me tired.

[1:42:43] What's it feels really good.

[1:42:45] Yeah. The next program is going to be an

[1:42:47] update on the youth course season and we

[1:42:50] got Lewis coming up. Bertole.

[1:42:54] Berto.

[1:43:06] There we go.

[1:43:14] All right. Good evening, POAC. Luis

[1:43:16] Bertolo, uh program manager for the

[1:43:19] Boulder County Youth Corum. I'm here to

[1:43:21] tell you all about uh the 2025 season,

[1:43:24] uh which was another successful one. Um

[1:43:30] Kira Mcclich was supposed to be here

[1:43:31] with me tonight. She was the field

[1:43:33] coordinator this season. Uh

[1:43:35] unfortunately she wasn't able to join.

[1:43:38] Um before I actually kind of dive into

[1:43:40] things, I know there's a few folks

[1:43:41] behind me here in the room. Uh if by

[1:43:44] show of hands, if you could raise your

[1:43:47] hand if you've ever been a a sponsor or

[1:43:50] work directly with the youth corps over

[1:43:53] your years with parks.

[1:43:56] Great. Yeah, look at that. Uh, have you

[1:43:58] ever done uh a similar program as an

[1:44:02] adolescent yourself? Perhaps the city of

[1:44:04] Boulder Junior Rangers.

[1:44:08] Was that one? That was one, wasn't it?

[1:44:10] Yeah. Yeah.

[1:44:11] It might be the same one here. But it

[1:44:13] has your partner ever been a part of a

[1:44:15] program like this?

[1:44:18] Yeah. And that actually was the Boulder

[1:44:21] County Youth Corps. Um, what was that?

[1:44:23] Your child.

[1:44:25] What's that? That's me.

[1:44:27] Yeah, that's right. And and of course,

[1:44:29] have you ever had core members and uh

[1:44:32] children in the youth corps?

[1:44:35] That's right. Ever since I've been in

[1:44:36] the youth corps since 2021 as as the

[1:44:38] program manager, we've had a Johnson

[1:44:40] Mensmer. Uh and that was the case this

[1:44:42] past season. So, uh yeah, we had over a

[1:44:45] 100 core members on 12 different teams

[1:44:50] uh working throughout Boulder County.

[1:44:52] Um, new this year we had two community

[1:44:55] forest corps teams. Uh, we set those up

[1:44:58] uh in partnership with the city of

[1:45:00] Boulder and the Play Foundation. I'll

[1:45:01] tell you a little bit more about those

[1:45:02] here in in a minute. We had uh 35

[1:45:06] sponsors um with parks and open space

[1:45:09] and other open space divisions including

[1:45:11] through the city of Boulder, uh city of

[1:45:14] Longmont, Lafayette, Lewisville, and

[1:45:16] Erie.

[1:45:21] All right. So, uh, these are a few

[1:45:24] photos of that I'm going to share with

[1:45:26] you from from this recapping this past

[1:45:28] season. Uh, as you all know, um, through

[1:45:31] your experience with the youth corps,

[1:45:32] having, you know, children in the

[1:45:34] program, uh, the core members are are

[1:45:36] the lifeblood of, uh, the program. It's

[1:45:39] the reason why we do it. It's the only

[1:45:41] way uh, that we could effectively uh,

[1:45:43] accomplish everything that we do in a

[1:45:45] given summer. Um, along with the core

[1:45:48] members, it'd be impossible to operate a

[1:45:49] successful season with someone like

[1:45:51] Kira, for example, who's a field

[1:45:53] coordinator or many rovers uh who help

[1:45:56] support team leaders out in the field.

[1:45:58] The team leaders are are the ones

[1:46:00] wearing highlighter yellow shirts there.

[1:46:04] Um,

[1:46:06] and and you know, working on various

[1:46:08] open space properties and and and even

[1:46:10] using buildings such as this one that

[1:46:12] we're in tonight. Um we interview

[1:46:14] students or core member applicants

[1:46:16] rather at the beginning of every season

[1:46:18] downstairs. Uh we use office space for

[1:46:22] our affinity crews for example as well.

[1:46:25] Um so in addition to you know having an

[1:46:27] impact on their community on open space

[1:46:29] properties um they get to experience you

[1:46:32] know other you know buildings and areas

[1:46:35] of the county uh that we use as well.

