GOCO set to divvy record $100 million

Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 9, 2007 at midnight

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Great Outdoors Colorado will spend $100 million this year on open space, wildlife and parks across the state, the largest effort in the agency's 15-year history.

Preliminary plans call for $66 million to be spent protecting large-scale scenic regions.

The remaining $34 million will pay for things the agency always funds: outdoor recreation projects, trails and new park and wildlife programs.

Approved by voters in 1992, GOCO, as it is known, uses lottery proceeds to fund its grants.

"We've been aggressively asking people what they have and what might require a large infusion of money," said John Swartout, GOCO's executive director.

Cities, counties, conservation groups and others that want to tap the $100 million pool must go through a competitive application process. The GOCO board will decide in December which projects to finance.

Among those likely to be considered:

• The Northeast Greenway Project: a proposed 1,000-acre trail and open space network surrounding the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge.

• The Rio Grande Initiative: a proposal to protect 14,000 acres along the Rio Grande in Rio Grande, Alamosa, Conejos and Mineral counties.

• The Upper White River Watershed Project: an effort to protect 11,000 acres in Rio Blanco County.

Jennifer Young, a staffer in Adams County's parks department, is rushing to complete the application for the Northeast Greenway Project.

"Brighton doesn't have a lot of open space available for their residents," Young said. "This would help pay for a 400-acre park."

GOCO has protected more than 600,000 acres since the early 1990s. In years when its cash purse grows large enough, it initiates a series of so-called Legacy Grants, which are designed to pay for large-scale, high-value open-space protection efforts. The last such round of funding occurred in 2004, when the agency spent $48 million in addition to its normal annual grant-making.

Chris Leding, communications director at GOCO, said there is no shortage of land-protection projects to be funded.

"We're still getting about three times as many requests as we have dollars available," Leding said. "There are projects that have real potential but that are not ripe and ready to go."

Successful projects must demonstrate that they have local financial support, that without protection they are in immediate danger of being developed and that they complement other preservation efforts under way, Swartout said.

News of the GOCO Legacy initiative comes as problems maintaining the state's park system are emerging. Last week, the parks department said it faces a $150 million backlog in maintenance projects, largely because of cutbacks in its operating budget by state lawmakers.

The parks department gets 10 percent of all lottery proceeds, roughly $11 million to $12 million annually, some of which is spent on maintenance.

But state law sharply limits the use of GOCO money to pay for routine park system maintenance.

Pressure remains high to continue protecting Colorado's wild and scenic landscapes before they're developed.

According to a survey by the Colorado Conservation Trust, roughly 1.6 million acres have been preserved by nonprofits such as GOCO and other government agencies, but about 2 million additional acres need protection.

GOCO spending history

GOCO began making grants in 1994. In the coming year, the agency will disburse $100 million, the largest spending plan in its history.

smithj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5474

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