From the prairies of Eastern Colorado to the high peaks along the Continental Divide, Colorado provides a diverse landscape with abundant outdoor recreational opportunities. Miles of trails, national parks, family attractions and conserved landscapes span across Colorado’s nearly 67 million acres. Colorado consists of nearly 30 million acres of public lands, or approximately 45% of the total state land area, providing vast amounts of recreation opportunities.
The Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) provides strategies for sustaining Colorado’s outdoors heritage for current and future generations. Millions of visitors and residents enjoy the wide array of outdoor recreation activities on the state’s public lands every year. However, providing sustainable and quality outdoor recreation experiences continues to be a challenge. A growing and diversifying population, as well as recent natural disasters, has strained outdoor recreation resources. Outdoor recreation provides many social, physical and economic benefits; therefore, a strategic plan is critical to keep outdoor recreation providers and partners thriving in the changing recreational landscape.
Building on the 2008 SCORP, this SCORP aims to identify outdoor recreation trends and issues, to ascertain demand for and supply of outdoor recreation resources and to quantify economic impacts of outdoor recreation. The SCORP will guide state and local outdoor recreation providers, decision-makers, and stakeholders in recreation management and policy decisions over the next five years.
Led by the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife (CPW), the 2014 SCORP is a collaborative product that incorporates input from the public and outdoor recreation stakeholders. CPW convened a diverse group of traditional and non-traditional outdoor recreation providers and advocates to guide the SCORP development. The 2014 SCORP Advisory Committee represented a variety of interests including trail user groups, retailers, funding partners, health and education advocates, outdoor recreation providers, local, state and federal agencies, tourism interests, and stewardship and conservation interests. As part of the SCORP process, data was collected on the needs and interests of the public, local government agencies who provide outdoor recreation opportunities, as well as urban youth in the Denver Metro Area.
Read more about the state plan here.