[1:46:38] Yes, Carol. Okay. Um, Carol Bley, um,

[1:46:41] POSAC, I see a acronym,

[1:46:44] CFC.

[1:46:46] Yeah, I'm getting to it right now. Um,

[1:46:48] that stands for Community Forest Corp.

[1:46:51] Forestry Corp. Okay, thank you.

[1:46:53] Community Forestry Corps. Um, BCYC

[1:46:56] stands for Boulder County Youth Corp.

[1:46:58] Um, yeah. So, just a little bit more on

[1:47:01] specifically our Affinity Crews and the

[1:47:03] CFC. Uh this year we welcomed back to

[1:47:06] Affinity Crew, so the LGBTQ plus

[1:47:09] affinity crew and our BIPO crew for a

[1:47:12] second season. Um and and we did that in

[1:47:15] collaboration with a lot of staff that

[1:47:18] identify uh in those ways that work for

[1:47:21] parks and open space uh as well as uh

[1:47:24] different, you know, county

[1:47:26] organizations that helped us support our

[1:47:28] affinity crews. Uh, and we actually

[1:47:30] combined the BIPOC affinity crew with

[1:47:33] our inaugural CFC team as well, the

[1:47:36] community forest corp. Again, in

[1:47:38] partnership with the city of Boulder and

[1:47:40] the play foundation. Um, the CFC team,

[1:47:43] uh, was super active, uh, and

[1:47:46] accomplished a lot in the way of

[1:47:48] planting new trees, uh, gathering data

[1:47:50] and and then watering, um, trees as

[1:47:53] well. I'll move to the next slide here.

[1:47:56] Um, throughout the city of Boulder and

[1:47:58] even into Lafayette as well. Also, they

[1:47:59] planted 68 new trees through the city.

[1:48:01] Uh they use city hydrants to water and

[1:48:03] maintain new and previously planted

[1:48:05] trees in underserved communities

[1:48:07] throughout Boulder. Uh over a thousand

[1:48:10] project hours uh all around the city of

[1:48:13] Boulder. Again, uh and that was a full

[1:48:15] team of 10 core members, one team leader

[1:48:17] and one assistant team leader. Uh we

[1:48:19] hired those core members um all of which

[1:48:22] again identified as BIPOC individuals uh

[1:48:25] from Boulder and Longmont.

[1:48:29] One of the other teams I wanted to

[1:48:31] highlight was our Eerie team. So, we

[1:48:33] welcomed Erie back. You know, obviously

[1:48:35] coming out of the pandemic, uh my first

[1:48:37] season hired on in 2021 was cancelled

[1:48:40] altogether. Uh and then a second

[1:48:42] canceled season for core members the

[1:48:44] following year in 22. Uh and so you know

[1:48:48] building back from from those two

[1:48:49] canceled seasons which meant no

[1:48:51] returning core members when we finally

[1:48:53] did welcome them back to the program was

[1:48:55] certainly a challenge among many others

[1:48:57] coming out of the pandemic. Um so know

[1:49:00] one of the

[1:49:02] uh challenges around that was losing a

[1:49:05] municipal um partnership with this town

[1:49:07] of Erie which we regained in 2025. So

[1:49:10] felt pretty good about that and the team

[1:49:12] that we had uh which was exclusively uh

[1:49:15] adolescence from Eerie uh accomplished a

[1:49:18] tremendous amount of work. You know they

[1:49:19] constructed two bridges uh demolished

[1:49:21] and rebuilt 90 ft of retaining wall,

[1:49:24] planted 2,000 square ft of pollinator

[1:49:26] garden uh among the rest of the

[1:49:28] accomplishments that you see there on

[1:49:29] the slide. uh they put in a tremendous

[1:49:31] amount of work and it was definitely a

[1:49:33] joy to be able to, you know, welcome

[1:49:34] back uh our our Eerie applicants and and

[1:49:38] continue to do good work in the town of

[1:49:39] Erie.

[1:49:46] And just cuz I have the honor of being

[1:49:48] the last presentation for the day, I'm

[1:49:51] going to keep it short and sweet. The

[1:49:52] last thing that I want to share with you

[1:49:54] is really what it's all about. Uh I'm

[1:49:56] going to share a quote here uh from Tom

[1:49:58] Carris who uh was the sponsor for the

[1:50:01] town of Superior in 2023.

