Construction underway on trails improvements at Lake Pueblo State Park thanks to CPW Trails Grant
Bill Vogrin
Photo courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Nov. 7, 2022
Improvements underway on trails at Lake Pueblo State Park by Southern Colorado Trail Builders using Colorado Parks and Wildlife grant
PUEBLO, Colo. – Trail improvements are underway at Lake Pueblo State Park under the guidance of Southern Colorado Trail Builders (SCTB) thanks to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife trails grant of $181,275.
The CPW grant was used to hire contractor Singletrack Trails of Grand Junction to upgrade the dirt trail system on the south side of the park to modern standards and improve the sustainability of the trails at Lake Pueblo, the busiest state park in Colorado.
“These improvements have been a long time coming and will add value to the park and the region,” said Joe Stadterman, CPW’s park manager at Lake Pueblo. Stadterman was instrumental in identifying and applying for the internal grant opportunity, bringing years-long planning discussions to reality.
“The upcoming maintenance work will be supported with hundreds of SCTB volunteer labor hours to augment this significant investment in our community’s trails,” said Mike McHenry, vice president of SCTB, a Pueblo-based non-profit group.
Work already is underway and trail users are urged to be aware of temporary detours to avoid areas under maintenance.
The work is a direct result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2017 between CPW, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and SCTB, a nonprofit trails group based in Pueblo.
The trail system developed informally over the past 15 years on Bureau of Reclamation land that is managed by CPW as part of the Lake Pueblo State Park. Because the trails were not built according to National Environmental Policy Act guidelines, there was no government-sanctioned plan or funding to maintain, repair and improve the trails.
The memorandum designated SCTB as the official caretaker of the 40-plus miles of Lake Pueblo trails. And the memorandum was a key step in the development of a Trail Management Plan, which assessed sensitive resources in the area including trail sustainability, trail safety and the benefit of each trail for multiple use.
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Photos are courtesy of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and Southern Colorado Trail Builders
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) is an enterprise agency, relying primarily on license sales, state parks fees and registration fees to support its operations, including: 43 state parks and more than 350 wildlife areas covering approximately 900,000 acres, management of fishing and hunting, wildlife watching, camping, motorized and non-motorized trails, boating and outdoor education. CPW's work contributes approximately $6 billion in total economic impact annually throughout Colorado.