Authorities in Boulder County are struggling with how to manage designated-dispersed camping areas on Arapaho & Roosevelt National Forests land, but fear taking no action threatens one of the public’s greatest natural assets on Colorado’s Front Range.
Enforcing regulations is difficult for agencies faced with limited resources and the problem is hardly isolated to national forests in Boulder County. The phenomenon has received attention at the national level, and was the subject of a U.S. Forest Service-commissioned study in 2014.
Boulder County Sheriff’s Office records show that the number of calls handled between West Magnolia, Gordon Gulch and Ruby Gulch shot up from 213 in 2013 to 294 in 2014 and hit 388 in 2015. The tree camping areas have recorded 177 calls through April this year.
From persistent issues with trash to fears an abandoned campfire could spark a catastrophic blaze, the cumulative effects of homeless or transient camping on the national forest have some saying the situation has reached full boil.“We’re at a crisis point,” said Boulder County Undersheriff Tommy Sloan.
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