At a scenic site of sand dunes in northwest Colorado, land managers want more “boots on the ground” through a new collaboration. 

“Active management” was another phrase often repeated at a recent meeting in Walden, where officials with the Bureau of Land Management and Colorado Parks and Wildlife spoke to people who know and love North Sand Hills OHV Area, as the BLM has called it. The landowning agency has called it “Colorado’s only open sand dune area for OHV recreation.” 

At the meeting to introduce new management, an agency representative alluded to “huge needs” regarding emergency response and law enforcement at the remote area: “That’s the biggest change we’re gonna see. We’re gonna have staffing out there we haven’t had in the past.” 

That will be from CPW, which foresees a “Recreation Area as part of the Colorado State Park system,” a spokesperson previously told The Gazette in an email. Mentioned at the recent meeting was the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, where CPW manages recreation and charges fees along a far-reaching stretch of river through federal land. 

Bringing the model to North Sand Hills has long been in the works, said Doug Vilsack, the BLM’s Colorado director — “to kind of really address some of the camping opportunities that we have and the amazing recreation opportunities we have there,” he said. “How can we really build this place out and ensure we’re maintaining those opportunities, but at the same time maintaining safety?” 

The BLM and CPW agreed to a memorandum of understanding last year, CPW’s deputy region manager said at the recent meeting. “It’s a MOU saying we’re gonna work together,” Jacob Brey said. “It’s early; it doesn’t dictate how things are gonna be done. That’s what this process is for, what your input is for.” 

Feedback is being collected online through March 1, and another in-person and virtual meeting is anticipated during the summer. 

Also this summer — when North Sand Hills seasonally opens to motorists — “you’ll start to see more of a presence between both agencies,” Brey said. He said surveying would continue to better understand the land encompassing nearly 2,500 acres in view of the Medicine Bow mountains, adjacent to State Forest State Park. 

Along with safety concerns, “we also kind of see some resource damage and habitat degradation,” Brey said. “We want to try to curtail that before it gets out of hand.” 

Surveying would determine “what’s been disturbed, what our (recreation) footprint is now and what it could be,” he said, adding interests to explore potential utility infrastructure and capacity. 

“One of the things we’ve heard loud and clear is that there’s a lot of over capacity, and then there’s a lot of times where it’s under-utilized,” Brey said. “So it’s about finding that balance and how do we spread out that use.”