COLORADO SPRINGS — Parks leaders in Colorado Springs responded to concerns about safety on urban trails with the addition of Urban Trail Rangers.
They have now been on patrol for close to six months.
“The first and foremost goal is being [a] presence down on those urban trails for our users,” said Senior Ranger, Kyle Wilson.
While on patrol rangers often see compliance to trails and open space rules just because someone spotted them.
“We will have people change their behaviors when they see us coming,” said Wilson.
“We're getting a number of responses from the folks who see our park rangers along our trail corridors more often, and they really appreciate that,” said Colorado Springs Parks Trails and Opens Space Manger, Scott Abbott.
The ranger's most common encounters are friendly interactions offering directions and checking in with trail users.
Wilson said, “We love to pull over, stop and have conversations with folks, ask them kind of what they're seeing, if they have any concerns, where we can help out, you know, provide guidance to some of the new users that are down there."
If trees or brush along trails get overgrown and cause potential safety issues they take action.
“We don't want tree branches hanging down and smacking into, you know, somebody riding their bike on our trail,” said Wilson, “So we're quick to kind of take care of those smaller issues on the trails.”
The patrols are also part of working toward solutions to the complex homeless camping issue.
“We're really trying to maybe cut down on how long camps stay in certain places. Because what we've seen is the longer a camp remains, the more you know issues you're going to have," said Wilson
There are times when the rangers check on the welfare of the homeless after things like extreme weather events.
They also remind us that camping is against city code and when there are campfires, trash, and hazardous waste situations contact is made with police and fire Homeless Outreach Teams.
In other cases where there are campfires, trash, and hazardous waste, they let campers know they need to pack up.
“This team has done great work with collaborating with all the service providers in the city. It gets us all on the same page. And really the large hope there is that folks who are needing services are getting connected to them,” said Abbot.
Camp locations are tracked with a mapping app used by the rangers.
“When we're when we're out, we observe camps, we map them and track their locations, and then with that data we share that with partners.
In their first months of service, the rangers have assisted with:
- Cleaning close to 1300 encampments along trails
- Identifying 225 large trash areas likely associated with encampments
- Contacting 250 citizens addressing issues considered more than a "wave" or casual conversation
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