A Regional Vision and Shared Philosophy
NoCo Places’ Conservation & Recreation Vision articulates a shared, cross-jurisdictional approach for protecting and conserving natural and cultural resources in the Northern Colorado Front Range while providing equitable access and a quality recreation experience for current and future generations.
The Vision describes current conditions, shared values, desired future conditions, a shared management philosophy and management strategies and activities to achieve conservation and recreation goals.
Process
The Vision builds on several years of collaborative work by NoCo partners, including research into a variety of core topics of interest for recreation and conservation in the region; dialogue on equity, diversity, and inclusion in NoCo’s outdoors; piloting of a variety of recreation management strategies; and education and messaging campaigns. Most recently, NoCo has conducted analysis of spatial data on biodiversity and recreation trends in the region, providing further foundation for understanding current conditions. NoCo has also conducted stakeholder focus groups to understand values, desired future conditions, and management preferences. All of these inputs inform the Conservation & Recreation Vision. Future implementation of the Vision will continue to rely on and be responsive to learnings from adaptive management; conservation and recreation data; and stakeholder input and partnerships.
Shared Management Philosophy
A variety of management tools and strategies can be used to achieve desired future conditions and conservation and recreation goals, with many site-specific considerations necessary to determine the best management approach. With increasing visitation pressuring both conservation and recreation resources, one thing is clear for a wide range of stakeholders and land managers: the status quo of management will not work in the future.
A forward-looking, shared management philosophy can help establish and guide expectations for future management trends in the NoCo region, subject to site-specific considerations and management authorities. In a region where wildlife and (frequently) visitors do not distinguish between land management jurisdictions, a shared management philosophy can help support consistency in reaching conservation and recreation goals at a landscape scale.
The Vision is an action plan and will involve specific actions for NoCo Places to take collectively. In 2024 the goals and action plan will be developed.
NoCo Places, with the help of funding from Colorado Parks & Wildlife, incorporated three sets of data to inform the Conservation and Recreation Vision:
- Conservation Summary Map
- Mobile Phone Location Data
- Stakeholder Engagement and Focus Groups Report
1. Conservation Summary Map
The Conservation Summary map shows the biodiversity assets in the region and their relative sensitivity, and mobile phone location data is an additional layer that can be viewed simultaneously.
To view the Conservation Summary map:
- Create a free account on CODEX
- Go to the Map menu item
- Scroll down to the Regional Partnerships layer on the left side of the map
- Click the plus sign next to NoCo Places
- Explore by turning the layers under NoCo Places on and off
2. Mobile Phone Location Data
We acquired visitor mobile phone location data for 70 hot spots in the NoCo region. This allows us to understand more about what is happening in many of the most heavily recreated areas in the region and identify the high priority needs of the region. The data available includes visitor origins, demographics, cross visitation, trends over time, dwell time, and park use.
3. Stakeholder Engagement & Focus Groups Report
The last step in establishing high priority recreation needs was to hear from stakeholders. The 16 stakeholder focus groups we conducted in fall/winter of 2023-2024 were focused on understanding stakeholder perspectives on the trade-offs between conservation and recreation as well as their input, desires, and values into a vision for the region.
The focus groups will continue to be involved in the spring of 2024 as NoCo finalizes its vision and as each agency and NoCo collectively implements the vision that is created.
A huge thank you to the 140 focus group participants that provided their invaluable perspectives, input, and time in support of this effort.
Story Map
Our story map illustrates the reason we started the conservation and recreation vision in the first place and the steps we have taken thus far. We outline the challenges of the region, how a shared vision can be put into use, the key collaboration involved to combine valuable data, and the details of the data.
