Setting the Record Straight on Natural Areas Funding
Image from the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas 2023 Annual Report
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. This claim about the available sales tax revenue for land conservation from the City employee does not pass the smell test for several reasons. 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.
A $5 million acquisition budget, per Ms. Donahue’s statement to CBS, seems strangely low considering the dedicated and significant revenue sources that the NAD is the beneficiary of annually.
In both 2022 and 2023, over 8.5 million was spent each year on land conservation, only about half of the NADs total expenditures for those years.
In 2023, an additional $2 million went unallocated and was rolled over to the subsequent year’s sales tax fund.
(Note: Any revenue not spent rolls over to the following year’s budget for the NAD to reallocate.)
The City will likely ask voters in November 2025 to extend the Natural Areas dedicated sales tax again, this time in perpetuity without expiration.
This sales tax has funded the Natural Areas Program for decades, and if passed, will provide dedicated revenue forever for the Natural Areas Program.
Regrettably, the NAD’s land acquisitions predominantly occur outside of City limits with City taxpayer dollars. In fact, most of the Fort Collins Natural Areas acreage (~71%) is conserved outside of City limits and requires a car to visit.
Land within the city will never be as affordable or available as it is today.
There is a substantial opportunity cost to failing to conserve land within the city limits of Fort Collins NOW before it is gone, or before it is prohibitively expensive.
The NAD should make wise decisions now that focus on acquiring properties for conservation within Fort Collins city limits where our residents actually live, work and play.
The NAD should not solely prioritize land near the Wyoming border and Estes Park.
Given the current and increasing growth pressures in Fort Collins, why isn’t the Natural Areas Department doing more to prioritize conservation within city limits?
Donahue has publicly stated that she would like to begin winding down land acquisitions.
If reducing land acquisitions does come to fruition, the NAD would have more than enough funds for a 100% Hughes Natural Area, should the City actually require that the NAD pay for the entirety of an already-funded Hughes Natural Area.
Notably, the City absolutely has flexibility in how the money is split across departments and the General Fund, as well as the timing of such fungible budgetary commitments.
So, forcing the NAD to compensate the General Fund in total for the Hughes acquisition is highly unlikely.
Half-truths about Hughes funding sure make a good narrative for the HIGH-impact development proponents, like the bike park and “nature campus” advocates. Don't listen to the hype. Hughes should absolutely be our next Natural Area within the City limits, where our residents actually live, work, and play.
For additional information, please see the funding and solvency reports of the Natural Areas Department for yourself below; see where we are purchasing and conserving most of our Natural Areas lands; and read about how Hughes is already funded in a favorable, 10-year, low-interest loan similar to a mortgage. Allowing the Hughes land to predominantly restore itself over a period of time with minimal intervention (i.e., weed control) will NOT significantly impact the Natural Areas budget or the properties being purchased near the Wyoming border and Estes Park.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The Natural Areas Department (NAD) statement (as stated in a recent CBS Colorado interview with NAD Director Katie Donahue) does not appear to align with the NAD’s own policy and fiscal documents, like the Foothills Management Plan, or the department’s revenue and expenditure statements provided in their annual reports which can be found on their website.
The City’s own “Foothills Management Plan - Update 2019” (updated again in January 2025) describes the importance of reducing wildlife habitat fragmentation to create vital interconnectivity between patches of habitat, for the conservation of our local foothills fauna and flora, which preserving Hughes would do.
Furthermore, the NAD Director’s verbal statement to CBS Colorado on fiscal revenue appears to be in direct contradiction to the NADs own annual report statements. For instance, 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.
Further evidence of the solvency of the NAD ($23 million) is found in the City's 12/31/23 audited financial statements (pages 125 and 136).
Any unspent funds are carried over and added to the following year’s budget.
Side Note: The statements in the interview also conflict with what former Natural Areas Director, John Stokes, stated in 2019 at a public meeting in which he said that the Natural Areas budget was sufficiently solvent to purchase Hughes for a Natural Area. At least one citizen provided public comment on Stokes’ statement to that effect at a subsequent public City Council meeting that year.
