Commissioner Elsner in Park County has been making numerous false statements concerning The Gulches and the Colorado Offroad Community in general. Read the open letter correcting the written record and then email the commissioners with your concerns. **If you own property, a business, or live in Park County please tell them you don't support their actions**
delsner@parkco.us
mbrazell@parkco.us
rdouglas@parkco.us
This letter was sent to all three commissioners disputing the false statements:
Dear Commissioner Elsner,
My name is Marcus Trusty, and I am the Founder and President of CORE and the President of the Colorado Off Road Trail Defenders. But you already know who I am. I have communicated my group's background, intentions and offered to help your county for the last 18 months concerning the Wildcat Canyon Area and specifically The Gulches Trail System.
Unfortunately, you have failed to make any attempt to contact me or to have any type of dialogue. Additionally, you have even gone so far as to offer your own incorrect and baseless conclusions about how the offroad community works and what our capabilities are.
You have avoided all opportunities and requests for discourse. This letter is a written response to your many false claims, accusations, and a general misunderstanding of the offroad community and the many 4x4 organizations in Colorado.
Your statements:
The offroad groups have no plan, just waiving hands saying we've got good people and we'll do it.
I sent you and the Park County Commission a letter of intent on February 18, 2019. The letter discussed our background, intentions, examples, and offered to become a partner with Park County. The message closed with this sentence: "We are looking to become a partner with the county, and we would like to schedule a work session to discuss these ideas in detail." We have also made two additional work session requests through the Park County Government Website. We received no response from the first request, and County Manager Tom Eisenman emphatically denied the second. Until the commission agrees to discuss options, you can't claim we have no plan while simultaneously suppressing discussion.
No one in these offroad groups is from Park County, and nobody from Park County has emailed you in support of The Gulches.
This statement is entirely false. A CORE Board Member with a long family history in Park County, who owns private property within the county, and a business spoke directly with you and Commissioner Douglass concerning The Gulches outside your office in April of 2019. Your own 2019 county press release also refutes this false statement. In the press release, the commission claimed to have heard from many offroad groups concerning Wildcat Canyon. I was blind copied on most of the emails you received at that time and most of the recent emails you have received. I have seen Fairplay residents, Park County residents, business owners, property owners, and people with disabilities directly email you asking you to work with CORE to find a solution for The Gulches.
Holy Cross Jeep Trail was well maintained for 4-5 years by the 4x4 clubs, then they lost interest, and it was destroyed. ATVs have destroyed Texas Creek in Taylor Park.
These two statements are meant to detract from the real issue, finding a solution for Wildcat Canyon, and are being used to paint motorized users in a negative light. The first statement is false. The Big Horn Jeep Club adopts the Holy Cross Jeep Trail, and they still hold this adoption currently. Big Horn, Mile-Hi Jeep Club, and CORE performed volunteer work on the trail this summer, and we are working with the Eagle/Holy Cross district to conduct more extensive work next summer. One of our board members is the President of Big Horn Jeep Club, and we will be working together next summer on many areas of the trail. The second statement is vague and lacks context. Several regions in Taylor Park are used extensively by motorized users. CORE and Stay the Trail Colorado are currently working on a mapping/education project to be rolled out next year. This project will address many concerns in many areas of Taylor Park. When advocates and motorized users come together to solve a problem, we have a much better chance at a positive outcome.
To open the roads, the county would have to take them back, and that costs money.
This statement, while mostly accurate, is EXTREMELY misleading. Yes, it would cost money for road maintenance. However, Park County's easement application set the road maintenance cost at $3,869 per year. Park County just gave Wild Connections a $35,000 grant for a single project to remove road infrastructure in this area. That one grant would have funded road maintenance for over nine years. The application for this grant was submitted by someone living in Arapaho County, representing a group based in El Paso County. Still, you have claimed only to represent people living in Park County when discussing The Gulches? Additionally, 4x4 clubs would cover the bulk of the funding and provide the volunteers for ongoing maintenance on these trails just as they do for five additional adopted 4x4 trails in Park County and the roads in Teller County.
