ROXBOROUGH —The mission of Roxborough State Park is to protect and to preserve, and employees, volunteers and donors have done just that this summer by securing a bit of land to add to the park’s footprint.
The parcel is small, about half an acre near the entrance to the park, but it is significant in that it’s the last piece of property near the park that can be secured, at least anytime soon. The park now encompasses 3,328 acres.
“It’s just nice to know with all the development that’s going in around us, we know this 3,300-plus acres is not gonna be developed and is going to be kept in its natural state for the Colorado state people to enjoy for the future,” said Angel Tobin, who manages about 120 volunteers and is one of three employees at the park.
Roxborough was originally purchased by the state in 1975 and opened in 1982.
The latest acquisition comes as the number of annual visitors — about 125,000 — is increasing, said park manager Todd Farrow.
“It’s important to have space for people to come out and enjoy,” Farrow said.
He said he thinks word of mouth is encouraging folks to visit the park, which has red rock formations. He said he frequently encounters people visiting for the first time.
Those visitors are like Anne Heneghan of Parker, who’s lived in Douglas County for about a decade but had never been to the park before last week.
“I thought I’d come out and take advantage and see the scenery,” Heneghan said. “It’s beautiful so far — it looks like Garden of the Gods, which is what attracted me here today.”
In addition to more people and acreage, the park has seen an increase over the past four years of $100,000 in revenue from weddings, receptions and other events, Farrow said.
“That’s just an indication of how much busier we’re getting,” said Farrow. At $100,000, he has one of the smallest annual park budgets in the region.
Friends of Roxborough, a loose coalition of residents, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to leverage Great Outdoors Colorado grants. The group works with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Douglas County Open Space to purchase parcels in and around the park.
Because the park is busy and budgets are tight, the Friends of Roxborough and the park are working to raise $100,000 by 2020 to build a new pavilion near the visitors center, where Del Kelley, Friends of Roxborough president, said the group can better host events, like and environmental education classes.
“It’s because park budgets are brutally tight and because there’s no more state tax money to go into the parks,” Kelley said. “But we need to do some things.”
Tobin said the importance of environmental education programs, which see about 3,000 students each year and are in line with state educational standards, goes back to the preservation mission.
“If (the kids aren’t) exposed to being out in nature, how can they protect something they’re not involved with?” Tobin asked.
Clayton Woullard: 303-954-2953, cwoullard@denverpost.com
