{"id":808085,"date":"2020-06-04T10:59:01","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T16:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=384463"},"modified":"2020-06-04T10:59:01","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T16:59:01","slug":"colorados-public-land-managers-are-trying-to-figure-out-how-to-handle-an-explosion-of-people-going-to-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/colorados-public-land-managers-are-trying-to-figure-out-how-to-handle-an-explosion-of-people-going-to-parks\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado\u2019s public land managers are trying to figure out how to handle an explosion of people going to parks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DENVER \u2014 With state parks observing explosive growth in visitation and Front Range open-space managers\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/theknow.denverpost.com\/2020\/04\/30\/front-range-open-spaces-parks-coronavirus\/238351\/\" target=\"_blank\">wrestling with overcrowding<\/a>, public land managers have been meeting to discuss solutions, the head of Colorado\u2019s Division of Natural Resources said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>In March and April, visitation at state parks in the northeast region \u2014 which includes the Denver-Boulder metro area, Fort Collins and many mountain counties east of the Continental Divide \u2014 increased nearly 48% over the same period in 2019. Statewide, visitation at state parks\u00a0increased 18%. Numbers for May are not available yet.<\/p>\n<p>Dan Gibbs, the DNR\u2019s executive director, said the meetings to brainstorm solutions have included federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, along with county and municipal open-space managers. Colorado Parks and Wildlife is an agency of the DNR.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn some situations, we are exploring one-way trails during this time so we don\u2019t have folks walking over each other,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cWe have certain designated trails designed for mountain bikers and other ones that are more appropriate for trail runners or hikers. Because of COVID-19, we\u2019re seeing a lot more people get outdoors. It\u2019s very important for folks\u2019 mental and physical health, but we\u2019re working to try to manage parking, our trail systems, and really coordinate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gibbs noted that the closure of Rocky Mountain National Park in March had a huge impact on Boulder County open space as outdoor recreationalists sought alternatives. The park reopened last week.<\/p>\n<p><em>This story is from The Denver Post. Read the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/theknow.denverpost.com\/2020\/06\/04\/colorado-parks-crowds-coronavirus\/240068\/\" target=\"_blank\">full story on denverpost.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/colorados-public-land-managers-are-trying-to-figure-out-how-to-handle-an-explosion-of-people-going-to-parks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DENVER \u2014 With state parks observing explosive growth in visitation and Front Range open-space managers\u00a0wrestling with overcrowding, public land managers have been meeting to discuss solutions, the head of Colorado\u2019s Division of Natural Resources said Wednesday. In March and April, visitation at state parks in the northeast region \u2014 which includes the Denver-Boulder metro area, [&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-808085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-08 07:26:38","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\/808085","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=808085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808085\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}