Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) staff are seeking the public’s continued engagement and input on the park’s long-range Day Use Visitor Access Strategy. For 107 years, Rocky Mountain National Park has been a place of inspiration, reflection, wonder, history, and wilderness adventure. Park visitors across the United States and the world continue to come to Rocky Mountain National Park to discover a wide variety of experiences found only in this incredible place.
“In the summer of 2021, we invited you to join us in envisioning the future of Day Use Visitor Access at RMNP. Your feedback was instrumental in helping National Park Service (NPS) staff develop preliminary management strategies. We are now working to outline ideas for management strategies to help the NPS to both protect park resources and values while also providing for high-quality visitor experiences for today's visitors and for future generations,” said Park Superintendent, Darla Sidles.
Park staff are eager to continue engaging with stakeholders and connect with park visitors from near and far, to help identify ideas and strategies to assist the park prepare for long-term day use. We hope to hear from members of the public who have recently visited the park, as well as those who have told us they no longer visit Rocky Mountain National Park because of crowding and congestion. Park staff invite members of the public to submit their comments via the park’s Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website at https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ROMO_DUVAS beginning December 12, 2022, through February 1, 2023.
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 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.
The park is hosting a public open house on Tuesday, December 6, from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm at the Estes Park Museum in Estes Park, CO. This open house will provide an opportunity to drop in, meet with NPS staff, and learn more about the potential ideas and strategies to address long term day use at RMNP. There will not be any formal presentations scheduled during this time. Please feel free to drop in at any time.
The park is also hosting a virtual public meeting on Thursday, December 15, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The intent of the webinar is to provide opportunities for the public to learn more about the purpose of the project, key ideas, issues of concern, desired conditions for the park’s long-term day use visitor access, potential management strategies, ask questions of NPS staff and get information on how to provide formal written comments through the Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) website. The webinar will open with a presentation, followed by a question and answer session.
To participate in the virtual meeting, please register at the following link. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Teams Webinar. It is recommended to join the webinar via computer to have full use of the webinar tools that Teams provides.
Registration URL: https://forms.office.com/g/UiRnA5kZsb
Unable to attend the virtual meeting? A recording of the meeting will be posted on the park planning link below. The park will provide live captioning of the meetings. Park staff encourage public participation throughout the planning process. Public comments for this stage are invited beginning December 12, 2022, through February 1, 2023. Comments can be submitted online beginning December 12, by visiting https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ROMO_DUVAS click on ‘Open for Comment’ on the left side of page to submit a comment.
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.
There will be additional opportunities to comment formally on the project during the future NEPA process in 2023. If you have questions about the project or would like more information about Rocky Mountain National Park, please visit www.nps.gov/romo or call the park’s Information Office at (970) 586-1206.
Jeff
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