Every year, Keep It Colorado convenes members and partners for our annual Spring Summit. This year for the first time, we gathered in-person at Colorado Parks and Wildlife's Partners in the Outdoors Conference. We were excited to see so many familiar (and new!) faces in one room. The theme was “The Ideal State of Conservation” where conversations centered on climate resiliency and justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) as two underlying lenses of our Statewide Private Lands Conservation Plan.
Our event featured breakout groups and conversations on these topics. In the morning, we heard expert insights and data related to climate from guest speakers Kristen Boysen, climate and drought specialist for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, and Drew Rayburn, director of conservation science and planning for The Nature Conservancy-Colorado. In the afternoon, several of our board members helped lead discussions around JEDI.
Event Highlights
Suzanne Stephens, executive director of Aspen Valley Land Trust and vice chair of Keep It Colorado's board of directors, spoke about equity in land conservation.
“Great job with a difficult topic. Good discussions. Enjoyed it. We just need to diversify our community now to make these conversations more meaningful.”
Kristen Boysen, climate and drought specialist for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, spoke about actions land trusts can take to tackle climate change.
“I liked that we focused on solutions and ways to make climate change and our work relevant to one another. ”
Hannah George, Keep It Colorado's new programs and events coordinator, and Dillon O'Hare, community conservation manager for Palmer Land Conservancy, enjoyed the local wildlife at the Partners in the Outdoors Conference.
“For me the best thing was just having the chance to be in a room with so many members of the land trust and open space community. Personally it has been a while since I have had that type of opportunity!”
