Keep It Colorado Receives $3 Million to Advance Conservation

GOCO investment leads more to land protection, innovation and sustainability in conservation sector  

 June 17, 2022 – GOLDEN – Keep It Colorado has received $3 million in grants from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) to advance the coalition’s conservation initiatives across the state. GOCO’s investment will support Keep It Colorado’s programs that provide financial assistance to nonprofit land trusts for completing conservation projects, and that lead to more innovative, relevant and sustainable conservation opportunities. GOCO will disburse the funds as $1-million grants annually for three years.

“GOCO’s investment is a testament to the value it places on prioritizing our state’s natural resources and outdoor assets,” said Melissa Daruna, executive director of Keep It Colorado. “Thanks to GOCO’s support, we’re closer to meeting the goals and vision the conservation community has said are important to the communities they serve and to the future of our state,” she added.

Keep It Colorado will use GOCO’s investment to build upon and expand two areas of work – the Conservation Catalyst Fund and Land Conservation Community Health and Sustainability initiatives.

Conservation Catalyst Fund. Keep It Colorado will create a fund that pools financial resources from multiple funders to amplify the impact of investments in conservation and maximize on-the-ground conservation efforts. Specifically, the fund supports two major efforts:

• Transaction Cost Assistance Program (TCAP). This Keep It Colorado program regrants funds to nonprofit land trusts to help cover the costs associated with conservation easement transactions. TCAP enables landowners who have urgent opportunities to conserve their properties, but who face financial barriers to facilitating the transaction, to conserve more land more quickly – thereby protecting critical habitat, local food systems, iconic viewsheds, wetland and river corridors, and places of historic and cultural significance. This program is a continuation of the successful 2021 TCAP program, which supported 14 projects and resulted in the conservation of 5,600 acres of land and leveraged more than $8.3 million in tax credits through the state’s conservation easement tax credit program.

• Statewide Private Lands Conservation Plan Implementation, which will be based on planning activities Keep It Colorado launched for its Statewide Private Lands Conservation Plan in 2021 and 2022. Implementation of the plan will be guided by the goals and objectives the conservation community has created to ensure more strategic, connected and impactful conservation efforts statewide.

Land Conservation Community Health and Sustainability. Keep It Colorado will drive innovation in and create sustainability for the conservation sector by addressing the biggest and most pressing challenges and opportunities land trusts and open space agencies face. Priority efforts will provide capacity and planning support for programs focused on outdoor recreation access, alternative valuation tools and partnerships. Initiatives include:

• Recreational Access Opportunities. Keep It Colorado will lead efforts to expand voluntary recreational access on private lands. The coalition will establish conservation tools, identify landowner incentives, and pursue legislative and policy efforts to protect landowners’ liability.

• Alternative Valuation Tool. Keep It Colorado will lead the development of an alternative valuation method for perpetual land conservation and develop a proof of concept for conservation projects that utilize this method. The alternative method will give landowners a choice about how to determine a proposed conservation easement value for their property while maximizing opportunities to conserve wildlife habitat, water resources, healthy soils and other land conservation values.

• Land Trust Alliance Partnered Programming. Keep It Colorado will contract with The Land Trust Alliance to provide training for and implementation of strategies coalition members can leverage to create a conservation sector that is more just, diverse, equitable and inclusive. The two organizations will also partner to create programs that help make member organizations more sustainable, healthy and relevant as land trusts rise to meet new challenges their communities are facing.

About Keep It Colorado

Keep It Colorado serves as a unified voice for conservation organizations focused on private lands conservation, and does so by bringing together land trusts, public agencies and conservation champions around a vision to create a Colorado where people, lands, waters and wildlife thrive. Keep It Colorado advocates for sound public policy; provides connection and collaboration opportunities for conservation partners; offers a forum to address emerging conservation issues and opportunities; pursues sustainable funding and programmatic tools and solutions; and works to advance a culture of conservation in Colorado. Learn more at www.keepitco.org.

###