Make 100% of Hughes a City Natural Area!
Only YOU can protect Hughes for ALL. Because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
3 Steps to Save Hughes for Future Generations:
1. ZONE AS PUBLIC OPEN LANDS ✅
2. ACQUIRE FROM CSU ✅
3. PROTECT AS A NATURAL AREA ON NOVEMBER 4, 2025! 🗳️
Land within the city will never be as affordable or available as it is today. Hughes is a gem, saved by the voters and local community advocates. And now, we must do it again.
If Hughes is carved up and developed yet again with land-consuming, high-impact recreational uses and permanent buildings, or transferred from the broader community to special interest groups, there’s no getting it back. It’s gone forever.
And, the loss of this land will be permanent and devastating.
Sierra Club Poudre Canyon Group on a 100% Hughes Natural Area, March 2023:
“Fort Collins’ population is anticipated to grow by at least another 70,000+ people in the next 50 years. As our population grows and places greater usage demands on our City’s natural areas, one of the best ways to protect the tax-payer investments in our Natural Areas is to keep them undisturbed and to seize once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to extend our existing Natural Areas.”
💚 Thank You Again, Fort Collins! Vote YES to Protect Hughes as a Natural Area! 💚
Thank you for supporting true grassroots Democracy once again, Fort Collins!
On November 4, 2025, after almost 10 years of relentless hard work and dedication by local residents, Fort Collins voters will finally have their voices heard on whether to designate, once-and-for-all, the publicly-owned Hughes land as an official preserved and protected City of Fort Collins Natural Area, with LOW-impact recreation, for the benefit of ALL members of our community, and for our local wildlife returning to the land.
We need volunteers to help us Get Out The Vote for the November 2025 grassroots citizen-driven ballot measure to Make Hughes A Natural Area! If you're interested in helping an amazing, dedicated, and diverse group of folks, please complete this form and TAKE ACTION! You can add your name to our supporters list and DONATE there too!
Thank you for your enduring dedication, support and commitment to save Hughes as a Natural Area for our entire community now, for future generations, and for our local wildlife that are returning to the land!
-- Friends of Hughes Natural Area Committee
1. ZONE AS PUBLIC OPEN LANDS ✅
2. ACQUIRE FROM CSU ✅
3. PROTECT AS A NATURAL AREA ON NOVEMBER 4, 2025! 🗳️
On November 4, 2025, Vote YES on the Third and Final Step to Save Hughes for ALL
Against all odds, the Fort Collins community and voters accomplished two of three steps to protect Hughes in perpetuity.
First, voters ZONED Hughes as ‘Public Open Lands’ (2021 election), AND second, voters directed the City to ACQUIRE Hughes so that it is now truly publicly-owned land (publicly-owned as of 2023).
The THIRD and final step in the community-driven Hughes conservation effort is to PROTECT and PRESERVE Hughes in perpetuity for future generations and for the local wildlife that inhabit and are returning to Hughes open space.
Sadly, the City continues to refuse to PROTECT Hughes in a public trust as a conserved open space for ALL, even at a time when the very survival of our federal public lands are being threatened.
In coordination with 6 of 7 of City Council that has occurred behind the scenes and out of the public eye, monied special interests are exploiting the 2021 community-driven initiative to grab the Hughes land for their pet projects and to develop their own HIGH-IMPACT consumptive uses at Hughes, which are vastly different than the first voter-driven initiative intended. These high-impact uses are not conservation oriented, but instead, would devastate the fragile ecotone and wildlife migration routes along the base of the foothills.
Therefore, the ONLY truly fair, equitable, protective and funded future for Hughes is for the voters to designate Hughes an official 100% City Natural Area, contiguous with the protected Natural Areas (Maxwell and Pineridge), for the benefit of ALL members of our community, of all backgrounds, ages, and physical abilities, and for the conservation of our local wildlife and future generations to come.
Please join us in this unifying effort to preserve and protect Hughes for the broader Fort Collins community and for our local wildlife returning to the land.
Vote YES on November 4, 2025 to Make Hughes A Natural Area for ALL! Thank you!
