Does your municipality own or have another interest in land or waters that it makes available to the public for recreational purposes? Or is your municipality considering opening its property for public recreation? If your answer to either of these questions is yes, then you may be aware of the dangers inherent to recreational lands, including hazardous terrain, wildlife encounters, changing weather and water conditions, and rock and tree falls, which may lead to serious injury and even death, thus presenting a premises liability risk for your municipality. With knowledge of these risks, you may wonder why your municipality opened, or is considering opening, its property to public recreation in the first place. Or maybe you believe recreation opportunities are important enough to justify the liability risks as an accepted cost of offering them. Whatever you’re thinking, the good news is Colorado law provides municipalities with protections against liability to users of recreational lands and waters for recreational purposes. While these liability protections are not absolute, by understanding your municipality’s immunity and liability protections, you can help protect your organization from liability while promoting safe public access to recreational areas.

Read CIRSA’s new Blog Post for more information about these potential liability risks and protections associated with recreation activity on municipal lands.