Recall that Hughes Open Space is already funded, and in fact, it is already 1/3 paid off thanks to a $4 million down payment shared 50:50 by the City’s General Fund and the Natural Areas department, respectively. The remaining $8.5 million is in a favorable, low-interest loan that spans 10 years, just like a low-interest mortgage, per City staff's own description of the loan.
Just $500K will be paid from Natural Areas and the General Fund each, for 10 years. In 10 years, Hughes will have been gradually, and entirely, paid off.
NAD has the most revenue of any City Department, and it will not be negatively impacted by spending $500K per year over 10 years, especially where there is an existing dedicated sales tax for land conservation that we all gladly pay into.
The City absolutely has flexibility in how the money is split across departments and the General Fund, as well as the timing of such fungible budgetary commitments.
If the City really were to ask the NAD to ultimately pay for the entire purchase price of Hughes when the debt service is paid off, there is absolutely no reason the NAD would be forced to pay it all at once.
As an example, if the City so choses, it could ask the NAD to contribute another $500K over another 10 years to gradually pay off remaining purchase price of Hughes from the General Fund.
And there is no rush to restore Hughes immediately.
As with many historical NAD acquisitions, new Natural Areas properties are allowed to sit in place as needed for years, with just minimal intervention (e.g., weed control) to allow for natural processes to drive ecological restoration and gradual ecosystem recovery.
A perfect example of this “rewilding” can be found in the numerous water bodies that were formal gravel pits, that are now part of our Natural Areas. These former strip mines and dumps were allowed to recover and restore with little intervention other than weed control.
Fort Collins residents and voters bear the brunt of sales taxes, and we want a reasonable say in how our tax dollars are spent. We are not silent partners.
The City will likely ask voters via a referred citizen-driven initiative to extend the sales tax, this time in perpetuity without expiration, that for decades has funded the Natural Areas Program.
This popular tax is highly likely to pass with flying colors as it has in the past, which suggests there will be more than sufficient funding in years to come for land acquisitions, restoration and maintenance, including those of high conservation value like Hughes, that actually exist within the city limits of Fort Collins.
The NAD should value the opinion of Fort Collins residents and taxpayers as much as the NAD’s select private organizational “partners”.
For years, residents have been insisting that more land be conserved by Natural Areas within the city limits of Fort Collins for ecological preservation and low-impact recreation, and the City has indicated that Natural Areas are a priority investment for outdoor recreation (slides 8 and 9).
As it stands, ~71% of the total conserved City Natural Areas acres exists outside of the Fort Collins city limits and generally require a car to visit.
Fort Collins residents and taxpayers without a reliable vehicle are effectively prohibited from enjoying Fort Collins Natural Areas properties beyond city limits, most of which exist near the Wyoming border and Estes Park.
Our City-specific sales tax dollars should prioritize local and accessible land acquisitions within Fort Collins city limits where our residents live, work and play, in addition to acquisitions that occur across Larimer County
There is a substantial opportunity cost to failing to conserve land within the city limits of Fort Collins NOW before it is gone, or before it is prohibitively expensive.
The opportunity to acquire and conserve land within Fort Collins is fast diminishing in the face of increasing development pressures within our city.
We should make wise decisions now about protecting land within city limits while we can, before it’s too late.
The Fort Collins taxpayers have willingly decided to place a tax upon themselves to conserve lands as Natural Areas within our wonderful city for all to enjoy and experience freely.
Local ecologists have advised that the chance to extend and expand conserved land, especially in an urban setting, rarely if ever, arises. So, if and when the opportunity to extend conserved lands does present itself, it should be seized.
There is no land currently within the city limits with conservation value as high as Hughes.
~71 percent of the total acreage conserved by the Fort Collins Natural Areas Program exists outside of Fort Collins city limits. https://fcgov.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/natural-areas/explore
