News Flash: Lagerman-Imel-AHI Trail Plan Needs You!

And now for some really good news!

Boulder County Parks & Open Space has just released its Draft Management Plan for the newest, largest, potentially most horse-friendly open space park in the plains of Boulder County: the Lagerman-Imel-AHI property.

This regional park is located between Nelson Road and Oxford Road, N63rd St and N75th Street (some horse folks know it as “Double Dove” but that name belonged to the equestrian center that is being sold off the property and the name will soon disappear). The new park will contain almost 2,200 acres and a multi-use trail system that will initially be about 7.6 miles long.

The County will be holding a public open house on:

Tuesday, April 17

5:30-7:30pm

5201 St Vrain Road, Longmont (just north of the airport)

It is really, really important for the horse community to come to this meeting and support trails for equestrians! We had a great turnout of horse people at the launch of this process back in 2010 — and the County noticed. Help us keep up the momentum. Remember, the world is run by those who show up.

Please read, or at least glance through, the Draft report, with maps: Lagerman-Imel-AHI Draft Management Plan.

And now for the “fine print.” The County is proposing a pretty good trail system — but with your help it could be much better.

1) Parts of the trail are proposed to run right next to Pike Road and N75th Streets. These alignments don’t represent a quality trail experience for anyone and may be unsafe for equestrians. Please recommend that the County pull the trail away from the roads as much as possible.

2) One of the trails is proposed to begin at a new “no parking trailhead” next to Ryssby Church on N63rd Street, which will provide excellent access for the property across the street — but not for anyone else. Please recommend that a short connector trail be added just east of the intersection of Prospect Road and N63rd Street (also with no parking). This would enable safe access for the county residents west of the park, and would effectively create an additional loop experience for all because people could also use Prospect Road east of N63rd Street.

3) The existing loop trail around Lagerman Reservoir needs to be upgraded for year-round use. In particular, a safe workaround needs to be constructed to allow horses to traverse the spillway. The seasonal closure to “protect” an osprey nest on an artificial platform needs to be re-evaluated (do the ospreys even care about trail users? Ospreys nest at the Fairgrounds in the middle of the parking lot, the 4th of July fireworks and the carnival midway).

4) A new trail is being proposed to connect Lagerman Reservoir south to Oxford Road. We recommend the construction of an additional loop trail in this area.

5) The county is proposing to replace the old turkey farm (which has been recently demolished and mostly reclaimed) on N63rd Street with a new thousand-head cattle feedlot (which they are subtly referring to merely as an “AFO,” or animal feeding operation). Many neighbors find this idea completely inappropriate for a suburban park, and many environmentalists are concerned that the feedlot would pollute the watershed. Would you want a feedlot in the middle of a park? BCHA recommends the loop trail described in #4 above instead of the feedlot.

Here is the trail map being proposed by Boulder County: 

Here is the modified trail map recommended by BCHA.

Hope to see you at the Open House on Tuesday, April 17!

(If you absolutely can’t make it to the meeting, please take a moment to submit your comments via phone or email to Ernst Strenge, BCPOS, 303-678-6269 or lagerman-imel@bouldercounty.org)

Thanks, and Happy Trails!