Dear Trail Enthusiasts, Trails in Colorado need 5 to 15 minutes of your time right now to complete an online survey. The final day for this survey is this Friday so don't bury this in your inbox. You'll thank yourself when you're riding some sweet trail in our great state 15 years from now. Read closely or skim the information below to gain a better understanding of why this is so critical. I cannot emphasize enough how influential Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is on trail related matters and decisions in our state and this is PRIMARILY on US Forest Service and BLM public lands, not just in Colorado State Parks. Currently, CPW is dominated by the interests of sportsmen, primarily hunters. Out of state big game hunting licenses provide the majority of funding for CPW so the hunters remain highly influential even as the popularity of this activity wains. Not always, but often, CPW is less than supportive of trails and trail use in our state. This is ironic because the State Trails Program lives inside of CPW, although it (and trails) are positioned as minor players at best. This is doubly ironic because based on CPW's own study, human powered trail user days in our state trump every other activity by 20 times. Hunting, as far as user days, is barely on the charts in comparison. Wildlife programs and issues go hand in hand with hunting, which is why, at this point, CPW is such an unbalanced organization, the majority of the power and influence being held by those with ties to hunting. Please know, this is not an anti-hunting or anti-wildlife rant. A healthy wildlife population and diversity of species is of upmost importance to nearly everyone that loves this state. However, if these species are able to survive hunting season, it stands to reason that they can also survive planned, managed and thoughtful trail use. Here's the meat of this topic: CPW has embarked on strategic planning that will chart the course for this organization for years to come and they are taking public comment in the form of an online survey. You can easily finish the survey in 5 minutes by providing only brief but thoughtful answers to the five fill in the blank questions. Everything else is check the box or multiple choice and is fast to complete. You could also labor over it for hours, if you like, writing detailed answers to each question. I am going to summarize the entire survey below and offer some ideas based on being a self-powered trail user for you to consider. Ideally, everyone is coming up with his or her own answers to the questions but some people don't mind a bit of background or perspective either. Regardless of how you approach it and what the content of your answers is, CPW will affect your trail use drastically, one way or the other, for years to come. If the stock of trails and the State Trails Program is raised within CPW, you can expect more and better trail opportunities for mountain biking, hiking and running. You can expect more funding for non profits like Gunni Trails, the Crested Butte Mountain Bike Association, Salida Mountain Trails, Trails 2000, etc., to be able to maintain and improve existing trails, to build new trails, to educate and to engage young people. If the State Trails Program remains a low priority, non-influential part of CPW, expect more opposition to trails; for trails to be a low priority for our state; and for funding to continue to wain. paste this link into your browser: https://www.research.net/s/CPWStrategicPlan2015 Here's what's in the survey: Page 1: Check the box Page 2: Check the box Page 3: This is the meat of the survey; 5 fill in the blank questions: Question 1 - Perpetuation Wildlife Resources: Wildlife is important to all of us and CPW needs to continue to protect wildlife. Question 2 - Quality State Parks System: The State Parks System seems solid. You may have more experience with it than I do. It's an important program and some of our state's great trail systems are in State Park. Question 3 - Enjoyable and Sustainable Outdoor Recreation: (This is the critical question for us) This is where we need to bring up trails and CPW's current lack of emphasis and support for them. Get creative. I talked about including trails in CPW's mission statement. Funding is a big deal and some people favor the formation of a trails season pass of sorts, the proceeds from which will go directly into trails and trails infrastructure. Put most of your time into thoughtful answers to this question. Question 4 - Educate and Inspire Active Stewardship: This is important and trail users are leaders in volunteerism, education and stewardship. Question 5 - Customer Service: As trail users, many of us may have never had to engage with CPW on a customer service level. Regardless, high-quality customer service is something every organization should be striving to achieve. Page 4: 11 pick your answer questions. Page 5: 4 demographic questions. Page 6: Blank form for additional comments. More on the importance of trail here would be great. That's it. You're done. Thanks! Here are more resources if you are interested: CPW Strategic Plan Page Fact Sheet (great stats about non motorized trail use here) A compilation of reasons for trails to be more prominent in CPW Finally, the important point here is to comment. Even if you don't agree with anything that I have mentioned above, what makes our country great is that everyone can have an opinion and be heard. My only goal is go get people to comment and for those that don't know much about CPW, and many don't, to give them my perspective that I know is also shared by other trail advocates. Thanks for taking the time to support trails in Colorado. Enjoy the Ride, Dave Wiens Executive Director Gunnison Trails, Inc