Make 100% of Hughes a City Natural Area!
Because once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.
Please sign the Hughes Natural Area petition to allow voters to have a voice on the last step in the community's vision to preserve & protect Hughes for ALL members of our community. Time is short!
1.ZONE ✅ 2.ACQUIRE ✅ 3.PROTECT‼️
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WHERE TO SIGN!
Please see our Daily Where to Sign page to find a petition signing location. This page is updated daily and frequently! Please check it often if you’re looking for a place to sign the petition.
If you have challenges with mobility or otherwise can’t come to us, a volunteer will happily bring the petition to you. Please contact us here.
Thank you! -
Circulate A Petition Or Volunteer However You Can!
We Can’t Do This Without YOU!
Please complete our Volunteer sign-up form to volunteer with our Grassroots Movement. We need signature collectors urgently, but we would love for you to join us in whatever capacity you you can. We simply can’t do this without you. Join us to protect and preserve Hughes as a 100% City Natural Area! Thank you! -
Print & Distribute Flyers to Spread the Word
Spread the word to your neck of the woods by printing and and distributing flyers!
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Make a Donation to PATHS!
PATHS is a grassroots nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization. We are NOT funded by national chapters or multimillion dollar foundations. We are 100% funded by members like yourself.
Please donate to help us conserve Hughes for our community, future generations, and our wildlife that inhabit the site. -
Listen to the Podcast
In this Hughes episode, a PATHS 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, to try to get a piece of the delicate Hughes ecosystem for themselves. -
Read Our News Page
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.
Sierra Club Poudre Canyon Group, 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.”
BACKGROUND
Against all odds, the Fort Collins community and voters accomplished two of three steps to protect Hughes in perpetuity, organized by Planning Action to Transform Hughes Sustainably (PATHS).
First, voters ZONED Hughes as ‘Public Open Lands’ (2021 election), AND second, second, voters directed the City to ACQUIRE Hughes so that it is now truly publicly-owned land.
The third and last step in the community-driven Hughes conservation effort is to PROTECT and PRESERVE 100% of Hughes in perpetuity for future generations and for the local wildlife that inhabit and are returning to Hughes open space.
Sadly, the City still refuses to PROTECT Hughes in a public trust as a conserved open space for ALL, even at a time when the very survival of our public lands are being threatened. And their are special interests that want to grab Hughes now for high-impact development that is inconsistent with land conservation, habitat preservation, and the legislative intent of the 2021 Hughes Open Space ballot measure.
Therefore, the ONLY truly unifying, inclusive and protective future for Hughes is for Hughes to be designated 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.
Please join us in this unifying effort to preserve and protect Hughes with a citizen initiative for a City Natural Area! Thank you!
