Pitkin County releases visitor-use study and ecological peer review for North Star Nature Preserve

Pitkin County Open Space and Trails on Thursday presented results of a 2024 on-site visitor-use study and an external peer review of ecological monitoring for the North Star Nature Preserve, laying out data the county says will inform the 2025 update to the North Star Nature Preserve Management Plan.

Liza (Open Space and Trails staff, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails) opened the webinar by saying, “And today marks the true beginning of our public engagement process as we update this management plan for Northstar.” The presentation combined findings from a DJ&A visitor-use study conducted June 22–July 28, 2024, and an independent ecological review led by recreation ecologist Chris Mons.

The visitor-use study, led by Steve Lawson, senior project manager at DJ&A, measured on-river crowding using a people-per-viewscape (PPV) photographic metric, conducted hourly parking counts at multiple lots, deployed an automated traffic counter on Wildwood Lane, and surveyed river users at the North Star pedestrian-bridge takeout. Lawson said the county’s long-term data show “since 2018, there's been a 50% increase in overall annual river use, to 2024. And in that same time period, there's been a doubling of commercial use.”

Survey and observational highlights: a majority of respondents (about three quarters) reported launching from Wildwood; most used personal vehicles and about one in five used commercial shuttles. About two-thirds of surveyed groups floated…