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Through the West Trail Study Area Plan, Open Space and Mountain Parks department (OSMP) and the Open Space board of Trustees (OSBT) are in the process of developing recommendations for the OSMP lands that comprise the mountain backdrop west of Boulder. Under consideration is the possibility of allowing mountain bike access in the Anemone Mountain area west of the Red Rocks and Settlers Park. The Open Space Board requested that OSMP staff provide them additional information and analysis about allowing mountains bikes on a loop trail proposed for the south side of the Anemone.

To learn more about this issue follow this link to the OSMP West TSA web page. Information on the Anemone Loop trail is in the West TSA Draft Plan available on the website.

You can offer comment on this item to the OSBT and staff by clicking on the “Get Involved” link on the above web page, or by calling Dean Paschall, OSMP Communication and Public Process Manager, at 720-564-2050.

OSMP releases their final draft plan on February 18, so for your comments to be included in the plan OSMP needs that input before February 16. OSBT will take comments until their scheduled OSBT meeting on February 23 at the City Council chambers when they will consider this issue, receive final public comment, and make a recommendation to OSMP staff.

Male yearling bear that had been frequenting garbage cans in the Table Mesa and Baseline areas of west Boulder. This bear was eventually tranquillized in Louisville and relocated to Park County. He now has a set of green ear tags.

One of the commandments of living in bear country was being violated…by everyone.  Keep your garbage secured until the day of pick up. I work as a District Wildlife Manager for the Division of Wildlife and my district is north Boulder.  I started in this district in January of 2009.  Due to a combination of naiveté and limited bear incidents in the city last year, not only did I not realize this is how much of west Boulder handles their garbage, but I found it more surprising than many of the people around me.  The more I talk to residents, other officers, and city personnel, the more I understand why this is and the more I feel it is necessary to change the way west Boulder handles their garbage.

There is wildlife everywhere in Boulder.  Bears, like our other opportunistic urban wildlife species, will go wherever they can and eat what they can find.  Food scraps in garbage and compost bins provide an easy and abundant source of calories for bears, though not a healthy one.  A five minute walk to Mountain Parks and Open Space property for west Boulder residents is also a five minute walk for the wildlife to come into the city, including bears.

The problem with garbage is not the result of a public that doesn’t care.  Boulder is full of people who are concerned about wildlife and demonstrate daily their willingness to go out of their way to benefit wildlife.  There are a few reasons why most west Boulder residents handle their garbage the way they do.  One big one is that many residents simply do not have an acceptable place to store their garbage throughout the week (no shed or garage).  There are bear-proof garbage cans available, but many residents either cannot afford or are unwilling to take on the additional cost.   Some residents painstakingly store any food-type garbage in their house until pick up day, and I have no doubt that helps.  I do, however, doubt that this is something everyone is willing to do.

There are also a few reasons why this problem hasn’t been addressed already.  For one thing,  even if all of the garbage was locked down tomorrow,  there would still be attractants drawing bears into the city in the form of bird feeders, back yard fountains and pools, ripe fruit on the trees, and hobby bee hives.  Is it really reasonable to ask residents to pay for a bear-proof garbage container when the bears will come into town anyway because of bird feeders?  I recognize there are other attractants adding to this problem, but I see the garbage as the largest issue and one solution which would have the most impact.  Another reason this problem has yet to be solved is just a result of our busy lives and the many issues our communities face: we are reactionary, and if we don’t see the problem for ourselves we often fail to give it the priority it deserves.

I can look at this issue and state that garbage is a priority because throughout the summer and fall I spend a lot of time with bears.  I spend so much time laughing at bears, crying for bears, talking about bears, and educating on bears, that it is easy for me to make the connection between bears and garbage and dead bears.  When the Division of Wildlife relocates a bear from the city, the bear gets an ear tag.  If the bear is in a position where we feel we need to relocate it again, following strict state-wide policy, that bear is put down.  I truly feel we can prevent that bear from coming into town in the first place if we can convince it that people and the city have nothing, no garbage, to offer.

Since this issue is widespread, it is going to take a solution that is both reasonable and practical.  I think no one can determine what solution is best other than the residents this issue affects.  I encourage everyone to not only share feedback with me in the upcoming months but to also become involved in the city’s efforts by participating in the creation of the Urban Wildlife Management Plan.  Information on the plan can be found at www.boulderwildlifeplan.net.  We can and should generate a remedy for the problem of unsecured garbage, and if we do we take a crucial step toward making Boulder a more bear-friendly city.

Get inspired on this year’s 8^th Annual Whittier-Mapleton Hill Garden Tour. Join this self-guided walking tour of spectacular private gardens in one of Boulder’s most prized neighborhoods, the Mapleton Hill Historic District. As you tour, absorb the abundant and lush beauty of nine spectacular gardens. Get advice and ideas from knowledgeable garden hosts, designers, expert garden volunteers, and CSU Extension Master Gardeners. All will be on hand to discuss and enjoy the gardens with you.  The gardens are easily accessible and a short walk from each other.

The 2010 Garden Tour has introduced a new benefit for tour participants. All ticketholders will receive a free Goodie Bag with various treats and offers from the Tour’s sponsors. Some of the items include a free glass of wine at The Kitchen, lip moisturizer, bicycle bell, free exercise class at The Bar Method, and bottle of local spring water to name just a few.  The Annual Mapleton Hill Rummage Sale takes place on the same day, bringing an extra buzz to the neighborhood and both events are the perfect kick-off to the summer season.

