Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative · Article 14 of 24
Partnership is the first value because almost nothing in this region sits on one deed. Communication is the second because the management-model review found that the places which function have a meeting, an agreement, and a habit of talking — not just a logo.
What the public actually asked
At the June 2024 review, partnerships were called important and necessary, with the open question of how and who. Communication comments asked that messaging be inclusive, that education be emphasized, that youth be taught, and that the public hear one story instead of five agency stories. Those notes match the industry survey, where 92 percent of outdoor businesses and nonprofits said relationships with other stakeholder groups matter, and the Fountain Creek request for people working in the same watershed to know what one another are doing.
What the models contributed
Fruita’s memorandum of agreement lines up goals, methods, responsibilities, and a project list. Sweetwater’s planning team meets weekly. Arkansas Headwaters has a citizen task force with anglers, commercial permittees, private boaters, environmental interests, water users, local government, riverfront owners, and other recreation seats. White River treats media as a partner for time-sensitive information, not as an afterthought. The Vision Plan’s conclusion from that set is that partnerships can be a formal multi-agency memorandum or a volunteer agreement, and that they can cover maintenance, money, education, or decisions. Communication has to run top-down and bottom-up, including the person on the trail.
What implementation is supposed to keep doing
The regional project list turns the value into a calendar. An annual land-manager summit is on the list because the process itself revealed a shared desire to keep managers in one room. A regional education and messaging plan is on the list because most agencies already communicate, and the public asked for those messages to be coordinated. Agriculture and private-landowner gatherings are on the list because working lands are inside the vision statement, not adjacent to it. The Royal Gorge Bighorn Roundtable, already meeting since early 2024, is the plan’s proof that a three-county vision can sprout a county table without waiting for a new agency.
Source: Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative Vision Plan 2025, prepared through the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance as the local Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnership, with support from Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Great Outdoors Colorado. Project team: PPORA, Trails and Open Space Coalition, N.E.S. Inc., Bachman PR, and the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Geography Department. The plan was written across a four-year process and released in 2025; some statistics reflect a point in time before publication. Value statements, page 96; management-model themes, page 65; community review, page 91; project list, pages 104 and 477–478; early outcomes, page 105.
