Boulder County Commissioners turn down “alternate use” trail pilot program

Decision directs BCPOS staff to focus on education and outreach first

After more than a year of community surveys, open houses, and thousands of emails from recreationists, Boulder County’s Board of Commissioners declined Tuesday, June 30 to move forward with any formal “alternate trail” use pilot program at Heil Valley Ranch or Hall Ranch — at least for now.

The unanimous decision to hold was anything but unanimous in reasoning. The three commissioners each arrived at a “not yet”, from different starting points, with Commissioner Claire Levy not getting quite there at all, finishing the work session still advocating for a designated-use pilot.

What was on the table

Boulder County Parks & Open Space (BCPOS) presented three developed alternatives built from 7,522 survey responses and two community open houses. The options ranged from a minimal alternative involving a rotating directional travel for bikes on Heil Valley Ranch trails to a more substantial alternative, including designated bike-only and hiker-only trail days at one or two parks.

The BCPOS staff’s own recommendation was the lightest-touch option.

Alternative 1, directional loops at Heil, where monthly rotating signs would tell bikers which direction to travel on the Ponderosa and Wild Turkey trails while leaving hikers and equestrians free to go either way. Jared Roberts, Deputy Director of Community Amenities, called it consistent with what the county already does on the Overland Trail at the same park, low in opportunity cost, and unlikely to restrict any user’s access.

“This is a clear, meaningful change on the ground,” BCPOS Deputy Director of Community Jarret Roberts said. “It’s not pulling resources away from too many other projects.”

The Three Alternatives Proposed

Alternative 1 — Directional Loops at Heil Valley Ranch (Staff Recommendation): Monthly rotating directional travel on the Ponderosa and Wild Turkey trails, with bikes required to follow posted directions and hikers/equestrians free to go either way. Rangers would update signs monthly, consistent with existing practice on the Overland Trail. The unnamed access road would also be formally promoted for hiker and equestrian use.

Staff reasoning: Low opportunity cost, consistent with existing practices, maintains full access for all users every day, reduces head-on encounters without restricting any user group.

Alternative 2 — Designated Use Days at Heil Valley Ranch Only: On Thursdays (chosen to spread designated days across the week from Betasso’s existing Wednesday restriction), specific trails at Heil would become bike-only (Wild Turkey, Picture Rock, Overland, Schoolhouse loops) while others would become hiking and equestrian only (Wapiti Trail, Ponderosa Loop). A shared center section would remain multi-use.

Staff reasoning: Simple, one-location structure. Clear and predictable. Gives bikers a dedicated space and hikers a dedicated space simultaneously.

Alternative 3 — Split Pilot Across Two Parks (Heil + Hall Ranch): On Wednesdays, Wapiti and Ponderosa at Heil become hiking/equestrian only, while Bitterbrush, Nelson Loop and Antelope Trail at Hall Ranch become biking only.

Staff reasoning: Addresses equity by giving bikers a dedicated space at Hall while creating hiker-only space at Heil on the same day. Drawback is the operational complexity of managing two properties simultaneously.

The commissioners’ three directions of thought

Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann was the first to speak, and was the most direct.

Stolzman said she would not support any of the three alternatives, saying in part that the deeper issue was not trail policy but human behavior, and she doesn’t believe government is the right tool to change it.

“The government is not going to save anyone or protect anyone,” Stolzmann said. “We, as a community, are going to do that with each other.” She called for more deliberate community dialogue between user groups, praised the letters-to-the-editor exchanges the issue had sparked, and suggested that getting people to talk to one another directly — rather than routing their frustrations through the county — is the more effective path forward.

Commissioner Marta Loachamin weighed in with questions before she offered her position.

Loachamin wanted to know from the BCPOS staff what problem the pilot was actually designed to solve. She described going to the Wapiti Trail on Memorial Day morning and finding nothing but friendly interactions. She went to Mount Sanitas that same morning and said her only real trail conflict was with dogs.

“I just haven’t experienced what my email box tells me,” Loachamin said.

Loachamin’s larger interest was in expanding who feels welcome on Boulder County open space, particularly people who, like herself, didn’t discover these trails until recently despite living nearby for decades.

She ultimately said she didn’t feel the board needed to choose an alternative that day, and suggested education campaigns, signage, and volunteer stewardship programs might function as the pilot itself, allowing the county to evaluate outcomes before committing to something more formal.

Commissioner Claire Levy held a different view throughout the hour-long work session.

Levy disclosed that she had been a regular user of Heil and Hall ranches for decades, that she had watched hiker use at Heil decline measurably over the years, and that constituents had been asking her for years why those properties couldn’t offer designated hiker days like at Betasso Preserve, another trail within the BCPOS system.

Levy said she found Alternative 2, which would designate specific trails at Heil as bike-only and others as hiking-only on Thursdays, well-designed and fair to all user groups.

“I thought that did a really nice job of balancing everybody’s interests,” she said.

Levy also acknowledged an “equity” argument made by the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance that said Betasso’s existing Wednesday and Saturday hiker-only days restrict bikers while hikers always have full access.

“An alternative that includes bike-only days alongside hiker-only days,” she said, “is more defensible and more honest.”

Near the end of the work session, when it became clear her colleagues wouldn’t support Alternative 2, Levy tried to find common ground on Alternative 1.

She called it “quite minimal” — just some signs — and asked her colleagues directly if they could at least embrace directional travel as the lowest possible intervention.

“I’m suggesting that alternative one would be an effective measure,” Levy said, as a closing argument. “It doesn’t limit anybody’s access. Everybody gets to go everywhere, every day of the week. But it does address some of that sort of — people are coming behind me, coming in front of me, where are they coming from?”

Stolzmann and Loachamin still said no.

What happens next

The outcome is not nothing, exactly. Parks & Open Space confirmed that several measures will move forward regardless of the pilot decision, including expansion of the ‘Share the Trail’ campaign (an ambassador training program placing staff and volunteers at trailheads), making improvements to sightlines at high-conflict trail segments, and better promotion of existing hiking-only trail options.

For the thousands of people who submitted surveys and attended open houses over the past year, the outcome may feel anticlimactic, but BCPOS Director Jason Seuc acknowledged that the process itself had value beyond its immediate outcome.

“There are voices that are not being heard,” Seuc said. “Through this process, we’ve actually engaged with a community that we haven’t had a chance to talk with, and those voices came through.”

A broader county-wide open space work session is scheduled for July 21, at which the commissioners will look at the entire open space system. Thye will focus on how uses are prioritized, where access gaps exist, and how the different user communities’ interests can be balanced at a system level rather than property by property.