In the Pikes Peak region, the outdoors isn’t a luxury or a leisure category. It’s woven into who we are. The trails, open spaces, and public lands around us aren’t amenities — they’re the places where we raise our kids, clear our heads, and connect with our neighbors.
My family has spent countless hours hiking, biking and picnicking across this region. Garden of the Gods. Cheyenne Mountain State Park. Ute Valley Park. North Cheyenne Cañon. I suspect that’s true for most families in the Pikes Peak region.
What most people don’t know is that a quiet federal program helped make many of those places possible — and that it will play a critical role in what comes next.
For more than 60 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been doing its work without much fanfare. Established in 1964, LWCF collects royalties from offshore oil and gas leases on federal land and reinvests that money into parks, open spaces, and public lands back home. No new taxes. No general fund dollars. The program pays for itself from fees that energy companies already owe. Over six decades, it has funded more than 1,000 projects across Colorado.
In the Pikes Peak region, the impact is concrete and lasting. LWCF funded the land acquisitions that protected Garden of the Gods. It built the visitor center, campgrounds and trailhead facilities at Cheyenne Mountain State Park, and later added camper cabins that families still use today. It protected the open space at Ute Valley Park. It helped construct the Legacy Loop underpass in downtown Colorado Springs, connecting the Pikes Peak Greenway. It funded the Ute Pass Regional Trail, linking Chipita Park neighborhoods to a nonmotorized corridor that didn’t exist before. These are the places our families use — and LWCF helped build them.
But here’s what excites me most: We’re just getting started.
In January, the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance secured a $2.5 million state grant to begin implementing the Outdoor Pikes Peak Initiative, or OPPI. It is a comprehensive, community-led outdoor recreation and conservation plan covering El Paso, Teller and Fremont counties.
OPPI took years to develop, bringing together land managers, businesses, nonprofits, government entities and everyday residents to build a shared vision for the region’s outdoor future. The result is a bold, coordinated road map — from the 14,115-foot summit of Pikes Peak to the depths of the Royal Gorge.
The priorities are ambitious and real: completing Ring the Peak Trail, expanding camping access, restoring wildlife habitat, building a year-round trail ambassador program and improving the recreation infrastructure that supports our quality of life and a regional outdoor economy that attracted 24 million visitors and $2.8 billion in spending in 2022 alone.
That $2.5 million state grant is the first step in a vision that exceeds $6 million — and those are just the early investments. As OPPI moves from planning to action, the projects identified in that plan will need sustained, reliable federal funding to reach their full potential. That’s exactly what LWCF is designed to provide.
Which is why I’m deeply concerned about what’s happening in Washington right now. Proposed budget cuts and growing bureaucratic obstacles are threatening to slow or stop LWCF-funded projects across the country — delayed approvals, regulatory uncertainty and excessive red tape.
Whatever your politics, that should concern you. LWCF has never been a partisan program. It was built on a bipartisan foundation and has delivered results under presidents and Congresses of both parties for 60 years. The Great American Outdoors Act, signed by President Donald Trump, requires LWCF to be fully funded. We’re simply asking that the law be followed.
That’s why I joined fellow Colorado sportsmen and outdoor advocates on a bipartisan trip to D.C. I previously made trips to Washington alongside former state Sen. Bob Gardner to meet with leaders of Colorado’s congressional delegation, including Sen. Cory Gardner who was the Senate lead on the Great American Outdoors Act.
We fought to get that law passed, and I just recently flew back to Washington to make sure it’s honored. Our team from Colorado met with Reps. Jeff Crank, Jeff Hurd, Joe Neguse and Gabe Evans and Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper.
The Pikes Peak region has something rare: a community-built plan, broad coalition support, state investment and a clear vision for the future. What we need now is for our federal partners to hold up their end. LWCF is a proven tool — and our region has never been better positioned to put it to work.
My family has been lucky enough to spend a lot of time in these places. I want the next generation to have even more. The trails we complete, the open spaces we protect, the access we expand in the years ahead — that’s the legacy OPPI is reaching for. LWCF is how we get there.
David Leinweber, of Colorado Springs, is a Colorado Springs city councilmember, founder of Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance, owner of Anglers Covey, helped start the Colorado Office of Outdoor Recreation and has been active in the outdoor recreation industry for over 40 years.
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