Rocky Mountain National Park staff are seeking the public's engagement and input on the park's long-range Day Use Visitor Access Strategy. "We are eager to continue engaging with our stakeholders and connect with park visitors from near and far, to help identify shared values, clarify key issues, and begin to develop potential management strategies to help the park prepare for our long-term day use strategy" said Park Superintendent, Darla Sidles. "We hope to hear from current park visitors as well as those who have told us they no longer visit Rocky Mountain National Park because of crowding and congestion." Public comments are invited for sixty days which began on May 21 through July 19, 2021.
In May, the park hosted two virtual meetings regarding this strategy. The meetings provided opportunities to learn more about the purpose of the project, key issues, desired conditions for day use visitor access, potential management strategies, ask questions of National Park Service staff and get information on how to provide formal written comments through the Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website. Each webinar begans with a presentation, followed by a question and answer session. The recorded links to these meetings are available at https://www.nps.gov/romo/getinvolved/day-use-visitor-access-strategy.htm The content was the same for both meetings.
This Pre-NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) phase is a step in the long-range planning process but not the end, there will be more opportunities for public involvement looking at more developed strategies ahead. Pre-NEPA planning allows park staff to define the issues and their impacts as well as explore possible ways to address those issues. At the end of the pre-NEPA planning, park staff will have initial input and reactions from the public on our identified issues and possible ways to address those issues.
Rocky Mountain National Park has experienced a 44 percent increase in visitation since 2012. Rapid growth in day use visitation and changing use patterns in the park have degraded natural and cultural resources, diminished quality of the visitor experience, increased visitor and staff safety concerns, and created a heavy strain on the park's facilities and ability to perform daily operations. The purpose of the Rocky Mountain National Park long-range Day Use Visitor Access Strategy is to provide visitor access in a way that enhances the protection of the fundamental resources and values for which the park was created. The goal of the process is to identify strategies that will help protect park resources, offer varied opportunities for high quality visitor experiences, enhance visitor and staff safety, and coincide with the park's operational capacity.
Park staff encourage public participation throughout the planning process. There will be additional opportunities to comment formally on the project during the future NEPA process. Public comments for this stage are invited for sixty days beginning May 21 through July 19, 2021 by visiting https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ROMO_Duvas Click on "Open for Comment" on the left side of the screen. Then select, "Day Use Visitor Access Strategy Power Point Presentation."
Comments may also be sent to the following mailing address:
Superintendent
Rocky Mountain National Park
1000 US Highway 36
Estes Park, CO 80517
Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire comment – including your personal identifying information – may be made publicly available at any time. Although you can ask in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from public review, we cannot guarantee we will be able to do so.
Jeff
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