[1:50:05] So the youth corps has a very special

[1:50:06] place in my heart. I took this job

[1:50:08] knowing that I was going to have the

[1:50:09] opportunity to work with another youth

[1:50:11] corps program. The youth corps provides

[1:50:13] young people with the opportunity to

[1:50:14] serve their communities in meaningful

[1:50:16] ways and provides an atmosphere where

[1:50:17] each individual can develop professional

[1:50:19] and life skills. Contributing to a small

[1:50:22] part of that development and simply

[1:50:23] being able to witness it reinvigorate it

[1:50:25] reinvigorates me in my career path. The

[1:50:28] Boulder County Youth Corps does a great

[1:50:30] job of emphasizing a safe space and

[1:50:32] facilitating meaningful experiences for

[1:50:34] those who enter the program. I look

[1:50:35] forward to continuing to work with the

[1:50:37] program next season.

[1:50:39] Um yeah, and just to end here, you know,

[1:50:44] folks like Tom, uh folks like, uh my

[1:50:46] colleagues behind me that raise their

[1:50:47] hands that have, you know, been an

[1:50:49] influential part of the youth corps even

[1:50:50] prior to my time with with Parks. Uh in

[1:50:54] addition to the core members and the

[1:50:55] leaders, the ones that come back year

[1:50:57] after year, we have almost a 50% return

[1:50:59] rate for core members, many returning

[1:51:02] leaders. Um I I'll end by saying Kira

[1:51:05] herself was a core member when she was

[1:51:06] an adolescent for 4 years. Uh she then

[1:51:09] went on to become an assistant team

[1:51:11] leader, a team leader, and then the

[1:51:13] field coordinator. And she did an

[1:51:15] amazing job. Uh for the record, could

[1:51:17] not run the program without her. Very

[1:51:19] much so. Look forward to having her back

[1:51:20] next season if that's what she chooses.

[1:51:22] Uh so it's very much so uh a

[1:51:24] collaborative team effort in being a

[1:51:26] part of something bigger than yourself.

[1:51:33] All right, thanks for the presentation

[1:51:35] that it's a wonderful program and we

[1:51:37] really appreciate the update. So, POSAC,

[1:51:40] any questions or comments? Christine

[1:51:43] Christine Johnson, POSAC, you guys,

[1:51:45] you're here for my annual comment about

[1:51:48] um Youth Corps. Um I just I wanted to

[1:51:51] comment on a few things um just personal

[1:51:56] um experience uh that Louise didn't

[1:51:59] bring up is that um um job skills. So,

[1:52:04] um, my eldest is not is not in, um,

[1:52:07] youth corps anymore because he graduated

[1:52:09] from college and got a job in his field.

[1:52:12] And what he learned and practiced in

[1:52:14] youth corps, um, was valuable for him to

[1:52:18] um, do what he's doing. He's a baby

[1:52:21] landscape architect and he was managing

[1:52:24] um, landscape projects and doing the

[1:52:27] install and and maintenance was

[1:52:29] incredibly valuable.

[1:52:32] um my middle kid um when he started with

[1:52:35] Youth Corps, he was dealing he was

[1:52:37] recovering from bullying that happened

[1:52:40] during the school year. And I have to

[1:52:42] say that youth corps as a a community

[1:52:47] building um kind of place like you got

[1:52:51] school licked. I think um it was really

[1:52:54] important for him as a person. And then

[1:52:57] um finally, I will just say like with my

[1:53:00] youngest, who's the one that you had

[1:53:02] this year, um she started as a crew

[1:53:06] member and is now an assistant um team

[1:53:09] leader. and just seeing her grow um as a

[1:53:13] person and um being able to uh develop

[1:53:18] those um leadership skills. She's a very

[1:53:21] introverted person and it's been a

[1:53:23] really good place for her and um really

[1:53:28] close close close

[1:53:30] um friendships from youth corpore really

[1:53:34] valuable and also when at the end of the

[1:53:37] day when she'd come home from youth

[1:53:38] corore she's usually asleep on the

[1:53:40] living room floor like she comes home

[1:53:43] and doesn't even change she's passed out

[1:53:46] because it's hard work. So, thank you

[1:53:49] for everything you're doing.

[1:53:51] You're welcome. Thank you. Yeah, your

[1:53:53] youngest fantastic job this past season.

[1:53:55] Your oldest invited him back during

[1:53:56] training actually to spend some time

[1:53:58] with our leaders even though he wasn't a

[1:54:00] part of the season uh to be able to you

[1:54:02] know impart his his wisdom and you know

[1:54:04] the middle child hopefully will back at

[1:54:06] some point soon too.

