Jolon Clark to Speak at CPFAN Annual Meeting, April 2, 5:30 pm, Carla Madison Recreation Center

There will be no CPFAN General Meeting and Program in March. Our Annual Meeting, where the membership will elect Board members for the 2024-25 term and vote on two proposed bylaw changes will take place on April 2 and we encourage all our members to attend.  If you are interested in serving on the CPFAN Board of Directors in 2024-25 please contact Georgia at info@cpfan.org. We welcome your interest and participation. The agenda and protocols for the Annual Meeting will be published in the next newsletter that will go out by March 18, giving fifteen days notice per our bylaws.

We are very pleased to announce that Jolon Clark, Executive Director of Denver Parks and Recreation will be the speaker at our Annual Meeting. Following his presentation, Clark will open the floor to Q & A. He is looking forward to hearing your ideas and insights about the future of Denver’s parks.
Jolon Clark, Executive Director, Denver Parks and Recreation
Jolon Clark was born and raised in Denver. Denver’s Recreation Centers and outdoor spaces were central to his childhood. He remembers the tree house he and his friends built in an ash tree in their Washington Park neighborhood. “There were three branches where we would sit for our meetings,” he says of the secret clubhouse. Soccer, swimming and basketball were the other activities he enjoyed in the “magical’ world of his Denver outdoor experience. In fifth grade, he participated in a Balarat Outdoor Education overnight program and describes this mountain experience, especially the night hikes, as life-changing.  As a South High School student, he learned about the Venice on the Creek program launched by Joe Shoemaker and the newly founded Greenway Foundation. Clark joined the program and punted gondola-style wooden boats up and down Cherry Creek between Larimer St and Confluence Park during his high school and college summers, regaling his passengers along the way with the history and culture of the area.
Courtesy, The Gondola Blog by Greg Mohr

Inspired by Joe Shoemaker’s vision of trails, parks and gardens flowing through Denver, Clark joined the Greenway Foundation team and among other accomplishments, founded Spree (South Platte Environmental Education), that introduces Denver area youth to the river through excursions, day camps, internships and summer programs. In 2019, The Greenway Foundation awarded Clark the annual Hero of the River Award in recognition of his significant and longstanding impact on the continued improvement/evolution/ sustainability of the South Platte River Watershed.

Finding his passion, Clark went on to earn a degree in non-profit management and a CSU degree in Natural Resources. Clark was elected to the Denver City Council in 2015 to represent District 7. While on council, he was the architect behind the $40 million a year Parks Legacy Fund, the creation of the new Office of Climate Action, Sustainability & Resiliency, and the $40 million a year Climate Action Fund.

In 2023, Clark was picked by Mayor Michael Johnston to be the Executive Director of Denver Parks and Recreation. “The circle closes,” says Clark. “This is my dream job.” He is proud of DPR’s new initiative to donate bison herds from Denver parkland to Tribal Nations. He looks forward to further implementation of Denver’s Game Plan for a Healthy City, emphasizing the need to “provide good stewardship of every drop of water.” Undeterred by the financial challenges facing Denver and subsequently DPR, he looks forward to minimizing the impact with creative planning and partnerships. In particular, he wants to empower volunteers to engage more fully in Denver’s parks. He talks about the value of being nimble and thinking outside bureaucratic boxes.

Learn more about Jolon Clark’s inspired vision for Denver’s parks on April 2. You are in for a treat!

Nature Play Update & Slideshow, Feb. 6, 5:30 pm, Carla Madison Rec Center, 2401 E. Colfax

City Park visitors have watched with curiosity and mounting excitement as the outlines of City Park’s new Nature Play project has emerged and filled in with whimsical benches and sculptures, a 20 foot tall climeable Bighorn Sheep, a beaver dam, logs, rocks and rustic swing sets. Nature Play is the result of a partnership between the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS) and Denver Parks and Recreation (DPR). Located in the southeast corner of City Park, south of the museum, the project is designed to delight, stimulate and educate while highlighting Colorado’s eight ecosystems in play areas that follow the spine of the DeBoer Waterway. For the first time in many years, a stream will again flow through the DeBoer Box Canyon creating welcome natural spaces and a key educational tool. According to Dig Studio, who is leading the Nature Play design team, “the restored DeBoer waterway will play a key role in (highlighting) the ecosystems, illustrating how they were formed over millenia through their interaction with water as it flows from mountains to plains.”

On Tuesday, February 6, Jacqueline Altreuter, a Director of Strategic Planning and also Nature Play Project Manager at DMNS, will provide an update on the final stages of the Nature Play project.  Ed Scholz, DMNS Director of Finance and Business, will also be a presenter. Among other news, they will report on the fifty new trees and one hundred native shrubs planned for the four acre area. Native grass seed was sown throughout the space in Fall, 2024.

Jacqueline Altreuter & Faye Braaten (Chainsaw Mama) discuss site plans
Jackie will also give an update on the museum’s new East Plaza Revitalization project. Her slideshow will include new renderings of the proposed renovation and historic photos of what the area looked like originally, including the original grand staircase that lies underneath the carpeted entry to Infinity (formerly Imax) Theater. Come to learn about plans for restoring the original staircase, creating an inviting plaza for public use and remodeling the lobby of Infinity Theater. There will be a Q and A following the presentation.

The February 6 meeting will take place at 5:30 pm at the Carla Madison Recreation Center, 2401 East Colfax Avenue in the Multi-Media Room. Free parking is available to the east of the center and can be accessed from Sixteenth Avenue off York Street.

Meadows Instead of Blue Grass!
Meadows instead of blue grass!

As climate change progresses, many of us are looking at our yards and public spaces and feeling concern about the amount of water it takes to keep the traditional blue grass landscapes alive. City Park Friends and Neighbors is honored to have a speaker for the Tuesday, December 5 program who addresses the solution to our water-guzzling landscapes with knowledgeability and passion.

Michelle Simpson is an Ecological Horticulturalist and the Co-founder and CEO of Otherworlds Seed Co. She was the horticulturist for Denver’s Historic Mount Vernon garden in Washington Park where she designed and implemented its transformation from a high water, high input formal ornamental garden into a dynamic native forward public garden. She worked with the City of Denver on its resiliency task force and with members of the community to educate and empower sustainable systems and practices. She has worked in both public and private horticulture and design in Colorado for two decades.
Michelle Simpson at Mt. Vernon Garden, Washington Park
Simpson’s website, www.owseedco.com announces the Otherworlds Seed Company’s philosophy plainly enough: “Say Farewell to Turf and Hello to a vibrant, low-water meadow.” The company advocates for working with nature and not against it when planting and maintaining a garden, choosing the right native plant for the right space without using chemicals and transforming home landscapes and public spaces into “islands of habitat for insects, birds and other wildlife.”  The Otherworlds Native Landscape in a Box offers fifteen native plants and one pound of native seed, a planting map, care instructions and watering schedules
Michelle Simpson

At the December 5 meeting, Simpson will speak about the principals of ecological gardening and share a beginner’s guide to switching from turf to urban habitat. She will also discuss common garden weeds and what to do about them. A Winter Sow Mix for areas already prepped for planting will be available. Please join us at the Multi-Purpose Room at Carla Madison Recreation Center, 2401 East Colfax Avenue on Tuesday, December 5 at 5:30 pm for this outstanding program with Michelle Simpson. Parking is accessible from 16th Street off York. Light refreshments will be served. For Zoom access, go to:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ofuCvrTMiG9HJ8irMDZOyfnvXN7z5OGNG
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