Colorado Springs Alert: Bear Creek Watershed USFS Open House

[John Fisch]

e-mail I received today:

"The U.S. Forest Service is holding an open house on their proposal for trails and access in the Bear Creek watershed. The open house is Thursday, April 4, 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm, at the Leon Young Service Center for CS Utilities, Pikes Peak Room, 1521 Hancock Expressway.

The proposal would affect all user groups, hikers, bikers, equestrians, and motorized users. The Forest Service is seeking comments from all users.

The proposed changes are in response to the issues surrounding the greenback cutthroat trout in Bear Creek. Under the proposal, the Forest Service would close a total of 6.4 miles of trails and re-route some of these by constructing 2.9 miles of new trails. Trails affected by closures include trails 666, 667, 668, 701, 720A and 622A. Theses closures would be to all users. The proposal also converts 0.6 miles of non-motorized trail on Seven Bridges, 622, to motorized use.

The current ban prohibiting camping and campfires in the watershed would become long-term, and access would be restricted to on-route only.

As you can see, these changes would affect all trail users. The Forest Service wants your comments. Please try to attend the open house, 4 to 9 pm, Thurs, April 4.
It’s an open house, so you can stop by, learn more, and provide your thoughts anytime in the 5 hours, and stay as short or as long as you want.

You can find the assessment, maps of current trails and the proposed system, and other information on the USFS web site at:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/psicc/hom … RDB5397304

Links for the documents and maps are at the bottom of that page.
You can also go to the USFS web page for the Pike and San Isabel Forests, scroll to the bottom, and find the link for the Bear Creek Watershed Assessment.

As this impacts one of our most celebrated trails, I would encourage you to take a look at the proposals and attend the event. "

A look at the maps shows that Jones Park and Pipeline routes would be lost. There is a possibility for reroutes, but they would be highly inconvenient as currently presented. I highly encourage anybody with an attachment to these trails to attend the open house and make your voice heard. I’ll be there! It’s a 5 hour long open house in the evening with no set agenda, so scheduling shouldn’t be a problem.

[trouttrunnell]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention skibum. I’ll make sure to spend some time at the open house and help represent the MTB crowd. We need all the positive exposure we can get!

[bonkedagain]

I highly recommend that you look over the materials in the link posted above before attending. A [i:20rm6agr]lot[/i:20rm6agr] of analysis has gone into this and I think they have come up with some good solutions. The biggest issue is going to be implementing the solutions since it seems nobody has the money to take on this kind of project.

[John Fisch]

Bonked is right. It’s best to go in being familiar with both the current and proposed plans

The money factor is also a reality and the source of my greatest concern. There is a reroute planned that would still allow a full downhill route–it wouldn’t make up for all that is lost, but it at least preserves that type of option. My money concern is that it takes no $$ to close the old route, but lots of $$ to build the new trail. If the fish must be preserved, the old routes will be closed regardless of whether the new routes have been built, and without the $$, the new routes may not be built.

BTW, while the Greenback Cutthroat Trout is one of the few species native to Colorado, it is not native to the Bear Creek watershed–it was stocked there.

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