Help Save Blodgett Open Space

(This is now an effort to get the issue on the ballot next year so people can vote on the preservation option that was denied them during the parks department's "public input process." Please help Julia, Sharon, Anton and myself succeed in this effort. Thank you.)

Please donate to help pay legal fees as the fight continues to make Blodgett Open Space the first formally-recognized nature preserve in the Colorado Springs park system. Help us restore the original preservation-based master-plan, and restrict recreational development in order to prioritize the preservation of habitat for bighorn sheep and other wildlife and the fragile ecosystem in Blodgett.

For many years, Blodgett Open Space has been informally recognized as a nature preserve. To the shock of many, Colorado Springs parks department decided to create a new recreation-based master plan, massively increasing parking and restricting wildlife to designated areas while not even offering a preservation option in their "public input process." The new master plan calls for over 14 miles of trails geared towards extreme mountain biking while introducing paragliding into the open space and offering a mere 1.5 miles of hiking-only trails. The parks department could not have taken Blodgett Open Space farther away from the preservation intent of the original master plan and original land purchase.

City council enabled this apparent recreation-industry take over of Blodgett Open Space and disregarded a petition calling on them to preserve the original master plan and make Blodgett Open Space the first formally-recognized Colorado Springs' nature preserve. At the time of the city council vote, the petition had over 2,200 signers that including current and former parks board members. That is over 4 times the number of people who participated in the restrictive public input process for the new recreation-based master plan.

That petition should have meant something, but one councilmember who is himself actively involved in the recreation industry along with his wife did not recuse himself from the vote. In fact, his wife spoke in favor of the new master plan at the city council hearing! Another council member communicated with a proponent of the new master plan, praising this proponent's email, prior to the city council vote -- an appearance of impropriety to say the least -- and that councilmember did not recuse herself from the vote!

A representative of the Sierra Club spoke at the hearing and asked city council to uphold the citizen appeal and reject the new master plan created by Tapis. The Sierra Club has environmental experts while Tapis has landscape architects. City council didn’t have the courtesy to ask the expert questions but helped city staff and opponents by giving them far more time than the citizen appellants and allowing a second rebuttal. Only Councilmember Dave Donelson supported the citizens and asked hard questions of the parks department, never engaging in the disgusting display of bias by the rest of the council.

The next step will be to have a Denver-based attorney review the case and advise as to a way forward to yet save Blodgett Open Space. All money raised will go directly to paying legal fees. Please help the citizens help the bighorn and other wildlife who need Blodgett Open Space in order to thrive.

Thank you.

Photo of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep grazing in Blodgett Open Space by Jim Klever