Colorado Parks and Wildlife is holding a series of meetings to discuss future funding of state parks as increased visitation and uncertainties in funding pose challenges.
Previous meetings have been held in Grand Junction and Colorado Springs, and the agency will meet Monday in Denver and Tuesday in Pueblo. Though no meetings have been scheduled in Southwest Colorado, A post to Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s website says additional meetings may be scheduled.
According to CPW data, more than 12 million people visit Colorado’s 42 state parks every year. But despite increased visitation, which contributes more than $1 billion to Colorado’s outdoor recreation economy, operational costs and park budgets “are being squeezed.”
“Long-term financial sustainability of Colorado’s state parks is uncertain,” CPW wrote in a news release. “Following the loss of state general tax fund support in 2010, the Division developed and implemented a State Parks Financial Plan that cut state parks’ full-time employees by 5 percent, cut the temporary workforce by 10 percent, closed Bonny State Park and put into place other cost-cutting measures.”
Joe Lewandowski, spokesman for CPW in Durango, said the preferred method of camping in state parks has changed over the last 20 years, as visitors demand more services, such as electricity, showers and other amenities.
Those demands, coupled with Colorado’s ever-increasing population growth, have put CPW in a bind on how to continue maintenance and services that visitors expect.
“These parks are operated like small cities: there’s a sewer system, a road system and even a reservation system,” he said. “Parks are fairly complicated to run – a lot more than people think.”
Though the Front Range, with its booming population, is by far taking the brunt of this problem, Mancos and Navajo state parks, also are affected by a decreased budget.
“Maintenance is really a big deal,” Lewandowski said. “Especially when you’re getting thousands of people every year and you have to keep up.”
Lewandowski said CPW is not asking for an increase in visitor fees right now (park entrance costs $7 per car). Rather, the meetings are to inform the public about the agency’s challenges going forward.
He did say CPW will ask the state Legislature to remove a cap that prevents parks from increasing fees if the overall revenue increases by 20 percent.
“That’s put us in a box,” he said. “Revenue goes up with more visitors, but without being able to raise those fees, we’re not keeping up with maintenance.”
jromeo@durangoherald.com