One of the most volatile issues for local mountain bikers has been the recent park management policy changes to restrict mountain biking at Apex Park. To find out more about COMBA's stance and interaction with Jefferson County relating to this issue please visit:

http://www.comba.org/saveapex

Jefferson County Open Space (JCOS) manages one of the greatest open space park systems in the country. The abundance of parks and trails are the reason many of us have chosen to live in the Colorado Front Range. The open space properties are cherished by mountain bikers for their wealth of local riding opportunities and as a result, bicyclists make up approximately half of all the visitors to the parks.

Maps for all the open properties in the park system can be found at: http://www.co.jefferson.co.us/openspace/openspace_T56_R108.htm.

The open space park system started as a citizens movement led by PLAN Jeffco. After much campaigning by 400 PLAN Jeffco volunteers, the Jefferson County voters, on November 7, 1972, approved taxing themselves 0.5% to fund the purchase of open space and the Jefferson County Open Space park system was born. The parks and their funding have had to be defended by the citizens of the county several times since 1972.

Jefferson County Open Space has a staff of over 90 full time employee and is currently led by a director and managers of five sections. Information about the individuals currently holding these positions can be found at: http://jeffco.us/openspace/openspace_T56_R132.htm.

In addition to these staff members, the Open Space Advisory Committee (OSAC), a citizens advisory board, makes recommendations regarding Open Space policy and procedures to Jefferson County's Board of County Commissioners. OSAC holds monthly public meetings, a schedule can be found at: http://jeffco.us/openspace/openspace_T56_R106.htm.

The Trails Use Task Force (TUTF) is a group comprised of citizen volunteers from the majority user groups (equestrian, hiker and mountain biker) intended to provide user group feedback to JCOS and OSAC. There are three cycling representatives and three alternates on TUTF. They are not selected by the user group, but by the representatives themselves. They have no term-limits and there is no mechanism for mountain bikers to place or recall an individual to or from TUTF. Given these structural limitations, mountain bikers have had poor representation on TUTF.

COMBA regularly interacts with all of these groups to help ensure the preservation of the open space park system and mountain biker's access to these properties. Read more about specific issues and news in related to COMBA's work related to Jefferson County Open Space parks in the list found below.