I apologize for the length of this post. I wanted to post this verbatim as it came to me. It is a letter from Larimer County about what can be done to help preserve this area and bring it into the Open Lands and Parks. I know it says the date to submit was supposed to be 8/22 but I'm sure they would take late feedback. I plan on e-mailing mine to the address at the very bottom.
I'll try and post my letter when it's complete. As you can tell I'm pretty passionate about this area.
Thanks again,
j
Dear Supporter:
We need your help to protect Hermit Park! Please help us by writing a letter of support!
Located in Larimer County's Estes Valley Conservation Priority Area, the Hermit Park property includes over 1350 acres of forested slopes, open meadows and intact wetlands. Working with willing property owners, Hermit Park is the last piece of the puzzle in a larger land protection effort in this priority area as identified in the 1993 Parks Master Plan and 2001 Larimer County Open Lands Master Plan. The protection of this highly visible, pristine property will provide a contiguous land connection with existing protected lands, publicly-owned Roosevelt National Forest and Rocky Mountain National Park and privately-owned Meadowdale Conservation Easement. This property will add to the approximately 42,000 existing protected lands in the Estes Valley, not including Rocky Mountain National Park. Accessible within 30 minutes from Loveland/Fort Collins area and 40 minutes from Boulder and the gateway of Rocky Mountain National Park, this property, for which public access is envisioned, will provide expanded recreational opportunities thousands of Larimer County citizens and travelers in the Estes Valley Conservation Area.
Acquisition of the Hermit Park property is only possible through partnering with Great Outdoors Colorado, Estes Valley Land Trust, Estes Valley Recreation and Parks District, Town of Estes, Colorado Division of Wildlife, National Park Service, and United States Forest Service. Larimer County would manage the multiple uses which Hermit Park provides such as camping, cabin rentals, hunting, hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, wildlife watching, picnicking, and large group use events. This property will allow connections to existing USFS trails and fulfill the Town of Estes desire for a trail to the top of Kruger Rock. These recreational opportunities would provide a new diverse and expanded recreational opportunity to the Estes Valley Area. This property fills a niche in regional recreational portfolio, not existing at this gateway to RMNP, which combines camping, cabins, etc. on publicly owned lands.
As an import part of the Larimer County Estes Valley Land Protection Priority Area, this area boasts an abundance of wildlife, important wetlands, elk wintering range and migration corridor. The site is also listed as an ecologically sensitive site by the USFS and CNHP for the rare rocky mountain cinquefoil plant. Preserving these lands will offer an important public hunting area which will be used to help control the burgeoning elk population in the Estes Valley.
To help fund this project, Larimer County Parks and Open Lands is applying to Great Outdoors Colorado (Colorado Lottery Funds) for an open space and local government grant. The project will cost approximately $5-7.5 million with a grant request to GOCO for a total of $1.5 - 3 million to help leverage local sales tax along with partnership contributions. Letters of support from the community and the future park and open space users are extremely beneficial to winning grants of this nature from Great Outdoors Colorado. We need your help! We need your letter of support to help make this grant application a successful one!
The strongest and most influential letters of support are written from the heart and talk specifically about why protection of Hermit Park is important to you or your organization. Letters should identify a need for the project as well as the benefits of the project from your perspective. It is essential that letters of support be written in your own words. Form letters are not useful for this grant.
To assist you in drafting your own letter of support, we have provided a sample list of benefits and needs as well as a sample support letter - it is only a sample, please do not copy it verbatim.
Benefits of the Project:
Through a partnership between Larimer County, GOCO, EVLT, EVRPD, Town of Estes, DOW, NPS, and USFS, this project will:
• Purchase the Hermit Park property including over 1350 acres of forested slopes, open meadows and intact wetlands.
• Add to the 42,000 existing protected lands in the Estes Valley, not including Rocky Mountain National Park.
• Provide Regional Trail Connections - newly proposed trail to Kruger Rock as well as to existing 7-mile Homestead Meadows USFS trail system.
• Protect important natural resources including the rare rocky mountain cinquefoil, important wetlands, pristine ponderosa pine and Douglas fir forests, elk wintering range and migration corridor.
• Offer a new diverse and expanded recreational opportunity to the Estes Valley Area. This property fills a niche in regional recreational portfolio, not existing at this gateway to RMNP, which combines camping, cabins, etc. on publicly owned lands
Need/Urgency of the Project:
• Now is the time! Owned by a private corporation motivated to sell, this property just came onto the market and Larimer County has a very short window of opportunity to act, the time to protect this property is now! Larimer County and its partners are ready to purchase this property and needs to be ready to make our payment when this property closes if it is to be protected as a park and open space and not sold for development.
• Citizens in Larimer County have expressed their desire for an increase in passive recreation areas. In a 2001 scientific survey of county residents, 72% of respondents indicated they wanted to see more lands with public access. Walking and hiking were the activities most enjoyed by over 70% of respondents. Hermit Park will provide a haven to "get away from it all" and enjoy nature.
• The dramatically increasing population along the northern Front Range is creating an increased demand for the protection of natural areas and wildlife habitat. Growing communities in Larimer County voiced their opinion by supporting the Help Preserve Open Space sales tax initiative in 1995, and again in 1999 when the citizens voted to extend the sales tax and allow bonding. Preserving 1,350 acres in the Front Range foothills provides significant wildlife habitat, especially when it connects to thousands of acres of other public lands.
• Intense development pressure in the Estes Valley. Estes Valley has a slow growing resident rate, 9% (US CENSUS 2000), yet the booming vacation home market in Estes has been booming as more people desire to have vacation homes in the valley. If not protected NOW this land WILL become highly sought after for development.
Please mail or fax your letter by August 22, 2006 to:
Greg Good
Larimer County Parks and Open Lands Department
1800 S. County Road 31
Loveland, CO 80537
Phone (970) 679-4534
FAX (970) 679-4574
ggood@larimer.org
But, be sure to address your letter to:
Great Outdoors Colorado Board
1600 Broadway, Suite 1650
Denver, CO 80202
I hope this information is helpful in writing your letter. Please feel free to call me at (970)679-4562 or email
ggood@larimer.org if you need any further information.
Thank you for your support.
Greg Good
Larimer County Parks & Open Lands