{"id":807334,"date":"2020-05-11T15:42:55","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T21:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=383124"},"modified":"2020-05-11T15:42:55","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T21:42:55","slug":"breckenridge-fairy-forest-to-be-removed-as-town-closes-four-oclock-trail-for-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/breckenridge-fairy-forest-to-be-removed-as-town-closes-four-oclock-trail-for-restoration\/","title":{"rendered":"Breckenridge Fairy Forest to be removed as town closes Four O\u2019Clock trail for restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 The town of Breckenridge plans to remove the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/fairyforestbreckenridge\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fairy Forest<\/a> community art installation from the Four O\u2019Clock trail, drawing praise from some who said the area had become a trash heap and ire from others who consider the place magical for children.<\/p>\n<p>According to a town <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TownBreckCO\/posts\/3172751449444457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook post<\/a>, the work is expected to begin this summer on the Four O\u2019Clock trail, which can be found off the Four O\u2019Clock run at Breckenridge Ski Resort.<\/p>\n<p>The town\u2019s post stated that the growing popularity of the area has caused damage to the trail and surrounding forest, where what was once singletrack is now up to 30 feet across in some areas. Additions to the Fairy Forest, which includes small houses for mythical forest creatures, also have left many unnatural materials on the trail, including plastic. In addition to removing the Fairy Forest, the town plans to revegetate the area and narrow the trail.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn general, we very much want folks to enjoy our open space properties, but it is the town and our open space philosophy to practice \u2018leave no trace\u2019 principles, and unfortunately the Fairy Forest really sets the wrong example and goes against so many of our (regulations) and practices on that,\u201d Breckenridge Open Space and Trails Manager Anne Murphy said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lnt.org\/why\/7-principles\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u201cleave no trace\u201d principles<\/a> Murphy mentions include disposing of waste properly and respecting wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy explained that the Fairy Forest started out as a community art installation using natural materials but grew to \u201cunimaginable heights\u201d after it was popularized by social and news media in the past few years. Murphy said the Fairy Forest has caused a lot of resource damage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe went back to the understanding that this is actually not a town open space, we don\u2019t actually own the underlying land, and we had more or less a handshake agreement to construct a trail and maintain the trail through there,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cSo the Fairy Forest \u2014 especially when it got so, so large over the last couple of years \u2014 just really goes against that, and the area needs time to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The plan is to close the trail this spring and summer to do revegetation work and for the town to try to get a more formal agreement with the landowners so it can retain trail access, Murphy said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-instagram wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-instagram\"> <\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re really hoping that we can facilitate some kind of community solution because we know how important and exciting this Fairy Forest was for so many families, and we support that creativity and imagination and are just trying to work with partners to see what solutions we might offer,\u201d Murphy said.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy explained that the town is moving toward doing more temporary art installations, such as those that occur during the Breckenridge International Festival of Arts, which is a 10-day festival with temporary art installations. Murphy said the town is exploring something similar for a temporary Fairy Forest that could include storytelling and chalk art.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The town\u2019s trails team typically starts working on trails in the middle of May, Murphy said, and the Fairy Forest section of the Four O\u2019Clock trail will be one of the first closures. A reroute around the closure will be available.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As for the sentiment of taking the Fairy Forest down, the town\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TownBreckCO\/posts\/3172751449444457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook post<\/a> received more than 40 comments. Some commenters were in favor of the decision, supporting \u201cleave no trace principles,\u201d while others shared how their children and grandchildren had enjoyed the Fairy Forest and would be sad to see it go. Similar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/onemansjunksummitcounty\/?post_id=1387419681451828\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sentiments were echoed on the local Facebook page One Man\u2019s Junk<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Murphy said reactions have varied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been kind of a mixed bag of emotions,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI think some people definitely admire the \u2018leave no trace\u2019 principles and like that philosophy as they\u2019re out recreating and using open spaces and trails. And other folks \u2026 especially during the pandemic, are desperate to find fun activities for their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/breckenridge-fairy-forest-to-be-removed-as-town-closes-four-oclock-trail-for-restoration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 The town of Breckenridge plans to remove the Fairy Forest community art installation from the Four O\u2019Clock trail, drawing praise from some who said the area had become a trash heap and ire from others who consider the place magical for children. According to a town Facebook post, the work is expected to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-11 10:08:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}