Category: Archived Articles

Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance to speak, West Entrance to reopen?

 

The Denver Zoo has renamed itself the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance according to CEO and President, Bert Vescolani. The move underlines the institution’s efforts not just in Denver but around the world to conserve wildlife. In the Zoo’s Annual Report for 2024, Vescolani states: “Together, we have supported over 600 conservation projects in 62 countries, and we are just getting started. On our 80-acre campus, we provide access to wildlife and nature, igniting the spark of conservation empathy within our community. We take pride in the fact that 25% of our guests enter our gates at a free or reduced rate, ensuring that everyone can join our alliance. Around the world, we are partnering with communities to protect wildlife where they live.”

DZCA is also planning for the possible opening of their West Entrance in City Park, Gate 19 for public access in addition to their main entrance. Please join us on September 2 at Carla Madison Recreation Center in the Multi Media Room at 5:30 pm for a presentation by DZCA’s Chief Operating Officer, Cristal Torres DeHerrera and Communications Director, Jake Kubie about the proposed pilot project.

City Park Friends and Neighbors (CPFAN) was contacted in June about this proposed project. Here’s what we learned:

In the 2018 City Park Master Plan Update, it was suggested that a pedestrian entrance to the Zoo at the West Entrance might be desirable. DZCA has expanded that vision to opening the West Entrance to motorists. In preparation, the Zoo has  renovated the  parking lot just north of the West Entrance. The West Entrance would become an alternate way to access the Zoo.

 

 

DZCA says the proposed opening would not affect the new City Park West circulation plan in the park (including one way traffic, bike lanes or reduced parking). They maintain that access will be promoted through Zoo communications (emails, member updates and website).DZCA reports extensive community outreach for this project, but CPFAN has learned that many of the neighborhoods bordering City Park may not have received or responded to the communications about this important project that could impact City Park profoundly. In standing with our mission at CPFAN, we are calling for and supporting more community outreach.

A community project survey will be the primary tool for evaluating the success or failure of the opening of the Zoo’s West Entrance for motorists. The draft survey is now    available on the City website  {via this link}  on the City Park Projects page on DenverGov.org.

CPFAN looks forward to seeing you on September 2 at 5:30 pm for a friendly discussion about the pros and cons of opening City Park’s West Entrance as an alternate access to the Zoo.

CPFAN Meeting 9/2, Calendar & RSVP

 

 

Celebrate City Park Day with Jolon Clark and Park Hill Dave, May 30, 5-8 pm, City Park Pavilion
Jolon Clark, Executive Director of Denver Parks and Recreation, will welcome the public to City Park Day this year along with his newly adopted chum, Park Hill Dave. Dave is eager to make one of his first public appearances since finding a new home with Clark and his family after a year-long stint fending for himself at the Park Hill Golf Course (soon to be a park!). City Park Day’s Victorian theme seems right up Dave’s alley and under his supervision, Clark will scoop ice cream along with other Celebrity Scoopers like Terita Walker, East High School Principal, and this year’s recipient of the CASE 2025 Colorado High School Principal of the Year award. Mayor Wellington Webb, champion of Denver’s parks, culture and inspired governance for many decades, will also be on hand to scoop along with his park champion cohorts, attorneys Penfield Tate and Woody Garnsey. Scooping away with the best of them will be Frank Rowe, Executive Director of the Denver Park Trust; Cara De Gette, Editor of the Greater Park Hill News; Denver City Council member At-Large Serena Gonzales-Guttierez; and Patty Calhoun, Editor-in-Chief of Westword, the alt-weekly newspaper she co-founded in 1977. There may be more…

Once again, City Park Day will be a celebration of City Park’s long history, connections to Denver’s founding days and its Victorian roots. The Victorian Society of Colorado will be swishing through the crowds in all their Victorian finery and the music of the Denver Municipal Band, founded in 1861 with a mission to provide music to Denver, will waft through the air. Free ice cream will be provided by Sweet Cooie’s Ice Cream. Located at 3506 12th Avenue in Congress Park, Sweet Cooie’s is a vintage ice cream shop & confectionery serving hand made frozen treats, homemade truffles & more. There will also be face painting and other activities. Lining the outside of the Pavilion will be community tables where you can explore all the neighborhood organizations and institutions that support City Park.

