Colorado: Homeless, Illegal Campers Create Forest Dangers
Colorado's population grew by over 91,000 people in 2016, which led to increased use of its public lands and a big increase in homelessness as the cost of living rose. Cities have outlawed public camping within city limits and pushed the homeless into the mountains. Many live in campsites like the one pictured above outside Colorado Springs.
From 5280 Magazine:
And in the past few years, there have been numerous alarming incidents that should give Coloradans extra cause for concern. In 2010, a man wearing a green shirt and camouflage shorts hid near Nederland’s Rainbow Lakes, kidnapped a couple hiking in the area, tied them to a tree, and threatened them with his rifle (one hiker freed himself; the other was released and returned to her vehicle uninjured). In May 2013, a camper at Gordon Gulch named Hilbourne Sutherland slashed a man’s gut and slit a woman’s throat during a late-night argument over the assailant’s dog. Sutherland fled to Boulder, where he was later found and arrested. (Both victims survived.) “It is just the beginning of summer…” read a report in the May 28, 2013, edition of the local Mountain-Ear newspaper. “[Our] campgrounds have been the scene of many assaults…murders…suicides.” Police encouraged recreational campers to pitch tents near campground entrances versus deeper in the woods. “There will soon be a massive influx of out-of-state bad dudes, not just peaceful campers,” then Nederland Police Chief Jake Adler said in the same article. “It is not safe in the campgrounds anymore.”