[1:54:07] Yeah, he was in Chile.

[1:54:09] That's right.

[1:54:11] Cool. Anyone else with POSAC?

[1:54:15] All right.

[1:54:17] Um, do we have any It looks like we have

[1:54:19] no one from the public here with

[1:54:21] comments. How about online?

[1:54:23] I don't see any hands raised.

[1:54:25] All right, postac one more time. Looks

[1:54:28] like not. Thanks so much, Luis. That was

[1:54:30] really good and great program. Keep up

[1:54:32] the good work. We'll look forward to the

[1:54:34] 2026 update.

[1:54:36] I'll be back.

[1:54:37] All right, perfect.

[1:54:39] All right, so next agenda item is public

[1:54:42] comment period for items not on the

[1:54:44] agenda. And I'm thinking we probably

[1:54:46] don't have any. Again, one more check

[1:54:49] online.

[1:54:51] I don't see any hands raised online.

[1:54:53] Okay. So, we'll move on to postac

[1:54:55] members comment periods for items not on

[1:54:57] the agenda. Okay. Joan has something.

[1:55:00] This is just a question. Um, so I was at

[1:55:04] the Grindstone Quarry Trail today and

[1:55:06] there's three trees down over across the

[1:55:10] trail. So,

[1:55:12] where does one report such a thing? Cuz

[1:55:15] then people start making trails around

[1:55:17] it, you know.

[1:55:19] Okay. Does anybody from staff want to

[1:55:20] handle that one?

[1:55:25] Who's coming up?

[1:55:26] We got two volunteers.

[1:55:30] Race.

[1:55:32] All right. Bevon.

[1:55:34] Bevon Krther's parks and open space. and

[1:55:37] um you can report it to me right now and

[1:55:39] I'll take care of that. But anytime you

[1:55:41] have things like that, just to call to

[1:55:42] the to our front office or even to

[1:55:45] dispatch if it's more serious and it

[1:55:47] gets dispatched right to our ranger and

[1:55:49] then we can assign the right person to

[1:55:50] get it taken care of.

[1:55:52] So I'll make note of that and we'll get

[1:55:54] it done tomorrow.

[1:55:56] Thanks, Joe.

[1:55:59] All right. Anybody else?

[1:56:02] Yes. Christine

[1:56:03] uh Christine Johnson Posac I wanted to

[1:56:05] just acknowledge the um the comment that

[1:56:09] was sent to us from Anna Rivas from

[1:56:12] Longmont about um prey dogs and I wanted

[1:56:16] oh man

[1:56:18] uh is there when is the last time we

[1:56:21] talked about prey dogs and um

[1:56:26] when is there an estimation that we will

[1:56:29] talk about them again? That's the the

[1:56:31] question I had. And sorry, I can't

[1:56:33] remember,

[1:56:34] but I wanted to acknowledge it.

[1:56:35] Retreat.

[1:56:36] Yeah. What's Oh, at the retreat.

[1:56:38] Was at a retreat.

[1:56:40] Okay. Yes, we did talk about him at the

[1:56:42] retreat. Not last year, the year before.

[1:56:44] Before.

[1:56:44] And isn't there any in December every

[1:56:47] year or January? Yeah. Do you want to

[1:56:49] come up, Stefan? I I believe I recall

[1:56:52] there is a discussion. It's not at

[1:56:55] POSAC.

[1:56:59] Uh Stephan Rynold, uh deputy director

[1:57:01] overseeing land stewardship. So um with

[1:57:05] our we we do have a prairie dog

[1:57:06] stakeholder meeting. Uh it happens every

[1:57:09] December. Um it's open to the public and

[1:57:11] it's also open to postac members as

[1:57:14] members of the public. So feel free to

[1:57:17] join us.

[1:57:18] Okay. Is it possible that um there could

[1:57:22] be staff outreach to this person who

[1:57:24] made the public comment so that she is

[1:57:26] invited to that? I I'll relay that to

[1:57:28] our wildlife staff.

[1:57:29] Thank you.

[1:57:30] Okay.

[1:57:32] Okay. Thanks. Great.

[1:57:33] Yep. Very good. You're probably not

[1:57:36] going to go too far. Well, I'm not I've

[1:57:38] got a Let's make sure POSAC, we got

[1:57:40] everything.

