Local and state officials have big ideas for Pikes Peak recreation and conservation. Now there’s money to support those ideas.  Many were outlined in a 491-page “vision plan” last year by nonprofit Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance (PPORA), which over the previous decade has convened land managers, advocates and business leaders for regular talks about challenges and untapped potential across the region’s natural environment spanning El Paso, Teller and Fremont counties.  PPORA’s efforts were celebrated Tuesday at an event announcing the organization’s largest grant to date ー $2.5 million from Great Outdoors Colorado that is expected to make some of that “vision plan” a reality.  The grant comes after PPORA spent the past four years meeting stakeholders, identifying priorities and crafting the plan titled the Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative.  “We’ve taken that planning, and now we’re moving to action,” PPORA Executive Director Becky Leinweber said Tuesday beside Gov. Jared Polis and other federal, state and local officials.  Some represented agencies that put up matching funds totaling $3.6 million, Leinweber told The Gazette. She mentioned Colorado Parks and Wildlife, El Paso County, Colorado Springs Utilities, Pikes Peak-America’s Mountain, Cañon City and the Bureau of Land Management ー among jurisdictions slated to see projects develop over the next three years.  Some of those projects are aimed at the long-dreamed Ring the Peak Trail, which has been mapped as a 63-mile trail around Pikes Peak with unfilled gaps and unsolved logistics that have lasted for decades. For many involved over the years, the Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative floated an intriguing concept: for Colorado Parks and Wildlife to take a leading role along the Ring the Peak corridor largely owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Polis has touted the concept of a “Pikes Peak Recreation Area.” At Tuesday’s event, he pointed to federal lands covering more than a third of the state.  “And we love our public lands,” Polis said, “but (federal land managers) are very hands-off and have very little ability to work with locals dynamically and quickly to do things. Things take a long time going through Washington. So really by having this kind of collaboration, we want to be able to provide more reactive management to meet the local community needs.”  Something like the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area ー where CPW manages recreation along federal lands and waters spanning 152 miles ー has been envisioned for Pikes Peak. The governor’s budget is proposing an initial four full-time employees “to actually get out there doing management and enforcement work our partners are telling us they need help with,” said Frank McGee, CPW’s Southeast Region Manager.  Specifics were still being sorted out, he said. But he said a “short-term agreement of some kind” could be announced this summer, following last year’s letter of intent signed by land managers seeking CPW to manage recreation along the Ring the Peak corridor.  Meanwhile, the new funding will spell other progress for Ring the Peak, Leinweber said.  She described a gap getting filled by a long-anticipated El Paso County project: a 1 1/2-mile segment of the Ute Pass Regional Trail, including a new trailhead between Cascade and Green Mountain Falls. The paved segment will nearly complete the trail paralleling Ute Pass and U.S. 24 between Manitou Springs and the Teller County line.  The new funding will also benefit trail building eyed for North Slope Recreation Area, where a portion of Ring the Peak Trail runs. The trail building will be in line with planning under Colorado Springs Utilities, which manages North Slope’s Catamount reservoirs off the Pikes Peak Highway. For other Ring the Peak segments, analysis under the National Environmental Protection Act is needed, Leinweber said. “We need to make sure those are authorized and official.”  And there would be another kind of analysis along the trail corridor, she said ー “to look at where we have an opportunity to build camping infrastructure.” In a written list outlining projects under the new funding, camping along the Ring the Peak corridor is described as “essential” to the pending land management agreement, “enabling CPW to manage recreation and secure a revenue-generating fee income source to support partner land managers.” That list also outlines updated infrastructure and 15 more campsites for Red Canyon Park near Cañon City. The park falls along the Gold Belt Scenic Byway, which also encompasses Phantom Canyon Road between Teller and Fremont counties.  “There’s a lot of dispersed camping along Phantom Canyon, but there needs to be some upgrades there as well and some management of that dispersed camping,” Leinweber said.  Additionally, funding will go toward forest thinning at Dome Rock State Wildlife Area meant to improve bighorn sheep habitat and reduce wildfire risk.  And Leinweber said the funding will help launch an “ambassador program” through nonprofit Rocky Mountain Field Institute, which will hire staffers to serve ranger-like roles. Leinweber said the program would run as a three-year pilot, covering the length of the three-year grant.  The $2.5 million from Great Outdoors Colorado is potentially the first of more millions to come from the Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships Initiative announced last year and set to run until 2030. Alongside CPW, the initiative is for funding state partnerships such as PPORA.  Funding will rely on matching funds, Leinweber stressed last year at a Colorado Springs City Council meeting. “This is a moment in time we can’t let pass,” she said. “We’ve got huge investment coming into the Pikes Peak region. … How do we leverage this? How do we multiply this?” ...read more read less