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Natural Resources: PAVE score steady, conservation on track for 2043 sales‑tax goal
Summary
Natural Resources reported a PAVE pavement‑condition index of 82 and said a large federal grant will raise the PAVE score in 2025; the department said it has conserved 62,141 acres toward a 74,000‑acre goal by 2043 and restored natural‑surface trail condition after wet‑year damage.
Dalen Figgs, director of Natural Resources, told commissioners on July 21 that the department's PAVE pavement‑condition index for county recreational paving stood at 82 in 2024, within the department target range of 75–85. Figgs said a large Federal Lands Access Program grant currently under construction will add and rehabilitate parking lots and is expected to raise the PAVE score when the work is recorded in 2025.
Land conservation: Figgs reported that the county set a goal of conserving 74,000 acres by 2043 (a per‑capita goal tied to population projections and the open‑space sales tax that funds the program). Starting from a 2018 baseline of about 50,000 acres, the county had conserved an additional 7,663 acres by 2024 and reported a total portfolio of 62,141 acres conserved as of the presentation. Figgs noted the county anticipates a shift toward roughly a 50/50 mix of fee‑title ownership and conservation easements over the life of the program, based on landowner preferences and long‑term maintenance costs.
Trails: the department tracks a natural‑surface trail score with a goal of about 75%; the system fell to about 63% after a wet 2023, prompting grant applications and expanded trail‑crew staffing; in 2024 Figgs said the trail score recovered to about 80% after those investments.
Why this matters: land conservation and trail maintenance affect recreation access and long‑term open‑space planning; the sales‑tax expiration date used in the goal setting (2043) drives the time frame for the conservation target. Figgs said the department will revisit its master plan later in the year to confirm priority conservation areas and metric choices.
Ending: Figgs said some community‑facing metrics (for example, on water‑based recreation) are tracked but not yet formalized as department KPIs because they are often outside the department's direct control; the department will continue to refine metrics as Glade Reservoir and other projects come online.