[1:57:41] Oh, I Yes. Um Carol Berley Posac I I

[1:57:46] asked for a new organization chart and I

[1:57:49] just got one and people are jealous.

[1:57:52] So, I'm wondering if um if Bernardas

[1:57:56] could send this to everybody because it

[1:57:58] it does really help me to see where

[1:58:01] people are in the um organization. Um it

[1:58:04] gets me more familiarized and it and it

[1:58:06] just got redone. So, um that's a

[1:58:10] request.

[1:58:11] I'll second that. That'll save me

[1:58:12] sending you an email and Ranata, you

[1:58:14] might not get an email from all of us

[1:58:16] then if you just send send us one. Okay.

[1:58:21] Before we start.

[1:58:21] All right. So, I actually have um

[1:58:24] something I want to um I want to give a

[1:58:26] shout out to volunteers from the

[1:58:28] Backcountry Hunters and Anglers and

[1:58:30] Amanda as volunteer coordinator on

[1:58:34] public lands day last month. Um about 30

[1:58:37] volunteers from that organization pulled

[1:58:39] 1 and 3/4 miles of old barb wire fence

[1:58:43] on Ron Stewart Preserve at Rabbit

[1:58:46] Mountain. And appreciate it. You did a

[1:58:48] great job. The volunteers did a great

[1:58:50] job.

[1:58:51] um all in the name of habitat. Um so we

[1:58:54] don't it it allows movement much easier

[1:58:57] for the wildlife and there's less of a

[1:58:59] endangerment of tanglement. And I

[1:59:02] believe backcountry hunters and anglers

[1:59:04] this was a third time in 2024 they

[1:59:07] removed I think over two miles of fence.

[1:59:10] So

[1:59:11] might have been three total.

[1:59:12] Yeah. Three

[1:59:13] two different projects.

[1:59:15] Okay. So yeah. So anyway, just wanted to

[1:59:18] give a shout out to you guys. Great

[1:59:19] program and great organization there.

[1:59:22] So, thanks.

[1:59:26] Anything else? All right.

[1:59:28] Sounds like the last thing we've got

[1:59:30] here is the director's update. And

[1:59:33] Stephan, looks like you drew the short

[1:59:35] straw to give that. Huh.

[1:59:37] That's correct.

[1:59:38] And um did the message get through

[1:59:41] budget about budget? We'd like to hear a

[1:59:43] little bit about possible what the Trace

[1:59:47] asked something about some budget things

[1:59:50] like um possibly layoffs or anything

[1:59:55] with the county.

[1:59:56] Uh I mean there there were a few layoffs

[1:59:58] with the county, but um I would refer to

[2:00:00] the commissioners uh if you're going to

[2:00:02] have those types of questions related to

[2:00:04] that.

[2:00:05] Okay,

[2:00:06] great. All right, so uh Stephan Reynold

[2:00:09] again uh deputy director. It's hard to

[2:00:11] say. Um, I'm going to be giving the

[2:00:13] director's update today, but um, one

[2:00:15] thing I wanted to say is I know that we

[2:00:18] had a I I think it was probably a record

[2:00:20] number of POSAC members that attended

[2:00:23] KOSA, the Colorado Open Space Alliance.

[2:00:26] Thank you so much for going. I hope it

[2:00:28] was really useful for you. Um, it was a

[2:00:31] great conference and those that have

[2:00:33] never been, I hope that you're able to

[2:00:34] go in the future. So, thank you.

[2:00:39] Um, so I'm going to give um kind of

[2:00:41] based off I know that Carol's the only

[2:00:43] one that has the uh org chart there, but

[2:00:47] um there there have been a few small

[2:00:49] changes um and there's probably going to

[2:00:51] be a few other ones um later on. Um but

[2:00:54] I'm going to break it down by branch

[2:00:57] when I when I talk about these things.

[2:00:58] So there is a branch called the

[2:01:00] community amenities branch and that's

[2:01:02] where our wreck and facilities and

[2:01:04] fairgrounds are um underneath. Um so the

[2:01:08] first thing on here is um we are going

[2:01:11] to be working on replacing trail

[2:01:13] coververts um at Hyle uh along the Wedi

[2:01:16] trail and so there will be a closure on

[2:01:19] the Witi trail from uh the trail head

[2:01:21] itself from October 28th through

[2:01:24] November 7th and that's the target

[2:01:26] completion date. Um we are uh having

[2:01:30] ongoing contract on the Lobo Trail uh

[2:01:33] doing some resurfacing on that trail and

[2:01:35] we have about 2 to 3 weeks left on that

[2:01:37] project.

