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Growing local food and cultivating young farmers
Field Manager Anna Weller helps with the harvest.
Two Roots Farm at Emma Open Space produced about 60,000 pounds of vegetables for local consumption last year, but the operation’s yield did not stop there. Yet another farm took root as a Two Roots veteran launched his own farming enterprise this season.
From past to present on Smuggler Mountain
The Park-Regent Mine on what is now Smuggler Mountain Open Space, with Red Mountain visible in the background. (History Colorado. Accession #83.130.14)
Note: This history of Smuggler Mountain Open Space will be part of a 2024 updated management plan for the open space. The draft plan will be open to public comment in the fall. Keep tabs on this planning effort.
The story of Smuggler Mountain parallels the story of Aspen.
Once part of a pristine landscape where the nomadic Ute People wandered for more than 800 years, the mountain was ravaged by the industrial frenzy that ensued shortly after the first prospectors arrived at the foot of Aspen Mountain in 1879.
New growth comes quickly on open spaces
New growth takes hold at Sky Mountain Park.
Last year, Pitkin County Open Space and Trails thinned vegetation at Sky Mountain Park, Filoha Meadows Nature Preserve and Red Butte Ranch Open Space in order to spur new vegetative growth. It did not take long for nature to fill in the openings created by man and machine.
