COLORADO PARKS & WILDLIFE

Roxborough State Park receives Gold Standard Site designation from The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics

ROXBOROUGH, Colo. - Roxborough State Park has been recognized as a Gold Standard Site by The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, based in Boulder, Colo. The park is the newest public land recreation area, and the first in Colorado, to receive the designation. Gold Standard Site designations are awarded to public recreation lands that exemplify successful ‘Leave No Trace’ ethics and showcase strong organizational commitment to the promotion of outdoor skills, ethics, and stewardship in order to help preserve and protect the natural landscape for generations to come.

“Roxborough State Park is very honored to receive the Gold Standard Site designation, the first park in Colorado to be awarded this status,” said Ben Vinci, Roxborough State Park Manager. “Our amazing volunteers have always embraced the Leave No Trace principles as part of their outdoor ethic, and have worked tirelessly to educate our visitors and to promote these important skills and ethics throughout the park.”

The Gold Standard Site designation is part of The Center’s ‘Leave No Trace in Every Park’ initiative, recognizing outdoor spaces that demonstrate the highest standard of practicing and promoting Leave No Trace ethics. The Friends of Roxborough originally worked with park staff on a goal of reaching Gold Standard Site designation by 2021; receiving the designation three years ahead of the goal demonstrates how effective the efforts have been, and how receptive park visitors are to learning and maintaining a strong outdoor ethic. Roxborough State Park will now act as a model for other public lands, specifically other Colorado state parks, to emulate.  

“The park staff along with its more than 100 volunteer naturalists are deeply committed to protecting and preserving the beauty and geology of the park,” said John Liberatore, a volunteer naturalist and member of Friends of Roxborough. “By educating the public through the Leave No Trace program, we are able to help conserve the natural areas we love while creating a road map for other parks to follow in the future.”

Roxborough State Park underwent a rigorous planning and implementation process in order to be named a Gold Standard Site and was ultimately selected based on a combination of the following criteria:

• A history of successfully implementing Leave No Trace Outdoor skills and ethics into management, programming, outreach and education efforts at the site
• Staff formally trained in Leave No Trace
• Leave No Trace signage throughout trailheads, visitor centers and campgrounds as well as Leave No Trace language and messaging included in pamphlets, maps and other distributed materials for visitors
• Leave No Trace interpretative programs including ranger talks, campfire events and trail outings for visitors

Roxborough State Park, Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Leave No Trace are working together to create a toolkit based on the outstanding work that has been done at the park to serve as a guide to help all of Colorado’s state parks work toward achieving Gold Standard Site status.

Roxborough State Park joins an impressive list of natural areas and recreation spaces that have received the Gold Standard Site designation, listed below:

1. San Juan Islands National Monument – Lopez Island, Washington

2. Knob Noster State Park – Knob Noster, Missouri

3. New River Gorge National River – Glen Jean, West Virginia

4. Isle Royale National Park – Houghton, Michigan

5. Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area – Sandy Springs, Georgia

6. Coconino National Forest – Flagstaff, Arizona

7. Cheaha State Park – Delta, Alabama

8. Olympic National Park – Port Angeles, Washington

9. Shenandoah National Park – Luray, Virginia

10. Acadia National Park – Bar Harbor, Maine

11. Roxborough State Park – Roxborough, CO