Wildlife-research cameras set up on Pitkin County open space may be used to enforce trail closures, but a new policy prescribes that users will be warned they are being watched and that the footage will be destroyed eventually.
The county Open Space and Trails Board voted unanimously for the new policy Thursday.
The county has five cameras posted around Sky Mountain Park. They take photos, activated by a motion sensor. They were installed in 2011 and 2012, at a cost of about $300 each, as part of an ongoing wildlife research project on the county property.
County and wildlife officials use the photographs to determine whether trail construction in the area, begun in 2011, has displaced animals or disrupted migration patterns. Thus far, they’ve found wildlife has not been negatively impacted, when comparing current animal activity with baseline data collected before trail expansion there.
Footage of rare owls and mountain lions, along with migrating deer and elk, has been captured.
But the cameras also snap photos of passing humans on the trails, which raised privacy concerns from some locals, and prompted the board to adopt official policies governing the use of the footage.
“We put up wildlife cameras primarily to research wildlife,” said county open space director Dale Will. “It’s not like these are surveillance cameras.”
Sky Mountain Park is closed to humans from Dec. 1 through May 15, and dogs are prohibited from it year-round. The county can use the photos to bust people trespassing on the closure or bringing dogs in. Footage of violations also helps the county decide where and when it needs to assign enforcement officers. When rangers can identify the person on the property breaking those rules, Tennenbaum said, they would likely issue warnings to them about the closure.
The county has not used camera footage as evidence to ticket people for breaking the rules.
“We don’t see repeat offenders on the cameras and we’re not seeing a ton of people who are breaking the closures or who are bringing dogs up there,” Tennenbaum said.
Courtesy photo
Deer on the Viewline Trail in Sky Mountain Park, as captured by a Pitkin County motion-triggered camera.
The county uses photos of people to keep track of how many hikers, bikers and equestrians are using the trails. That info helps officials gauge demand, guide future trail construction and anticipate conflicts between user groups. For example, Tennenbaum said, the county received complaints that trails in Sky Mountain were over-run with horseback riders, but the data showed horse use was infrequent.
The new policy will put warning signs at the trailheads, stating cameras have been placed in the area. It also pledges to destroy images of people within 15 days of their collection from memory cards in the trail cameras.
“That’s where the new policy comes in,” said assistant open space director Gary Tennenbaum. “We download that data, count it and delete them all.”
Using motion sensor cameras on public trails and parks is commonplace in the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond, but adopting official protocol overseeing how to use the footage is not.
The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) has a similar regime of three motion-sensor cameras set up on the Rio Grande Trail, along a 2-mile stretch near Rock Bottom Ranch that is closed for winter. Those cameras are also used to monitor animals, as part of a wildlife management plan overseen by a wildlife biologist. Because they only run in the winter on the closed area, RFTA director of facilities Michael Hermes said, the cameras rarely capture people. RFTA does not have an official policy guiding what to do with photos of people, and does not have signs warning users they are being photographed in the closed area.
The city of Aspen also has wildlife cameras posted on open space parcels to collect images of wildlife, conduct user counts and observe parking patterns, according to a county memorandum. The city has no protocol on what to do with images of people.
Other local entities that use motion sensor cameras include Aspen’s department of environmental health, which uses video cameras to record illegal dumping at the city recycling center; the county airport, which monitors movement around the runway; and the county landfill, which uses a video camera at its gate to record after-hours trespassers.
In Boulder County, open space rangers specifically place cameras on properties to covertly catch people violating trail closures. The county has used footage of violations to set up stakeouts, through which rangers have caught people violating closures.
Denver Parks and Recreation has eight wildlife cameras on city land. Officials there began drafting guidelines for use of images of people, after Pitkin County inquired about their oversight, according to Pitkin County officials.