[2:01:39] Um West Lake of of Twin Lakes, we also

[2:01:43] have a resurfacing contract and that was

[2:01:45] complete. It should be complete this

[2:01:46] week. Is it done?

[2:01:50] I can't tell you that.

[2:01:51] All right. So it I think it should have

[2:01:53] been done but if not I'm sure it will be

[2:01:55] done early next week. It's done.

[2:01:59] Was someone else say something?

[2:02:00] Oh, that's me. It's It was done.

[2:02:03] Oh, the answer was from the

[2:02:05] the voice above us that said it was

[2:02:06] completed.

[2:02:08] Thank you.

[2:02:10] All right. So, um our our building

[2:02:12] historic preservation group uh worked on

[2:02:15] the Don House re-roofing. And the really

[2:02:18] awesome thing about this is there are

[2:02:20] some synthetic shingles that look like

[2:02:22] the old shaker shingles. Um, and so, uh,

[2:02:26] in trying to keep with our historic

[2:02:27] buildings and make them still look like

[2:02:29] they used to, but also be more fires

[2:02:32] safe, um, we were able to put those

[2:02:34] shingles on that roof and complete that

[2:02:35] project. So, that's a really, uh, neat

[2:02:38] look at what we need to do to protect

[2:02:41] our structures.

[2:02:43] Um, and that's the first use that we've

[2:02:45] done with that. Um, we have also hired

[2:02:48] our new, uh, fleet and safety

[2:02:50] coordinator. Uh, his name is, uh, Paul

[2:02:52] Hemock. and I'm sure at some point um

[2:02:55] he'll be in front of you giving a

[2:02:56] presentation.

[2:02:58] Um then we have our land stewardship

[2:03:00] branch. And so the land stewardship

[2:03:02] branch is the one that I oversee. Um

[2:03:04] that has our um natural resources um

[2:03:08] group. It has our agricultural group and

[2:03:11] we have actually now elevated the

[2:03:14] rangers to a a division group as well.

[2:03:17] So we have three groups underneath

[2:03:18] there. Um so underneath that group we

[2:03:22] have our education outreach. Um we just

[2:03:24] had our volunteer appreciation picnic

[2:03:26] and I know some of you were there as

[2:03:28] well. Um it was very successful. We had

[2:03:31] close to 150 people attend. It was on

[2:03:33] our Broly property and just a beautiful

[2:03:36] property. It was great to have uh

[2:03:38] everybody there. Um and as we always say

[2:03:41] we cannot do all the things we do

[2:03:43] without volunteers obviously um our weed

[2:03:46] warrior program um and all those great

[2:03:48] things. And just as a reminder, um, you

[2:03:51] know, we we will have more data at the

[2:03:52] end of the year on our annual report,

[2:03:54] but we had 190, uh, cultural history

[2:03:57] programs last year. We had 182 natural

[2:04:00] history program. And then, of course,

[2:04:02] Amanda, what' you say? 140ome,

[2:04:05] I think, of your programs.

[2:04:07] Oh, at least. Yeah.

[2:04:09] So, somewhere in that range. So, in

[2:04:11] terms of the number of programs that we

[2:04:12] provide, um, and and utilizing

[2:04:15] volunteers. So again, thank you to all

[2:04:18] of our volunteers

[2:04:20] um in our forestry group. Um you know,

[2:04:22] Shane presented on Liberine and so we

[2:04:26] over the um this year we planted 600

[2:04:28] total seedlings at uh seedlings at

[2:04:31] Caribou Reynolds Ranch and Hyo Valley

[2:04:33] Ranch with volunteers and park staff.

[2:04:36] And the goal is to plant 400 more on

[2:04:38] November 1st. So we're still working

[2:04:40] that program and and moving things

[2:04:42] forward.

[2:04:44] All right, got a couple more.

[2:04:46] Um, so our wildlife, so I'm um I could

[2:04:50] sit here and tell you if you want I can

[2:04:52] tell you uh what DNA stands for if you

[2:04:55] want me to do that acronym, but no. Uh

[2:04:58] um so uh

[2:05:01] nucleic acid. Yes. So um utilizing uh

[2:05:05] the the parks and open space foundation

[2:05:07] funding and St. and working with St.

