The completed draft of the South Park National Heritage Area Management Plan is now available for public review and comment on the National Park Service (NPS) website: Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (http://parkplanning.nps.gov/). You may also call NPS historian Shirl Kasper at (303) 969-2232 to request a hard copy. We encourage you to review the Management Plan and send us your thoughts by November 30, 2012. You may submit comments online at http://planning.nps.gov/. Your comments will be considered as we move forward with submitting the Management Plan to the NPS National Heritage Area office in Washington, D.C., for approval. We look forward to hearing from you.

As required by its authorizing legislation (Public Law 111-11. Section 8003), the South Park National Heritage Area has prepared a Management Plan, which describes the Heritage Area’s management structure, boundaries, duties, mission, goals, and prohibition on the acquisition of real property. The Plan incorporates an inventory of the Heritage Area’s natural, cultural, and recreational resources, and includes comprehensive policies, strategies, and recommendations for conservation, funding, management, development, and promotion of the Heritage Area. The Plan outlines a program of implementation for the Management Plan and describes actions that governments, private organizations, and individuals have agreed to take to manage and protect Heritage Area resources. Sources of funding for carrying out the Plan are identified, and an analysis of and recommendations for coordinating Federal, State and local programs presented. The Management Plan also includes an interpretive plan for the Heritage Area.