I CAN RESPECT THAT FROM THE COLORADO DIVISION OF PARKS AND WILDLIFE, BUT NOT THE NIMBY CREW...BELIEVE WHAT YOU WANT.

Below are a couple of images. One is a Google Map view of Hernage Creek. The other is of one of the smaller homes which sits on Hernage Creek Road that knifes right through the heart of what the Colorado DOW at one time tried to protect from development because it is considered delicate Elk and Deer calving habitat. These huge houses now sit in exactly the spot that the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife (it's current name) told the town of Eagle should never be developed, but of course the developer won that fight and went ahead paving roads and building huge obnoxious houses directly in the middle of this sensitive area. There is a yellow line on the Google overview that VERY ROUGHLY shows the area that the Hardscrabble Trails Coalition had proposed to put in a new hiking, mountain bike and equestrian trail. The trail proposal was turned down primarily due to being in this sensitive wildlife area and outrage from the homeowners who formed a NIMBY coalition stating that the trail would be such a tremendous negative impact on the area where they can and do walk through most of the year, with dogs, unleashed, while also impacting this same said area with the light from their homes, their cars starting and sitting outside warming up in the winter (some of which are diesel vehicles which are LOUD), and in general disturbing wildlife like everyone else they had addressed last night at town hall. These pissed off and angry NIMBY homeowners sat there and listened to a CDPW officer responding to a question about why these NIMBY homeowners are allowed to walk and run with dogs in this area and he responded in this manner. I guarantee you these words fell on deaf ears from the NIMBY owners up Hernage Creek road and surrounding neighborhood.

 “I have one question. Why is it OK for hikers with dogs to be in that area but not a bicycle on a single track?” asked a resident of Hernage Creek.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife representative Craig Wescoatt noted that hikers do have impact in the area.

“The best case for wildlife would be to have nothing there,” he said. 

And so the NIMBY homeowners actually do not belong in this area either, and they have no right to tell the rest of us what we can and can't do, but they will, because they are arrogant and self serving hypocrits. Again, I respect the opinion of the CDPW, but what is good for the goose is good for the NIMBYs. Do not sit there and tell me this is not about "not in my backyard", this is all it is about. The deer in Eagle Ranch are like rats, they are everywhere, they have adapted fine to the major development there. The elk have been pushed out of their traditional feeding and calving areas by the development of Eagle Ranch and the golf course, so get the fuck off your high chair and look at yoursevles NIMBYs. I'm going to start walking and jogging in this open space because it is allowed, on the trail that is there because this is where the NIMBYs choose to walk and disturb critical calving area, this according to the CDPW reps we listened to last night at town hall. If you are so worried about negative impacts to wildlife then bulldoze your homes, replant Sage, Scrub Oak, berry bushes and juniper and then some, and get the fuck out of the sensitive wildlife area yourselves. Not NIMBY my ass.

With all of this said, the Hardscrabble Trail Coalition will continue to move forward and do nothing but GOOD for the local trail users, and we shall see if one of the NIMBY owners who claimed they would be there to help with other projects in and around Eagle shows up for any of it. Don't hold your breath, you'd suffocate before you ever saw this happen. I've never seen one of these NIMBY property owners help with one of the HTC projects yet, they just sit on their multi-million dollar decks and look for people breaking open space rules on their streets and backyards. Gotta love mountain bike haters. Gotta love mountain bike lovers, I do.

 (970) 947-2920 is the number of the Glenwood Springs Colorado Parks and Wildlife office. If you happen to see anyone on this Hernage Creek parcel, with or without their dog, from December 15th to April 15th, please call to report this violation, this is very sensitive wintering ground for our local wildlife, so keep the fuck out NIMBYs.