[2:05:09] Rain Valley School District's innovation

[2:05:11] center. Um the wildlife group is

[2:05:14] pioneering a project that is going to be

[2:05:16] run by the students and it's looking at

[2:05:18] and using Ed EDNA

[2:05:22] um work. And so if you know what that

[2:05:24] means, essentially uh we're able to kind

[2:05:26] of test from a sample of water or or

[2:05:31] dirt or or things like that. We can

[2:05:32] actually determine what animals are um

[2:05:35] in the water or in the these different

[2:05:38] locations. So they're going to be

[2:05:39] pioneer uh working on uh this project

[2:05:42] and this is students. So this is really

[2:05:44] an awesome program that we have.

[2:05:47] Um let's see Sherwood property. Some of

[2:05:50] you were able to go up to the Sherwood

[2:05:52] property. Uh we were the contractors

[2:05:54] finished the planting and then we also

[2:05:56] went up and did more planting. So uh

[2:05:59] 1341 plants. Um and so a total of 155

[2:06:04] plants were were out there. The next

[2:06:06] step is to uh look at the possibility of

[2:06:09] some moose fencing to avoid predation of

[2:06:12] the plants that we planted. All right.

[2:06:15] And then uh let's see, the sortyards uh

[2:06:17] will be closing soon. So uh they got

[2:06:20] about uh November 1st for the Mer Park

[2:06:23] sortyard and the Netherlands sortyard on

[2:06:25] November 15th. Main reason being is as

[2:06:28] the weather moves in, it's really

[2:06:29] difficult and most people aren't out

[2:06:32] cutting their trees anymore uh in the

[2:06:34] winter.

[2:06:36] Let's see. We got a couple more. All

[2:06:39] right. So, the Prince Lake project, um,

[2:06:42] that's the project where we are

[2:06:44] rehabilitating the dam. Um, and it's

[2:06:48] almost complete. Um, there's going to be

[2:06:49] some punch items that have to be done in

[2:06:51] the first quarter of next year, but

[2:06:52] everything is on time and it should be

[2:06:55] completed before uh the spring a water

[2:06:58] uh to kind of backfill the the water in

[2:07:00] the dam. Um and then Prairie Run

[2:07:04] construction has begun on the southwest

[2:07:06] portion of the property. Uh crews will

[2:07:08] be working on the trail head trail shade

[2:07:10] structure and other amenities that were

[2:07:12] designed in the plan and hope to have a

[2:07:15] celebration in the spring of next year.

[2:07:17] So I think that was pretty much

[2:07:20] everything. So

[2:07:21] yay. Y thank you Stefan. Um any

[2:07:25] questions or comments John?

[2:07:28] What's a sortyard? So, our community

[2:07:30] forestry sorty yards are we have two

[2:07:33] locations. One is in um Netherland. It's

[2:07:36] called our Ridge Road. And then we have

[2:07:37] one in Mer, which is technically in Lur

[2:07:40] County. But these sorty yards are

[2:07:42] designed to allow for private land

[2:07:43] owners to bring uh woody biomass from

[2:07:46] their fuels mitigation projects. And

[2:07:48] then we uh in theory sort it to its

[2:07:51] highest value. Um and then we try to

[2:07:55] divert it to those locations.

[2:07:58] Most of it we try to utilize ourselves

[2:08:00] if possible or utilize with our um lease

[2:08:04] holders.

[2:08:05] Thank you.

[2:08:07] Yes, Trace.

[2:08:08] Uh Trace Baker, POSAC. Um, as one of the

[2:08:12] postac members who attended uh, KOSA

[2:08:15] this year, I want to thank the

[2:08:17] department and the county commissioners

[2:08:19] for providing us with the opportunity

[2:08:23] and the funding to interact with uh,

[2:08:26] land managers and other jurisdictions.

[2:08:29] You know, we're all solving the same

[2:08:31] problems and so we can uh, trade ideas.

[2:08:35] That's great. Yeah, it's a it's a great

[2:08:36] location for us to trade ideas like you

[2:08:38] said and and really kind of understand

[2:08:40] how other people's are addressing the

[2:08:42] same problems. So,

[2:08:46] anything else possipation

[2:08:52] tonight? And with that, we'll adjourn

[2:08:54] for till next month.

Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee

Agenda

Transcript