Save Hughes: A Community's Last Stand to Protect Hughes
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Protect Hughes Once & For All. Make Hughes a City Natural Area.
The Time is Now. Because Once It’s Gone, It’s Gone Forever.
Against all odds, the Fort Collins community and voters accomplished TWO of THREE steps to protect Hughes in perpetuity, organized by Planning Action to Transform Hughes Sustainably (PATHS).
First, we ZONED Hughes as ‘Public Open Lands’ (2021 election), AND second, we directed the City to ACQUIRE Hughes so it is truly publicly-owned land, which the City did in July of 2023.
The third and last step in the community-driven Hughes conservation effort is to PROTECT 100% of Hughes as PUBLICLY-OWNED land in perpetuity for future generations and for the local wildlife that inhabit and are returning to Hughes open space. Sadly, the City continues to refuse to PROTECT Hughes in a public trust as a conserved Open Space for ALL, even in a time when the very survival of our public lands are being threatened across the country.
To that end, the ONLY truly EQUITABLE and PROTECTIVE future for Hughes is for the City to designate Hughes an official 100% City Natural Area, contiguous with the protected Natural Areas (Maxwell and Pineridge), for the benefit of ALL members of our community, of all socioeconomic backgrounds and physical abilities, and for the protection and preservation of our local wildlife.
Neither a 60 to 80-acre recreation hub with a BMX/MTB Bike Park, nor a 75-acre Wildlife and Nature "Campus" that resembles an open-air zoo align with the conservation-focused legislative intent of the 2021 citizen ballot measure to conserve Hughes as Open Space. Neither of these high-intensity, consumptive uses are compatible with the sensitive foothills ecotone.
If needed, the people will protect Hughes themselves with an initiative for a City Natural Area, just as the adjacent Maxwell and Pineridge Natural Areas are protected. Please donate to help PATHS and the Fort Collins community make this long-awaited vision a reality.
Organizer
PATHS FoCo
Organizer
Fort Collins, CO