NEWS RELEASES
Colorado’s Newest State Park Created By A Coalition Of Interests
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through The Colorado Sun's website.
TRINIDAD, Colo. - The Colorado Sun reports that Fishers Peak will become the state’s 42nd state park, the first to be added since 2013. The heart of the 20,000 acre property is the former Crazy French Ranch, a bio-diverse stretch that has been used for safari-style hunting for decades. The 30-square-miles of what will be Colorado's second largest state park contains miles of undisturbed forest, home to deer, elk, bear, cougars and other wildlife, as well as 9,633-foot Fishers Peak, the highest point in the country east of Interstate 25, which towers over the city of Trinidad.
The acquisition of the park property, for a total of $29 million, involved a coalition of organizations, including the Trust for Public Land and The Nature Conservancy, assisted by Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) and Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW). “Looking at those two nonprofits, one with a focus on conservation and another one with a focus on recreation, combining those two with a city, a county, a state and GOCO as well as CPW, it’s a partnership that’s just a great model to explore everywhere,” Dan Gibbs, executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, told the Sun. Colorado Parks and Wildlife will manage the park which will offer hiking, biking, hunting, angling, and rock climbing to visitors as well as protection for the wildlife and their habitat. The new park, as yet unnamed, may open as soon as 2021.
The executive order issued by Colorado Governor Jared Polis creating the new park can be read here.