Highlights of the Tour include:

• A lush fantasyland in Central Boulder with whimsical sculptures and artwork, an inviting pool, Koi pond, and enormous shade-loving plants covering an expansive property;

• A sustainable garden creatively designed with salvaged bricks that once covered Broadway Boulevard, stones from the old Boulder courthouse, unusual xeric plantings, and a variety of vegetables and herbs;

• Privacy created through the use of trees, shrubs and water features;

• Interesting planting combinations resulting from unconventional gardening practices;

• A garden that started out as a small “Garden in a Box” package and has matured to feel like an urban park;

• A front yard lawn transformed into a beautifully designed vegetable garden through intensive plantings and the four-square gardening concept;

• A regal garden surrounding a meticulously preserved barn which formerly housed the Boulder Fire Department’s draft horses in the early 1900s;

• A rarely seen private garden of spectacular beauty and grandeur tucked behind one of Mapleton Hill’s most distinguished homes; and

• An inspiring smaller garden that has been twenty years in the making, demonstrating a gardener’s passionate eye for complex perennial arrangements and abundant plant variety.

Whittier International School Benefits from the Tour

The Whittier-Mapleton Garden Tour is more than just a day of revelation and fun. By taking part in the garden tour you’ll make a direct and meaningful contribution to help sustain the quality of programs at Whittier International School. All of the proceeds from the tour—100 percent—directly benefit the students of Whittier. The Whittier student body spans a diverse cultural and socio-economic spectrum. The children represent 29 countries and speak 19 different languages. Nearly 40 percent of the students receive free or reduced lunches. The contribution you make to Whittier through our garden tour is dedicated to programs that support these diverse needs. Our garden tour fundraiser is even more important this year because of impending budget cuts throughout the Boulder Valley School District that will deeply affect core academic programs.

Event Information

When: June 5, 2010; 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: Mapleton Hill Historic District

Cost: $12 for adults and teens; kids 12 and younger free, no dogs please

Where to buy Tickets: Advance ticket sales at: West End Gardener, Sturtz & Copeland, and Pharmaca at Alpine and Pearl Street and the Flower Bin (in Longmont).

Day-of-event sales at: The Boulder Farmers’ Market, the former Mapleton Elementary School at the corner of 9^th and Mapleton; 402 Pine (the corner of 4^th & Pine St.); and 702 Pine Street.

For more information go to www.whittiergardentour.com.

Up until about World War II, both neighborhoods remained quite stable.  Changes to the housing stock were more common for larger houses throughout the neighborhoods as families, especially during the Great Depression, claimed “hardship” in maintaining large homes.  There was a city board that then would grant permission to split the big house down into smaller units. The Kohler House, formerly owned by the family of Edward Kohler, a prominent banker and rancher at 942 Pine, once had 14 rooming units!

Following “the War,” an influx of GIs attending the university on the “GI Bill” placed further demands on Boulder’s housing stock resulting in more house conversions to apartments in both neighborhoods.  The need for housing was so dire that Minnie May Cunningham, the “Goat Lady” near 4th and Linden, was able to convert her low ceilinged chicken coops to rental housing. In those days, there were no rental licenses!  As the University began accommodating more married students in family housing, originally in Quonset huts and then in the apartments located south of Canyon and west of Folsom, there was less demand on the neighborhoods for student housing. The City instituted zoning regulations with more control, in particular segregating apartment housing from single-family housing.  Single-family housing was further defined by size of lots and the general mix of housing types.  The area north of Mapleton included a number of houses that were originally built as duplexes.  This, coupled with small lot sizes, resulted in a MR-E zoning (medium density, established) designation for the area–the same as much of Whittier.

By the mid-1960′s, Boulder had begun to expand to the east.  Apartment complexes in areas zoned for high density began to spring up, relieving some of the demand on the big old houses for higher density housing.  Housing was reasonably priced so a family could buy a “run down” apartment house and convert it back to single-family use.  Because the housing stock was not expensive, developers could also buy little old houses for demolition to be replaced by small multi-unit buildings given a large enough lot or two in the MR-E zones.  The Whittier neighborhood and the east end of Maxwell both had quite a bit of this kind of in-fill development through the mid-1970′s.  For a brief time, I lived in one of those brand new four-plexes in the 1700 block of Spruce.  Crystal Gray was my next-door neighbor.  Her family occupied the upstairs apartment, one of three, in the same house where Crystal still lives. At about the same time that I bought my little house west of 9th on Maxwell, Crystal and her family bought their house from their former landlord and converted it back to single family.

It wasn’t very long before development activity began to creep across 9th Street into the north part of Mapleton Hill.  The families living in Mapleton Hill organized an effort to both change the MR-E zoning to LR-E and have Mapleton Hill named an historic district–one of the first in the City of Boulder.  Neighbors were notified of the doings about town via “The Mapleton Leaf,” a 1 page newsletter that was distributed by the Eco-Cycle block leaders.  (Later, the sixth grade children at Mapleton School took on the responsibility of passing out the newsletter.)  We gathered around the table at Judge “Bud” and June Holmes’ home enjoying June’s home baked cookies with “Bud’s” Mayna bird caged in the kitchen screeching something that sounded like “Get me outta here!”  We worked together to change our neighborhood and were known as the Mapleton Hill Mob down at City Hall.  I was in Council chambers the night Bill Winter stood and said, “Mapleton Hill is an anachronism and, as such, ought to be preserved!” Council agreed and made the changes that the neighborhood had requested. No more of our small housing stock was demolished except for one “new” condo complex at the northwest corner of 9th and Maxwell.  (The permits for that project were issued just prior to the changes that the neighborhood requested of Council went into effect.)

While the Mapleton neighbors were busy preserving our historic housing stock, Whittier neighbors were busy revitalizing their school through the creation of an International Baccalaureate program.  How would each neighborhood be different today had the residents made different choices thirty and forty years ago?  How will these two exceptional neighborhoods change in the next fifty years?