(Music Playing)
Being an urban refuge is a lot more that just being situated in a metropolitan area.
It is a change in the way we operate so that a larger metropolitan audience can access,
enjoy, and experience wildlife in its native environment and understand why that’s important,
and why we care about that.
Somehow we’ve lost a little touch with the environment, and we need to reconnect those
youth.
Otherwise, we are not going to have any stewards of these natural places in the future.
In order to facilitate conservation, it really needs to start with a love for the outdoors.
The primary part of that is connecting people directly to these natural places.
We have a real opportunity to think about wildlife, and think about people at the same
time, and bring them together on a really, really special piece of property.
Commerce City is a very low-income community, and a lot of these kids don’t have the opportunity
to go out into the mountains, so this is a place where they can come and see wildlife.
It is going to bring those people who have the least opportunity to experience nature
right here in their own backyard.
In the face of climate change, in the face of fragmentation of our environments, our
only chance is to figure out a way to get this next generation of Americans to care
about conservation.
We know that we have an opportunity in a place like this to have a connection, where kids
don’t have to go far.
To connect a new generation of young Americans to the outdoors, to create a vision that we’ll
replicate in other great urban environments.
These kids need these opportunities.
This is their chance to get out, to help create those future conservation leaders that we
are looking for.
We want to build that foundation, and hold up the community, because it’s in the community
where the visions are taking place.
We formed a Friends group even before the refuge was established, because we wanted
to do what we could to make sure this refuge became a reality.
The community is not just invested in this place; they are invested in the conservation
work that we are going to do together.
So in our tradition, we are going to hand this to you four times, and on the fourth
time, you are going to receive it.
This is really a refuge and a safe place, not only for wildlife, but for the many people
that live and work in this area.
Places like this really do offer people an opportunity to connect to something that feels
right, that is inspiring to them.
If this connects to one child, we’ve done our job.
This is a story of reclamation, it’s a story that gives you hope.
It’s a story that says at one time we were the world’s most polluted place, and now
we’re this place that is breeding baby bald eagles and bison.
I’m going to be able to take my grandchildren here.
And they are going to be able to take their grandchildren here and say this used to be
a dairy, and now, the community banded together and saved it for wildlife and the community.
I hear this all the time from people out here.
They live in the metropolitan area – just a few miles north or south of here, and you
come out here, and you feel like you are miles and miles away from civilization.
And you see nature as it’s meant to be.
You drive by at night, and you see this big block of land that is just pitch black.
And a lot of people have no idea what it is as you are driving by.
But its cool knowing that entire blacked out spot is where I work.
And as I go to pick somebody up from the airport or something like that, I usually let them
know, see that?
That’s actually where I work.
It’s actually kinda cool; you should check it out during the day.
People used to think that nature was something you had to go out to see.
And really, nature is all around us.
So to have a refuge like this is really going to open the outdoors to youths, families,
everybody like it never has before.