Colorado Parks and Wildlife recently announced the opening of a new customer service office in Gunnison, a town located about 200 miles southwest of Denver. The region is home to over half a dozen state parks, state wildlife management areas, and national recreation sites.
CPW says the new facility is needed to accommodate growth. Demand from outdoors enthusiasts is rising, and staff numbers are rising to match it, the agency explained in a release.
“We’ve looked forward to getting moved in here for quite some time,” CPW Area Wildlife Manager Brandon Diamond. “The new building will allow us to more effectively serve all of our customer needs and accommodate our growing staff.”
CPW had the money for the new Gunnison customer service center, but other projects are either being scaled back or put on the back burner due to funding uncertainty.
It’s a story being repeated across the United States.
America’s state parks have never been more popular. Visitations soared during the COVID-19 pandemic years. The crowds eased somewhat following that national emergency, but they’re steadily coming back.
New money, however, is not entering the picture at nearly the same speed.
The crowd rush is challenging resources at state park authorities everywhere, particularly in historically fast-growing states like Colorado. At the same time, the economy and state legislatures are sending signals to parks managers that funding park operations will prove more challenging moving forward, despite the spiking demand for access to state parks.
Travis Duncan, a public information officer at Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told Public Parks that his agency is no stranger to these challenges.
He said like other state park agencies, CPW had hoped to catch up on a backlog of development and park enhancement projects to set Colorado’s state parks up for the next generation to enjoy. But fiscal realities mean they have had to scale down their ambitions, even as each new year brings more and more visitors to the state parks.
“Under current economic conditions, we have scaled down the number of projects we can do during the planning process but have focused on finishing the ones we have approved,” Duncan said. He acknowledged that CPW has suffered the ill effects of years of abnormally high monetary inflation. Though inflation has slowed, the impacts linger.
Higher costs here to stay
Duncan said CPW is still orienting project plans on the assumption of higher inflation and cost overruns, despite the US federal government’s finding that inflation rates have fallen close to the Federal Reserve Bank’s target rate.
“When planning capital projects pre-Covid, we planned on adding 3 to 5% to a project budget to mitigate inflationary costs,” he explained. “During Covid—and beyond—we saw costs continue to rise. So, we increased the inflationary project budget to 10% of the project budget.”
“Currently, we have seen inflation costs come down slightly, so we currently plan for an 8% inflation rate,” he added. It’s a precautionary move; the Federal Reserve put the October 2024 Consumer Price Index inflation rate at 2.3%.
With revenues and costs less certain than in the past, CPW is being forced to adjust.
As an example, Duncan noted how CPW had been planning to repair a wastewater treatment facility at John Martin Reservoir State Park but was forced to recalibrate. “The bids came in higher than expected for repair, so we had to rescope it and eliminate a portion of the project,” he said.
America’s national park network gets a great deal of attention internationally. The nation’s state park network is arguably more important in terms of how frequently Americans make use of them.
Though majestic, the largest and most popular US national parks are remote. For example, Texas has only two and they’re found far from the state’s most populated areas. California is home to more national parks but they are also located a good distance from the largest populated centers. As a consequence, people looking to camp, hike, or fish tend to rely heavily on state parks.
An increasingly important part of the recreation landscape
Colorado has long been seen as something of an exception given how Rocky Mountain National Park is relatively accessible from the Denver metropolitan area.
Colorado’s national parks are still attracting huge crowds, but state park day and overnight use are rising quickly.
The US National Park Service has recently begun implementing a “timed entry” reservation system to handle peak seasonal crowding at Rocky Mountain National Park. Colorado Parks and Wildlife are now emulating this move for one of its most popular state parks—seasonal timed entry is now a reality at Eldorado Canyon State Park.
“The quiet beauty of the park is best experienced on weekdays,” CPW now urges would-be visitors on Eldorado Canyon State Park’s website. “Because of high park traffic, timed vehicle reservations are required for vehicle access to Eldorado Canyon from 5:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays, and summer holidays from May 15 through September 15.”
We might be seeing more of this, Duncan said.
“We continue to evaluate our other state parks to see if and when timed entry might make sense.”
Even as the crowds swell, the Colorado parks’ coffers stay either the same or grow only a little bit. This wasn’t necessarily the case during COVID.
As Duncan explained to Public Parks, during the pandemic Colorado’s state legislature stepped in with an infusion of $34 million in spending on new park infrastructure and amenities. Duncan said this show of support by the legislature and governor was greatly appreciated given the huge increases in park attendance that CPW saw during the pandemic years.
Then came the bite from inflation that followed.
Park authorities across the country are feeling the bite from inflationary cost overruns and spiking project costs. It’s no different in Colorado. “We are also experiencing issues with inflation related to our capital development projects,” Duncan confirmed.
Keep Colorado Wild
Like other state park management authorities, CPW is finding ways to adjust. Sometimes that means scaling back project planning or finding cheaper alternative fixes. Other times it means finding new and innovative sources of funding.
The pandemic-era $34 million for Colorado state parks came from two one-off spending bills by the state legislature. A new initiative appears to match that funds infusion, and on a more regular basis.
Colorado residents now have the option of purchasing a new unique “Keep Colorado Wild” vehicle registration certificate at their motor vehicle department.
Motorists are given the option to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of the optional pass while purchasing vehicle reservations at the DMV.
Opting in means their vehicle registration tags are marked with the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Logo. It’s effectively a combined vehicle registration and annual park pass that costs 60% less than the usual state park annual pass typically purchased at park offices.
Prior to the Keep Colorado Wild pass initiative, only the most fervent park enthusiasts could be expected to purchase annual access passes that help fund operations.
Giving Coloradans the option to purchase the Keep Colorado Wild passes at the DMV means an opportunity to sell annual state park passes to nearly every Colorado resident. Revenue earned from KCW pass sales pays for park operations, search and rescue efforts, and wildlife conservation, among other initiatives.
Keep Colorado Wild is fast becoming a hit, Duncan said.
The program has just been launched beginning with the 2023 vehicle registration cycle. To date, KCW has raised almost $40 million in additional revenues for parks, safety, and wildlife programs.
Duncan said this new alternative funding stream arrived just in time.
“Starting in July 2025, CPW will be using funding from KCW to add to our overall capital development budget for parks projects,” he said. “We have targeted approximately $13.5 million of additional capital projects.”
Among other planned projects, CPW will use the extra funds to replace a 50-year-old restroom at Golden Gate Canyon State Park. New campgrounds will be installed at Navajo State Park, Duncan added, along with new infrastructure at Sweitzer State Park and Fishers Peak State Park.
The success may inspire other state governments faced with the twin challenges of the ever-rising popularity of state parks and higher costs creating greater pressure toward fiscal austerity.
“The implementation of the Keep Colorado Wild Pass has been the most significant recent change to CPW’s revenue stream,” Duncan said.
©2024 Public Parks
