OSMP unveils 2024–2030 climate plan, prioritizes wildfire resilience and emissions reductions

OSMP staff presented a department climate plan — the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks Climate Plan 2024–2030 — to trustees at their Dec. 11 meeting, outlining 19 prioritized “climate solutions” organized under three objectives: strengthen resilience of natural and working lands, reduce departmental emissions, and expand climate awareness, participation and equity.

“Every ton matters, and we need to take care of what we have,” Brian Anacker, an OSMP staff member participating in the Science and Climate Resilience work group, told trustees while summarizing consultant studies used to develop the plan. Anacker said OSMP’s on-the-ground operations emit about 3,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year and that vegetation and soils on open space lands store on the order of 3,000,000 metric tons of carbon.

Staff said the plan aims first to protect and steward existing carbon stores by reducing risks such as wildfire, drought and flood and by investing in land-management practices. Anacker highlighted projects to reduce soil loss on degraded agricultural properties, pilot “check dams” and other stream-restoration structures to slow water and capture sediment, and to scale low-cost interventions that have co-benefits for water retention and native plants.

A second group of initiatives focuses on operational emissions: electrifying facilities and fleet, upgrading the Cherryvale campus electrical and heating systems, and supporting EV chargers and EV vehicles for rangers and staff. Anacker said OSMP’s consultants estimate roughly 15,000 metric tons of CO2 annually are associated with visitor travel to open space (based on about 32,000,000 vehicle miles traveled) and that reducing that figure will require a multifaceted approach including transit, shuttles, bike infrastructure and partnerships across city departments.

“We might not have a silver bullet for visitor travel,” Anacker said; consultants recommended a multi-pronged strategy that pairs infrastructure, incentives and coordination with city and regional partners.

A third set of solutions targets project design and procurement — for example, experimenting with lower-carbon construction materials where practicable, improving the department’s ability to evaluate embodied carbon in capital projects, and supporting “greener projects” in design phases.

Alicia Alexander, identified in the meeting as the climate plan implementation coordinator, described an implementation approach that assigns OSMP staff to manage about 56 child projects that support the 19 prioritized solutions. Alexander said the department will use a mix of internal staff time, a modest annual capital set-aside (she cited a planning range of approximately $50,000 to $300,000 per year) and external grants to advance near-term pilots and remove barriers to implementation.

Trustees asked about carbon markets, off-site mitigation and biomass uses for woody material. Board members discussed trade-offs between local conservation and the possibility of investing in higher-sequestration projects elsewhere. Anacker said the department and its partners had concluded that uncertainty in durability, measurement and market maturity limited large investments in off-site carbon purchasing at present, but that the option remained on the department’s radar as standards and markets evolved.

The meeting’s discussion also connected plan priorities to wildfire concerns raised by public commenters earlier in the evening. Giles Trouton, a resident who said he lives downhill from Panorama Point, urged more data-driven incident reporting and greater public access to the wildfire core team; he also suggested limiting access to open space at high fire-risk periods and increasing enforcement of prohibited activities such as fireworks and intoxication. “The CWPP has a significant lack of fire incident data analytics associated with it,” Trouton said during public comment.

OSMP staff said wildfire resilience is embedded in several top-priority climate solutions and that the department has added a wildfire resilience coordinator (George Greenwood) to improve coordination across city and county partners and to link wildfire planning with climate objectives. Staff described the plan as a staff implementation tool — not a new ordinance — and said periodic public reporting and an annual review of progress are planned.