Tourists are flocking to Colorado鈥檚 busiest national forest. Can this mountain 鈥榩layground鈥� be protected from overuse?

In The NoCo

Tourists are flocking to Colorado鈥檚 busiest national forest. Can this mountain 鈥榩layground鈥� be protected from overuse?

By In The NoCo,

Published August 29, 2024 at 5:35 AM MDT

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Scott Fitzwilliams, supervisor of the White River National Forest, says we are at a "critical time" for forest management. Maroon Bells, pictured here, is one of the most popular destinations in the national forest.

The recently published outlining the economic benefits of travel in different regions around Colorado. And the numbers show that tourism is growing.

The report labeled one region the 鈥楻ockies Playground鈥� 鈥� that's an area that includes parts of Summit, Eagle, and Pitkin counties. And visitor spending in that region grew by about 50 percent between 2013 and 2023.

But that surge in visitors 鈥� and the 鈥榩layground鈥� label from the tourism office 鈥� caught the attention of Scott Fitzwilliams. He鈥檚 the supervisor of the , the most-visited national forest in the country, which includes land near Breckenridge, Aspen and Vail.

Fitzwilliams joined host Erin O鈥橳oole to discuss how this surge in tourism signals a moment where Coloradans need to decide: What鈥檚 the right balance between treating public lands as a playground, or as places that need to be protected?

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University鈥檚 NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family鈥檚 financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS 暗黑爆料hour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC鈥檚 new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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