Ahead of a Monday evening meeting said to "get additional feedback" from the larger public on the potential for Colorado's 43rd state park, some locals near the site say they have felt unheard.
They are part of the small community of Sweetwater, situated along the dirt road that dead-ends at Sweetwater Lake. In the fall of 2021, Gov. Jared Polis was at the scene of one of Colorado's largest natural bodies of water to announce a unique partnership: After decades under private speculators, Sweetwater Lake was now in the hands of the U.S. Forest Service and would be managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife as the next state park.
Since then, the agencies have regularly met with locals. Janet Rivera, who has been around Sweetwater since the 1970s, used to go to the meetings. "I just got too frustrated," she said.
"I would just say they seem more interested in promoting their plan than listening to our input," Rivera said.
Carole Huey with the U.S. Forest Service looks down on Sweetwater Lake in 2021.
The Forest Service's Eagle-Holy Cross district ranger, Leanne Veldhuis, stressed that no plans have been settled. Hence, she said, the reason for Monday's meeting, which will be held virtually so outsiders can tune in. Veldhuis said the aim is to gather more ideas before launching a review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which would consider those ideas as part of a broad analysis of the nearly 500 acres.
Sweetwater Lake is not officially a state park, Veldhuis added — that contract is not finalized, she said.
But "we're very deliberately trying to work with CPW at Sweetwater for sure," she said.
Locals have expressed concern about the development, promotion and visitation that might come with a state park. They've expressed worry about traffic on the winding, 12-mile dirt road to the lake and about trash and animal habitat.
"We don't want to change our area into a Sylvan Lake or Ridgway State Park," read a letter signed by names spanning 16 pages. "We want to give visitors something different, something exceptional and irreplaceable."
Something, the letter explained, that would maintain the wild, rustic qualities that hunters, anglers and camping families have known for generations.
U.S. Forest Service’s David Boyd takes a picture of Sweetwater Lake in November 2021.
For nearly 40 years, Adrienne Brink has rented cabins and horses for tours into the nearby Flat Tops Wilderness, while also running a restaurant that has served as a community gathering place.
In 2021, at the time of the announced Forest Service-CPW arrangement, Brink counted herself "thrilled." In an interview with The Gazette, she said she had operated under six different owners who had visions of luxury homes, country clubs and a water bottling plant for the land. At the time, she said she saw the local fundraising campaign, "Save the Lake," as a mission accomplished.
Brink has since shied away from talking publicly while the future of her business is in question. It could depend on CPW incorporating her into the property's management, or the Forest Service accepting her bid among potential others in a federally required process.
A public information officer for CPW, Rachael Gonzales, in an email said staff "will continue to engage with AJ Brink Outfitters to conceptualize what commercial opportunities could be sustained on the property for both the short- and long-term future."
Ern Mooney has been among longtime locals who have called on the agencies to ensure lasting traditions at Sweetwater Lake under Brink. Mooney helped spearhead the Save the Lake campaign back in 2018.
"If I'd have known it was gonna go this way, I probably wouldn't have written those checks that I wrote," he said.
Mooney appealed to the Eagle Valley Land Trust, which oversaw the campaign that ended with more than $1 million raised by individuals, groups and local governments. What followed was a series of events that Mooney and others say they did not predict: The Conservation Fund took ownership of Sweetwater Lake, to be transferred to the Forest Service, which used the local campaign as leverage to acquire millions of more dollars needed from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Upon acquisition, White River National Forest leadership said resources lacked to manage what they foresaw to be newly popular public land. That's where CPW would come in. This was amid Polis' stated push for more state parks and legislation to boost CPW funding. Locally, the last surprise was Polis' visit to announce Sweetwater Lake State Park.
Alternatively, Mooney said, the lake could've remained a target for private developers. He's on the hopeful side of split feelings in the community, as Rivera described it: "Some have high hopes we'll come to a good compromise. Others, not so much."
The NEPA review could launch later this spring or early summer, Veldhuis said. That will come with public comment periods over an uncertain timeframe.
"We'll definitely allow for the right amount of time so that everyone's voices get heard," Veldhuis said.
