City Council Agenda and Packet 2021 11 16 SP

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04y`of 2022 Open Space Advisory Board Louisville Supplemental Questions COLORADO • SINCE 1878 Applicant Name: David Blankinship The Open Space Advisory Board (OSAB) advises City Council on the conservation, restoration, management, and acquisition of Open Space properties. • OSAB meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:00 pm. Terms are three years. You must be a resident of Louisville to serve. I. Briefly explain your interest on serving on the Open Space Advisory Board. I have served on the open space advisory board (OSAB) for four years and I have greatly enjoyed my time on the board. My fellow board members have been a pleasure to work with and I have also appreciated getting to know and work with Nathan and Ember on city staff. We have had the opportunity to weigh in on important city-wide open space, trails, resource, and land management issues and it is gratifying to know that we have been able to make a difference in the community. I am involved in the newly formed OSAB trails tiger team and we are making significant progress towards a broader vision of how to more effectively manage and improve the trail network. Having said all this, I am also applying to be on the planning commission and if I am offered a seat on the planning commission I would prefer to accept that and therefore forgo the opportunity to continue serving on OSAB. 2. What do you see as the main issues facing Louisville Open Space properties? In your opinion, how should these issues be handled? There has been increased visitation to open space properties as a result of the area's population growth and an "opt outside" attitude that has been enhanced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Trails and open space properties are seeing some growing pains that we need to account for in how we manage them. Trails are being widened, social trails are being formed and expanded, and resource damage has occurred. I see opportunities for consolidation of some trail networks and user education on ecological issues to ensure that we don't love the land to death. 3. How do you approach the balance of protecting lands with appropriate recreational uses on Open Space? The primary charter for the open space department and for us as a board is protection and any desire for recreational uses on the land comes second. However, these desires are not mutually exclusive and a well designed visitor management plan and trail system can serve to educate visitors enough that they see the value in protecting the land and the wildlife and plants that live on it. As one such example, the Mayhoffer property management plan that is being finalized now does an excellent job of proposing an addition to our trail network while also acknowledging the need to preserve riparian habitat and to respect existing agricultural usage.