Land Cleanup & Protection

Stewardship Starts With Us

The trails, parks and open spaces of the Pikes Peak region and Southern Front Range don’t stay clean by accident. They stay that way when people care for them, show up for them, and take responsibility for them.

The Trails & Open Space Coalition believes stewardship starts with everyday action. Through cleanups, volunteer opportunities and hands-on community programs, we make it easy for people to care for the outdoors and help build a stronger culture of protection, pride, and shared responsibility.

The Outdoors Needs More Than Admiration

It’s easy to love a beautiful trail. Easy to enjoy a park that feels clean, welcoming, and alive.

What’s harder is remembering those places need care to stay that way.

Litter builds up. Habitat gets stressed. Trails wear down under constant use. When stewardship becomes an afterthought, the damage doesn’t stay invisible for long.

Land stewardship keeps appreciation from ending at admiration. It turns connection into responsibility and helps communities care for the places they love before pollution and deterioration take hold.

Stewardship Starts With Simple Actions

Land protection can look like a lot of things.

It can be as simple as packing out what you brought in. Picking up litter someone else left behind. Bringing a trash bag on your walk and seeing if you can fill part of it before you head home. Staying on the trail. Respecting the space. Leaving it better than you found it.

That’s how stewardship becomes sustainable.

At Trails & Open Space Coalition, we’re making land stewardship more doable, more practical, and more enjoyable across the Pikes Peak region. Through community programs, outreach, and simple ways to get involved, we’re helping more people care for the places they love in ways that feel natural and meaningful.

We Protect the Places That Shape Life Here

Trails & Open Space Coalition exists to protect what makes the Pikes Peak region and Southern Front Range special. Since 1987, we’ve turned local community support into lasting results for the trails, parks and open spaces people love most.

Powered by The Community

We’re 100% member supported, and that local investment drives everything we do. Together, we turn community care into real impact.

Focused on What Matters

We work to protect the trails, parks and open spaces where people walk, gather, explore and reconnect with nature.

Built for Long-Term Protection

We turn support into action through advocacy, stewardship, and partnerships that keep the Pikes Peak region and Southern Front Range connected, healthy and livable.

One Bag. Real Impact.

Our One Bag Challenge turns everyday time outdoors into an easy act of stewardship. Bring a bag when you head out. Pick up litter along the way. Carry it out with you.

Launched in the spring of 2024, the One Bag Challenge has since hosted more than 110 cleanups, engaged 900+ participants, and removed more than 7,700 pounds of litter across the Pikes Peak region. Through events, outreach, and everyday conversations on trails and in parks, the program has also reached thousands of people with information about the importance of trash removal and caring for shared outdoor spaces.

Here’s what one bag can make possible:

On a hike: Toss a bag in your pack and pick up what you find along the trail.
At the park: Clean up around a picnic area, bench, or playground before heading home.
On a neighborhood walk: Challenge yourself to grab five pieces of litter before calling it a day.
With kids or friends: Turn it into something fun, shared, and easy to repeat.

One Bag Challenge works because it fits real life. You don’t need a cleanup crew or a full afternoon. You just need a bag, a goal, and maybe a friend or two.

The program continues to grow as community habits begin to shift. More people are carrying bags on walks, picking up litter on their own, and making stewardship part of everyday life. What started as a simple idea is becoming a larger movement powered by people who care for the places they love.

TAKE THE CHALLENGE

Schedule a One Bag Challenge cleanup by emailing Aaron Rogers, TOSC program coordinator at aaron@trailsandopenspaces.org

What Local Land Stewardship Makes Possible

When more people care for the land around them, small actions create visible change across the region.

Together, stewardship can help:

Protect the Outdoors

Strengthen Community

Preserve What Matters

This Work Belongs to All of Us

Clean trails do not happen by accident. Welcoming parks, healthier waterways, protected habitat and open spaces people can keep enjoying all depend on everyday stewardship and a community willing to care.

Across the Pikes Peak region and Southern Front Range, small actions add up—one bag carried on a walk, one volunteer activity joined, one gift that helps keep this work moving. When you support Trails and Open Space Coalition, you help turn appreciation into responsibility and protect the places that shape life here.

Become a steward today. Donate, volunteer, or take the One Bag Challenge — and help care for the land we all share.