El Paso County officials are preparing for a long, expensive recovery across parks and trails damaged by heavy rains this summer.

A department manager, Jason Meyer, said $8.5 million in repairs have been estimated across 16 locations, from south around Fountain, north around Black Forest and east around Peyton.

Meyer said damage has been surveyed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and now the county is waiting to see what financial assistance may or may not come from the government. President Joe Biden recently issued a disaster declaration for Colorado and opened FEMA funds to the state.

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The county’s estimated cost for recreation areas poses a steep challenge for the parks department alone. For 2023, the county’s General Fund allocated $5.1 million to the department, which spreads that money across staff, maintenance and capital projects.

Meyer said “the vast majority” of damage is along the southern reaches of Fountain Creek Regional Trail, from the Hanson trailhead.

Floodwaters blew out a bridge, collapsed land, dislodged riprap and wrecked other features that were part of a long, multi-million-dollar mitigation project that finished only a couple of years ago. Funded by FEMA, the county and other partners, that job was in response to storms from 2015.

“The improvements were beautiful, what they did to shore up the banks and the new bridge, (Meyer) was so very proud,” said Susan Davies, executive director of Trails and Open Space Coalition. “And it took so dang long to get all the parts and pieces together. … To have to start from square one has to be soul-sucking.”

It was “disheartening” and “sad,” Meyer granted. But he was looking on the bright side – he wouldn’t be starting from square one, he said.

“Overall, I think we’re better situated now than if we didn’t do any work down there at all,” he said. “We can really focus now and come back and repair specific areas. We’re hoping our repair costs are lower because of the work we did last time.”

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The repairs begged the question in Davies’ mind: How far would the time and money go this time?

“Do we want to go through this again and then go through it again in eight years or whatever? Because we know we’re going to see this again. Fountain Creek is what it is.”

It was “a difficult area,” Meyer said. “No matter what we do down there, you’re going to see damage. It’s just how much repair is there going to be.”

Along with damage to Fountain Creek Nature Center that temporarily closed the facility, the county has also noted trail washouts nearby at Willow Springs Ponds and south through Clear Spring Ranch Park.

Other damage has been tracked at Falcon Regional Park and Homestead Ranch Park near Peyton. Near Black Forest, the county gated Pineries Open Space in July.

Meyer said historic Civilian Conservation Corps dams built around the forested property had overflowed and groundwater swelled.

“It is just so saturated up there that you can’t even walk along the trails without sinking in,” Meyer said. “Being that we have conservation easements out there, and it’s a relatively remote place where, if someone was biking along and hit a section and got stuck or injured, it’d be really hard for us to get them out.”

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Opening Pineries was an early priority, he said, while other damage could wait to be addressed pending funds.

Davies said she worried what repairs could mean for the overall outlook of the department with limited staff.

“It does make it difficult when you look at long-range capital planning,” Meyer said. “We just maybe have to put a project or two on hold so that we can allocate the resources to get the work done.”