NoCo Places Members
The following entities have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work jointly on this collaborative project:
- U.S. Forest Service, Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland
- Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Northeast Region
- National Park Service: Rocky Mountain National Park
- Boulder County
- Clear Creek County
- Gilpin County
- Jefferson County
- Larimer County
The NoCo Places Executive Committee meets monthly and is led by two co-chairs, one from the counties, and one from either the federal or state agencies as specified in NoCo’s governance document. Decision-making is by consensus. Each agency retains its autonomy and commits to developing agency-specific plans that are informed and guided by NoCo principles and developed in collaboration with the other NoCo agencies. In addition to agency-specific plans, NoCo is committed to implementing collective action.
Mission
NoCo Places collaborates to protect and conserve natural and cultural resources while providing equitable access and a quality recreation experience for current and future generations.
Partners
The Executive Committee sets the strategic direction, which is developed in consultation with the NoCo Partners, a group of approximately fifty individuals that includes the Executive Committee members, additional staff from each of the agencies, and individuals with expertise in subjects that are important to the management of these public lands. Their expertise is diverse and wide ranging and includes outdoor motorized and non-motorized recreation, the environment, historic and cultural resources, transportation, the outdoor recreation industry, and other issues which directly impact the landscapes of Northern Colorado.
Download Partners List Core Principles
Addressing growth and its impacts requires a systemic change in the way public lands are managed. It requires an approach that is:
Based on core values of stewardship, conservation, sustainability and equity with a focus on ensuring a positive recreational experience.
Focused on addressing issues and needs that are critical to protecting Colorado’s mountains, including watershed health, wildlife management, and ensuring access for all utilizing a thoughtful and deliberate approach.
Federal, state and local governments must work together to identify ways they can cross bureaucratic boundaries to more effectively and efficiently allocate and share resources.
This is a challenge for more than just public land managers. Other diverse interests whose decisions have an impact on the number of people visiting our public lands must also be involved in developing solutions: conservation, transportation, tourism, economic development, and many others.
The effort to create solutions and the solutions themselves must incorporate and reflect the perspectives and interests of our state’s diverse populations, including a diversity of age, abilities, race, gender, socio-economics, geography, religion, and philosophy.
Constrained resources at the federal, state and local levels have resulted in a reactive approach to land management. To protect our mountains, we need a strategy that is proactive and deliberate.
We can’t predict what Colorado will look like in the future or how recreational demands may change. We need an approach that is adaptable and iterative over the long-term so it can manage for this uncertain future.
This approach must identify new ways to provide the necessary funding to support the critical investments needed to conserve Colorado’s wildlife, sensitive habitats, recreational opportunities, and outdoor way of life.
Goals
The following goals were prioritized to address the mission of NoCo, which is to collaborate to protect and conserve natural and cultural resources while providing equitable access and a quality recreation experience for current and future generations.
NoCo will protect and conserve natural and cultural/heritage resources in the NoCo region by:
- Instilling an outdoor stewardship ethic among visitors and recreationalists that promotes an awareness of their impact on the land and wildlife, reduces those impacts by educating them on how they can mitigate or manage them, and creates a personal sense of ownership, responsibility and pride in better protecting those resources.
- Building community support for increased funding for public land management, and exploring opportunities and mechanisms for sharing financial resources across jurisdictions in the NoCo region.
- Increasing the amount of conserved and/or restored land, and protecting the land that is already conserved and/or restored.
- Supporting outdoor recreation and visitation in areas best suited for that activity.
NoCo will provide equitable access and a quality recreational experience to NoCo residents and visitors by:
- Improving the quality of the visitor experience, particularly in areas facing the greatest threats from overuse and congestion, through management approaches, education, more effective infrastructure and other means.
- Ensuring that the region continues to provide and support a wide range of quality outdoor experience opportunities.
- Increasing the visitation by historically underrepresented communities and ADA/ABA communities.
- Reducing conflict and promoting compatibility among visitors and recreational use types, and increasing the safety of outdoor experiences.
Funding
Our sincere gratitude to all of the organizations that have provided NoCo Places with critical funding:
- Colorado Department of Local Affairs
- Colorado Parks and Wildlife
- Great Outdoors Colorado
- The Gates Family Foundation
- The Boettcher Foundation
- The Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation
- Western Resource Advocates
- Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation
- The Colorado Forum
- Mighty Arrow Family Foundation
- Each of the eight agencies that comprise NoCo Places
Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships Initiative
See spotlight on NoCo Places in Colorado Parks and Wildlife Regional Partnerships Initiative story map.