City Park Day is sponsored by City Council District 9 and Denver City Councilmember, Darrell Watson; City Park Friends and Neighbors; City Park Alliance; Greater Park Hill Community, Inc, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science; the Denver Zoo; the Victorian Society of Colorado; Sweet Cooie’s Ice Cream; and Denver Parks and Recreation.
We can’t wait to see you at this fun event to celebrate City Park and launch the beginning of summer as well! Be sure and attend the Victorian Society’s Antique & Vintage Swap and Sell event on May 18, 9 am – 3 pm at 4425 Kipling St. in Wheat Ridge to get spruced up for City Park Day! Park Hill Dave recommends at least a nice bonnet!

City Park Living Land & CPFAN Annual Meeting

Please join us on Tuesday, April 1 for the City Park Friends and Neighbor’s (CPFAN) Annual Meeting at 5:30 pm at the Carla Madison Recreation Center, 2401 E. Colfax Avenue. Parking is available behind the Center off of 16th Avenue and then turning south into the lot. The meeting will be held in the Multi-Purpose Room just off the lobby.

After the short meeting where CPFAN members will vote on nominees for the 2025-26 CPFAN Board, there will be a presentation by Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR) staff and a member of the Native American community who are involved with the City Park Living Land Project. Scott Gilmore is Deputy Director of Special Projects and Mountain Parks. Gordon Robertson is Director of Planning, Design and Construction. Kristina Maldonado-Bad Hand is a Sicangu Lakota and Cherokee artist who is a Resident Artist at the RedLine Contemporary Art Center and the owner of Bad Hand Illustrations. All three speakers are very enthusiastic about this new City Park project that will “celebrate and educate City Park visitors about environmental resiliency and the native and indigenous people, animals and land of Denver,” according to the project’s literature.

“The project has three main components: to convert the existing turf grass in the South Meadow to a more naturalized native meadow similar to what might have been here before the park; utilize the Lily Pond area to establish native and traditional medicinal plantings, utilizing means and methods suggested by native and indigenous community members and groups. Finally, the project will convert the former eastern playground into a gathering and picnic space for everyone that celebrates and honors the native and indigenous community and may be reserved on occasion.”

The design element of this project will engage the indigenous community and members of the public. Workshops to gather community feedback are in the works. This is a Capital Improvements funded project.

Light refreshments will be served. We look forward to seeing you as we learn about this exciting new project in City Park.
HistoriCorps at Lily Pond, 2024
HistoriCorps continues restoration work at Lily Pond 

HistoriCorps is a non-profit organization whose mission is to foster a preservation ethic by engaging volunteers in saving historic places. Last summer a team from HistoriCorps spent a week restoring the stonework around the seven seed beds at City Park’s Lily Pond. The Lily Pond is located directly east of Ferril Lake. The Lily Pond was created by city planner Saco DeBoer in 1924 and became a favorite spot for visitors to City Park who strolled along the pond’s perimeter in their long dresses, dapper suits and stylish hats as they admired the floating water lilies. DeBoer also created the Box Canyon, now a feature of the Nature Play playground.

Over the years, the Lily Pond lost its lilies due to their high maintenance needs in Denver’s dry climate and the seed beds reverted to weeds and an occasional hardy native plant. The stonework around the seed beds, dating to 1924, also deteriorated. Volunteers and team leaders from HistoriCorps, in partnership with Denver Parks and Recreation, are returning to the Lily Pond to continue their restoration work applying traditional preservation skills such as flagstone and mixed stone repointing and retaining wall repairs.
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