Protect Our Places Pledge

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With incredible outdoor recreation opportunities, living history, waterways, and thousands of acres of mountains and mesas, La Plata and San Juan counties bring joy to thousands of people each year – visitors and residents alike. Our experiences in these places also have impacts, ones that can be lessened with proper engagement. 

In order to ensure our beautiful area can be enjoyed while continuing to provide thriving wildlife habitat and protect vital natural resources for years to come, we encourage you to be a responsible user of these places. Take SCCORR’s pledge to “Protect our Places" to help you stay safe, be prepared, leave no trace, be firewise, and be respectful. 

Below are some key steps to protecting yourself, our landscape, and wildlife. Learn about other ways to recreate and engage responsibly here. 

I pledge to: 

All Users

• Pack out all trash – including food scraps, human and dog waste, and toilet paper – rather than discarding or leaving them on the landscape. 

• Human waste and toilet paper have negative impacts in wild places, use facilities if available. If no facilities are open and available, have a plan to pack out waste and toilet paper.

• Be Bear Aware by placing all trash in a bear-proof receptacle

• Be prepared for changing weather: summer can bring sudden lightning storms or snow flurries. Know and have the 10 essentials on your adventures.

• Keep wildlife wild, don’t feed wildlife, and respect their space. 

• Have a map, be aware of the jurisdiction you are on; regulations and closures change based on ownership.

• Have options: A good mindset is to be flexible – if there is bad weather, full parking lot, or muddy and icy trail conditions, have alternatives.

Camping

• Follow all camping and fire rules. If fires are permitted, I will prevent wildfires by keeping a fire small, not tall; never leaving a campfire unattended; drowning out the fire until it’s cool to the touch; never tossing a cigarette butt onto the ground; not parking my vehicle on dry grass.

Hiking/Biking/HorsebackRiding/ATV/Birding

• Stay off trails when muddy – if I leave a track, I’ll turn back! 

• Stay on official designated trails and roads and do not use/create illegal social trails.

• Hikers, bikers, horseback riders – abide by right-of-way trail etiquette: 1) yield to uphill users, and 2) bikers yield to hikers and horses and hikers yield to horses by stepping on the downhill side of the trail.

• OHV users – abide by trail etiquette, including mind the signs, ride over obstacles not around, and yield to other users.

• Abide by all trail closures, understanding these closures are for the benefit of wildlife and the landscape.

• Take the snowmobiler’s Safe Riders Safety Awareness Program.

River Users

• Cold water can be dangerous, even on warm days. Learning to swim is the #1 recommendation for water safety.

• I will have – and wear – a lifejacket meant for the specific water activity I’m engaging in.

• I will leave the environment cleaner than I find it because water is home to fish and other life.

• I will read more ways to be safely engage along river and lake banks and in the water 

Hunting/Angling 

• Review the CPW hunting and fishing regulations to become/remain an ethical sportsperson while in the field.