State officials worried about possible residential development have paid $596,958 for a 58-acre parcel within Roxborough State Park.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife overseers had made acquisition of this land their top statewide priority — to connect wildlife habitat and migration corridors.
Much of the federal and other protected land in 13 Western states contains similar inholdings, and conflicts often arise when private owners exercise property rights to block public access, build subdivisions, log or mine.
Buying the land often emerges as a solution, although government funds earmarked to purchase inholdings have been raided in recent decades for deficit reduction.
Other Colorado inholdings that preservationists are targeting include:
• Land above timberline on several fourteener peaks;
• Bird habitat near Barr Lake northeast of Denver;
• Parcels in and around national parks.
“Development can displace animals. We do have a very strong wildlife population,” Roxborough park ranger Amy Knopp said Monday, referring to the bears, mountain lions, bobcats, deer, elk, foxes, coyotes and birds in the park southwest of Denver.
State-parks funds combined with grants from Great Outdoors Colorado and Friends of Roxborough State Park enabled the purchase from the David and Nancy Goodwin Trusts.
“It certainly would take away from the natural setting to have development right in the middle of the park, or right at the edge of the park,” GOCO director Lise Aangeenbrug said.
The Goodwins began buying land around Roxborough’s red rock formations in 1981. The state acquisition deal, completed this summer, leaves about 10 acres to the family. There’s no plan to sell that, Nancy Goodwin said.
“We were here before they were,” Goodwin said of the state managers who now control nearly 3,400 acres at Roxborough.
Sometimes during spring, a waterfall courses over rocks on the newly acquired parcel, and it’s difficult to make such a deal, she said. “But we feel like we can still enjoy the land and open it up to everybody.”
Roxborough stands out among Colorado’s 42 state parks because suburban development has surrounded much of it. Since 1995, state officials have been working to consolidate holdings.
Human activities now are limited. No walking off trails. No camping. No hunting. No bicycling. No climbing on the rocks.
Coloradans must pay $7 per vehicle to approach the trailhead. Those who enter on foot, however, are let into the park for free.
Bruce Finley: 303-954-1700 or bfinley@denverpost.com
