Charlie Gindler
Charlie Gindler returned home in 1998 to help his family and encouraged his father to conserve ranch land rather than develop it. Over eighteen years as ranger, resource specialist, and open space manager, he stewarded Red Mountain and Eagle's Nest Open Spaces, continuing traditions of conservation and agriculture.
When and how did you first become involved with the Larimer County Department of Natural Resources, and what role did you play in advancing our open space efforts?
In 1998, I returned to Fort Collins where I had grown up to assist my ailing parents and to run the family ranch near Horsetooth Reservoir. My father was in the process of selling several hundred acres of the ranch to the then-called Larimer County Parks and Open Lands (Department of Natural Resources). I encouraged him to make that land open space rather than sell it for development. At that time, I became intimately familiar with the county open space program, especially since it embodied my lifelong conservation values.
I had come home after twenty-five years of agricultural, recreation, natural resources and wilderness management experience in the private sector, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Defense, across the western U.S. and Hawaii. I saw an opportunity to apply what I had learned to a young, well-funded and aggressively active organization that was doing wonderful conservation work dear to my heart in the community of my roots.
I took a job with them as a supervisory park ranger. Over the next eighteen years, I also served as a natural resource specialist and open space site manager. And always during that time, no matter what my job title, I oversaw leasing of open spaces for agricultural use.
Eagle’s Nest Open Space Grand Opening, 2005
From your perspective, what is one of the most meaningful outcomes or accomplishments that the Help Preserve Open Spaces (HPOS) sales tax has made possible?
The Help Preserve Open Space (HPOS) program came at the perfect time in Larimer County history to acquire and protect lands near the alarming growth and spread of development along the Front Range. Its tenets harken back to America's long held conservation ethos of sustaining wildlife, recreation, watershed, biodiversity, agriculture and aesthetics. These are all elements that make up the lure of the American West, which to everyone from the old local rancher to the newly arrived urban dweller is the very essence of life in Larimer County.
Is there a memory or moment from your time with LCDNR that stands out as especially powerful, either personally or for the community?
The culmination of my time with DNR was being appointed manager of Eagle's Nest and Red Mountain Open Spaces. It was a chance to apply all the skills I had acquired over a lifetime and the land stewardship propensity inherited from my parents to protect and enhance the land, and to provide the public that paid for these open spaces with the best experience of their lives.
With 75% of my time working in the field under the brilliant blue skies and vast panoramas of northern Larimer County, and 25% of my time in the office (usually planned for scorching hot or bitter cold days), it was the perfect job.
How have you seen Larimer County residents, families, or visitors benefit from the protection, restoration, and enjoyment of open spaces?
Since I was a little kid, the population of Larimer County has grown exponentially. It is a vibrant community that looks to the outdoors to offset the demands of modern life.
All the Federal and State lands of this area cannot keep pace with the overuse by this exploding population. HPOS/DNR has stepped up to provide more of this Walden Pond type reprieve to our residents in areas closer to the population centers.
Along with other community parks and open lands, these are the most popular programs in Colorado. They are the most used, praised, and loved endeavors of local government, used by everyone from dishwashers and field hands to billionaires and entrepreneurs. And let us always make sure the least fortunate of us can always afford and have access to these places.
What message would you want to share with future generations about why conserving and stewarding lands in Larimer County is important?
Each generation living in Larimer County must ask themselves what gives beauty, meaning, uniqueness, and tranquility to your life.
My mother, who reveled in the outdoor life of the ranch, often said, "Raise thine eyes up to the hills," by which she expressed her strength and resilience that came from Nature, however it came to be and however it is sustained.
Charlie Gindler leading the way at the Soderberg Open Space grand opening, 2005