TAKE ACTION: HERE’S HOW YOU CAN HELP NOW!
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Help Us Get Out The Vote for Hughes (GOTV)!
Thank you for supporting true Democracy, Fort Collins! 💚
On November 4, 2025, Fort Collins voters will finally have their voices heard on whether to designate the publicly-owned Hughes land as an official preserved & protected City of Fort Collins Natural Area for all members of our community and for our local wildlife.
We need volunteers to help us Get Out The Vote for the November 2025 grassroots citizen-driven ballot measure to Make Hughes A Natural Area! If you're interested in helping us, please fill out this form and we will contact you soon. Thank you! -
Yard Signs Coming Soon! Pre-order Yours Today!
Yard Signs Coming Soon! Pre-order Your ‘Protect Hughes as a Natural Area’ Yard Sign Today.
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Make a Donation to Protect & Preserve Hughes!
Please support the important grassroots effort to help volunteers Get Out The Vote (GOTV) for a Hughes Natural Area. With your financial contribution, Friends of Hughes will engage in voter education & outreach, and do what we can to make sure true Democracy prevails in November. Help us ensure that a Protected & Preserved Hughes wins in November!
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Hughes: Voters' Voices
Listen to voters’ voices in response to the question, “Why did you sign the petition to protect & preserve Hughes as a Natural Area?” Recorded over Memorial Day weekend, by the local podcast “Fort Collins Through Another Lens”.
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Listen to the Hughes Episode
In this Hughes episode, a community organizer discusses some of the questions & concerns around the experimental Civic Assembly process with podcast host, Trish Babbitt.
Also discussed are the high-intensity uses that two monied special interest groups have been pushing for, behind the scenes, out of public view, to grab a piece of the delicate Hughes ecosystem for themselves. -
Read Our News Page
Don’t fall behind! Stay up to date on the latest Hughes news as we work to protect the publicly-owned open space as a Natural Area, so that ALL members of our community may access and enjoy it freely.
~71% of the Tax-payer Funded Acreage Protected by the Fort Collins Natural Areas Program Exists Outside of City Limits. How Would Hughes Help?
Hughes would conserve an additional 164 acres of taxpayer-funded City Natural Areas within city limits where residents actually live, work, and play. Let’s prioritize land conservation within the City, not just outside of the City.
According to this map, ~71% of City Fort Collins Natural Areas acres exist outside of the Fort Collins city limits and generally require a car to visit. Only 29% of Natural Areas conserved acres exist within city limits near where Fort Collins residents and taxpayers live, work, and play.
The purchase of Hughes is already funded. In fact, a 100% Hughes Natural Area is the ONLY proposal for Hughes that is already funded.
Hughes would add a new 164-acre parcel to the Natural Areas portfolio that is actually within the city limits, not many miles away. Hughes is easy to access for all members of our community, and Hughes would serve as a contiguous buffer with existing Foothills Natural Areas that would relieve pressure on Maxwell and Pineridge, two natural areas that are impacted daily with ever-increasing visitation rates.
Opportunity Cost: Land within the city will never be as affordable or available as it is today. And, if Hughes is developed with land-consuming, high-impact uses, there’s no getting it back. It’s gone forever.
Setting the Record Straight on Natural Areas Funding
You may have heard a misleading claim about Hughes funding. Let's separate fact from fiction.
This post is in response to the interview that aired on May 13, 2025 with Natural Areas Director, Katie Donahue, in which the claim was made that Natural Area Department’s (NAD) acquisition budget is $5 million annually, and the eventual transfer of Hughes to the Natural Areas portfolio would prohibit other acquisitions for 3 years. Notably, the City requiring the NAD to reimburse costs to the General Fund is highly unlikely once Hughes is fully paid off via a favorable low-interest loan in 10 years.
Here are some facts:
In 2022, over $16.5 million in revenue was generated for the NAD from dedicated City and County sales taxes and earnings on investments.
In 2023, that figure was nearly $19.6 million.
The Natural Areas Program is more than sufficiently solvent with over $23 million in the bank as of the City’s 12/31/2023 audit report.
