People concerned about the future of recreation and conservation across the Pikes Peak region are invited next week to make their voices heard during a series of sessions.

Meetings are set Monday through Saturday for areas of Colorado Springs, Woodland Park, Cripple Creek and around Cañon City. These are part of what’s being called the Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative.

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The initiative has been years in the making under nonprofit Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance (PPORA), which since 2017 has convened advocates, businesses and local, state and federal land managers. The expectation is for the effort to culminate in the summer of 2024 with a detailed document that envisions a broad, healthy landscape where people can play, animals can be protected and goals regarding water and fire can be met.

The initiative has been backed by the state; more than $200,000 in grants from Great Outdoors Colorado and Colorado Parks and Wildlife have funded PPORA to hire contractors, including landscape architects with Colorado Springs firm N.E.S. Inc. PPORA also has partnered with the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs to help build a database featuring an overlay map that depicts areas in the region for recreation and habitat concern.

“Taking this larger, landscape view just makes a lot of sense,” said Becky Leinweber, PPORA executive director. “Our funders are looking at it this way too. I think there’s been a little bit of a shift. … They have had to do projects and funding in a little bit of a whack-a-mole process, where they get these one-off project requests, and they don’t really know: Does this align to a larger vision that the region has?”

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The plan is anticipated to outline desired projects for land managers to consider prioritizing. In reviewing models around Colorado and beyond, the plan also figures to propose funding strategies to achieve those projects.

The Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative counts Elevate the Peak as a “building block” — a similar regional review recently completed under Palmer Land Conservancy that suggested funding mechanisms in the region were too narrow or missing. Without a bigger, collaborative solution — perhaps one like the city of Colorado Springs’ sales tax-built Trails, Open Space and Parks (TOPS) program covering a broader base — Elevate the Peak suggested jurisdictions and land managers compete for higher-level funding.

That competition spans across types of trail users, conservationists and outfitters, Leinweber said.

“In the outdoor industry, we’ve all kind of operated in our own silos,” she said. “We haven’t always been known to play well in the sandbox.”

For more information on next week’s sessions, go to ppora.org/oppi

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