It’s a beautiful day in Golden. The trees are the color of the namesake of the city, bikers are breezing by on paths next to Clear Creek, and plenty of people are out walking with their dogs and children.
But how long will it stay this way? That’s something Steve Coffin and his colleagues are trying to maintain. Coffin is the executive director of NoCo Places , the umbrella organization for a variety of open space groups across the region.
“I think Coloradans have an instinctive feeling that we’ve got a problem,” Coffin said. “I think there’s two things they don’t know. One is that there are people out there trying to do something about it.”
The concern is everywhere in the Front Range, with topics touching all ends of the spectrum to overcrowding on trails to wildlife-human interaction.
“The problem is there’s more and more people doing that,” Coffin added. “The other factor coming in is our population growth. So all of those things come together is just causing our trails to be congested, wildlife to be impacted, our environment to be impacted.”