On November 5, 2020, Keep It Colorado’s board of directors adopted a climate policy.

Policy on Climate Policy

Climate change is one of the most urgent challenges we face. As we consider Keep It Colorado’s role to elevate and empower our members and increase collaborative approaches to conservation, it is clear that without addressing climate change, we are ignoring a critical threat to the immediate and long-term impact of our work protecting and stewarding cherished landscapes. We must create solutions that address climate change by working collectively within and beyond the conservation community and provide leadership to our coalition members.

The effects of climate change include more extreme weather patterns, chronic drought, a longer and more intense wildfire season, diminished snowpack, and shorter, warmer winters. These changes have a direct impact on the landscapes we seek to protect and steward, and on the people and communities our coalition serves. The health and survival of wildlife, the availability of water, the productivity of working farm and ranch lands, and the accessibility of outdoor recreation opportunities are all impacted by a rapidly changing climate.

We emphasize land conservation as a solution to this problem. Effective land protection and management mitigates the impacts of climate change with conservation strategies that sequester (store) carbon in plants and soils and remove harmful gases from the atmosphere; protect wildlife habitat and increase the diversity of plants and animals that make up a healthy ecosystem; and create more resilient and adaptable landscapes and communities.

We recognize that conservation work is climate work and climate work is conservation work.

It will take more than land conservation to combat a climate crisis, however. Keep It Colorado must work with our partners across other sectors – nonprofit, private and public – to advance sound policy that addresses climate change from all sides and brings workable climate solutions to our members.

Keep It Colorado is committed to combating climate change by:

• Supporting bold, innovative natural climate solutions, market-based frameworks, and sound policy that advances conservation. Natural climate solutions include land protection and management strategies to avoid conversion of forests, wetlands and grasslands to other uses; improve soil health; maintain natural working lands; and mitigate flood and fire risks.

• Increasing funding for conservation of resilient and adaptable landscapes.

• Working toward conservation-compatible renewable energy solutions that protect conservation values.

• Supporting proactive climate policy at the local, state, and federal levels that helps create a more resilient, prepared and adaptive Colorado.

Keep It Colorado recognizes that a coordinated, collaborative effort is more effective than a siloed one. We commit to working toward science-based climate solutions with our partners.