Teller County is on the record stating that it costs the county precisely 20 hours of administrative time each year for coordination on their section of roads. Teller also says Predator 4x4 pays for ALL materials needed for maintenance and improvements on their 15.6 miles of road. That is nearly six more miles of road than the mileage in Park County, just under 10 miles.
Offroaders say they'll take responsibility, but the first time a vehicle rolls down there, the county sheriff will have to investigate it, and it will take county resources (search and rescue, fire) to pull them out.
This suggestion is false and also misleading. All recreational activity in National Forests has risks and thus can require some county resources. Thus, this is not a valid argument against motorized recreation. In addition, there are several non-profit offroad volunteer organizations within Colorado; one is a state-sanctioned SAR team. These volunteer organizations recover vehicles from 4x4 trails routinely each year. They have recovered vehicles in Park County in 2020. These groups work in collaboration with the Forest Service and with county sheriffs. CORE has participated in recoveries to remove vehicles from the backcountry. There is no cost to the FS, to counties, and these operations do not stress county resources.
The Gulches are pristine, and if you run Jeeps through there, it's going to ruin it.
You speak as though The Gulches have never been opened to motorized use; that is false. Additionally, The Gulches were never closed due to misuse or resource issues. They were 'temporarily' closed due to the Hayman Fire. All subsequent scientific analysis on this area has concluded that correct management can allow motorized use while still protecting this area from further issues.
You have to drive up Tarryall River.
You are referring to the Corral Creek Trail, FSR 540, and the Tarryall Creek Crossing. Your statement with regards to that road and the creek crossing are false. The creek crossing is perpendicular to the creek and is a 'hardened' crossing. A hardened crossing is a prescriptive technical solution to mitigate erosion and sediment issues where roads cross creeks. This mitigation technique is precisely the best options for a vehicle creek crossing.
Park County will not receive any economic benefit from The Gulches fully opening.
Park County's own easement application submitted only five years ago stated the opposite. "These roads provide recreational access to the National Forest within Park County. This direct area of recreation generated a major portion of the local economic base for the Lake George area within Park County through tourism. Visitors use them for pleasure driving, four-wheel driving, OHV riding, bicycling, hiking, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, horseback riding, backpacking, camping, hunting, fishing, sightseeing, and etc. This area is arguably the highest recreational area in eastern Park County and possibly the Front Range. Park County wants to assure these roads are available and maintained to accommodate current and future users."
The roads in Teller County are 'torn up,' and nobody is maintaining them.
The exact opposite is true. The US Forest Service's biologist (Ms. Painter) stated
"Within Teller County, I thought the existing roads looked pretty good for the most part. The routes were not terribly braided, water bars were in good shape, and sections closed with post and cable had revegetated pretty well. I would say Jerry and his people [Predator 4x4] have done a good job, and I hope they are able to continue their work to maintain sustainable routes. There are a few locations that need additional help to confine use to an acceptable route, and we should help them identify those. In Park County east of the river it was immediately obvious the land is suffering from uncontrolled use and no maintenance. Routes were poorly defined, and use is not contained by existing infrastructure. Damage to hillslopes, tributary creeks, and riparian vegetation is currently greater than I am comfortable with, but I also know it could be a lot worse."
The sections of roads that are in Park County are not in this good of shape for one reason- 4x4 groups are not allowed to help manage them. If the Forest Service had granted Park County the easements or Park County had claimed right-of-way on those routes, they would be taken care of successfully just as they are in Teller County.
You have entirely fabricated a false narrative about The Gulches designed to divert the facts. Please stop doing this. And failure to discuss options and solutions is only furthering the issues and kicking the can down the road. You have a real chance to find a compromise and to work with motorized groups to find a solution. When we all work together, long-term sustainable multi-use management is possible.
Marcus Trusty
Elsner’s false claims can be found here:
Publicly readable link to the Flume article: https://outline.com/jFzVuh
Here's a video of the commissioner debate where they talked about the Gulches: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdKyxTxeK6o
And here's a video of my (Patrick McKay) latest exchange with the commissioners at the County Commission meeting last week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKeos9UyxTA&t=1214s