is gearing up to study the southern Jefferson County area and work with partners to identify areas of improvement as part of a conservation network that was selected last year.
The South Jeffco Conservation Network will span from deep into the Pike National Forest at the southern boundary of the county northward to South Wadsworth Boulevard’s terminus at the southern end of and spans the county east to west.
The area was identified as part of in November 2014. Since that time, Open Space has been formulating plans and trying to tap potential partners.
“It’s a big step to even identify the area,” said Amy Ito, manager of park planning and construction for Jeffco Open Space.
The first Conservation Cafe in 2012 set forth a regional map series that is still underway and brought together 32 partners for the effort.
Open Space planning supervisor Nancy York said that Open Space has about 60 groups in mind at the federal, state and local levels, as well as nonprofit groups, it hopes will join the South Jeffco Conservation Network.
Once these groups are together, they can work in conjunction with Open Space to identify the best opportunities for improvements or work focusing on land preservation, forest management and regional trail connectivity.
“We want to bring everyone together and see what they think, tweak (ideas) a little and see where opportunities are and gaps are,” York said.
The first meetings should take place this summer with a multiyear commitment in store. This network could also help implement some of .
York said the southern part of the county was identified at the conservation cafe because of the shear number of potential partners in that part of the county and also the rich biodiversity there.
“Those are two big driving forces,” York said. “There’s huge potential to do good things down there.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joe_vacc
