Keep It Colorado Awards $260,000 for Voluntary Conservation Projects
Conservation Will Protect 2,637 Acres of Wildlife Habitat, Working Ranches and Wetlands
December 8, 2023 – DENVER – Keep It Colorado will award $260,000 in assistance to six nonprofit land trusts across Colorado, which will support landowners who have volunteered to protect their properties through conservation. The awards are being made through Keep It Colorado’s Transaction Cost Assistance Program. The projects will permanently protect 2,637 acres of working ranches, wetlands, water rights and wildlife corridors on land that would otherwise be at imminent risk of being subdivided or converted to other uses. The grants are made possible through investments from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), whose board approved the awards at its Dec. 8 board meeting.
“We’re grateful for the chance to help landowners move forward with their conservation goals, an act that not only protects Colorado lands for the future but provides benefits every day to the people and wildlife that call Colorado home,” said Amy Beatie, executive director for Keep It Colorado.
The selected projects will protect highly developable land, support agricultural resiliency, and preserve scenic character while creating climate resiliency and promoting ecologically diverse, working landscapes. While privately owned, these properties buffer lands of the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, and other conservation easement lands, creating landscape-scale connectivity and resiliency across regions. Each project also addresses goals of Conserving Colorado: A 10-year Roadmap for the Future of Private Land Conservation, published in April 2023.
Six land trusts will receive grants to support voluntary conservation projects in six counties:
Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust – Fremont County: $40,000
The grant will help the landowners permanently protect 485 acres of Lower Howard Creek Ranches in Fremont County. The ranches share boundaries with large areas of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management that connect to the San Isabel National Forest and the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. Approximately 75 acres of the property have been identified by The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Network as being resilient to climate change; allowing species to disperse, migrate, and adapt to a changing climate; and having high biodiversity, which signals ecosystem health. Conserving this property will protect the agricultural character of the multigenerational ranches and the senior water rights tied to them into the future.
Colorado Open Lands – Huerfano County: $50,000
The grant will help conserve the 500-acre Manzanares Creek Ranch located at the confluence of Manzanares Creek and the Huerfano River along the northern slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in western Huerfano County. The property connects parcels managed by the Bureau of Land Management into a large, contiguous landscape of public and protected private lands extending all the way to the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness and Great Sand Dunes National Park. The evergreen forests, wetlands, piñon-juniper woodlands, aspen and cottonwood groves, and meadows of the property provide excellent habitat for numerous species including elk, mule deer, bighorn, black bear, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, mountain lion, pika, snowshoe hare, cutthroat trout, golden eagle, Hernandez’s short-horned lizard, and numerous bats including big brown bat, little brown myotis, and Townsend’s big-eared bat.
Colorado West Land Trust – Delta County: $43,150
The grant will help conserve Hawk Ranch, a 270-acre working ranch in the Crawford Valley. The valley is surrounded by iconic landscapes with the West Elk Wilderness to the east, Black Canyon National Park to the south, and the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area to the west. The property itself is next to Needle Rock, a unique geological feature designated by the Bureau of Land Management as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Hawk Ranch will be one of more than 25 working ranches in the Crawford Valley protected by the land trust over the past few decades. The property has senior water rights, which will be encumbered by the conservation easement. The water rights remain with the land while allowing flexibility to lease water for instream flow programs at the landowners’ discretion, which help maintain and improve stream and riparian habitat. Nearly a half mile of Cottonwood Creek flows through the ranch, supporting a thriving riparian corridor within a mapped golden and bald eagle breeding area. Hawk Ranch also provides critical winter habitat for many species and an elk migration corridor.
La Plata Open Space Conservancy – La Plata County: $45,000
The grant will help permanently protect 502 acres of a property located within the Durango Florida River Valley. The property is set within a 4,000-acre area of relatively undeveloped land featuring large ranches, federal lands, and state lands with direct connectivity to San Juan National Forest to the north and an existing conservation easement property to the east. With increased development to the east and west, this property is a key migration corridor used by a wide variety of wildlife, including elk and deer.
Mountain Area Land Trust – Jefferson County: $31,850
The grant will help conserve the 75-acre Woollenweber + Stupka property. The land is primarily forested natural habitat connected to 12,000 acres of public land including Golden Gate Canyon State Park and the Mount Tom Conservation Corridor. Most of the 1.5 million annual visitors to Golden Gate Canyon State Park pass by the property located on Golden Gate Canyon Road. The Woollenweber + Stupka property is home to diverse wildlife including moose, deer, elk, fox, bobcat, skunks, black bears, mountain lion, weasel, snakes, and woodpeckers. Rocky cliffs and open meadows provide habitat for a variety of smaller wildlife and insects, and the natural spring and riparian area provide a vital year-round water source to wildlife. The landowners manage their property for ecosystem health through forest thinning, fire mitigation activities and invasive species removal.
Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust – Conejos County: $50,000
The grant will help permanently conserve 805 acres of the Herencia Lucero Property in Conejos County. The property is a working ranch with significant water rights in the Rio San Antonio irrigation system. Leveraging both conservation easement tax credit and bargain sale funding from North American Wetlands Conservation Act and a private foundation, the project will help the land trust conserve 805 acres in this first phase with plans to conserve another 670 acres in the future. Located within the Bureau of Land Management’s San Luis Hills Area of Critical Environmental Concern and 1.5 miles from the San Luis Hills Wilderness Study Area, the property includes 1.4 miles of the Rio San Antonio and 344 acres of wetlands, as well as grasslands, riparian shrubland, and cottonwood forests. These lands and waters provide critical habitat for numerous species such as bald eagle, northern harrier, golden eagle, sandhill crane, elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and Rio Grande chub. The landowners are part of a sixth-generation Hispano family that contributes to agricultural production in the San Luis Valley. The Lucero family is pursuing climate resiliency planning and working with ditch companies and Natural Resource Conservation Service to make irrigation improvements that will benefit over 20 families.
In total, these six completed projects will leverage more than $5 million in tax credits through the state’s conservation easement tax credit program. Tax credits, along with Keep It Colorado’s grant program, are important financial incentives that make it possible for landowners to protect wildlife habitat, water, working lands, and a way of life across Colorado.
Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to help preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces. GOCO’s independent board awards competitive grants to local governments and land trusts and makes investments through Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Created when voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1992, GOCO has since funded more than 5,600 projects in all 64 counties of Colorado without any tax dollar support. Visit GOCO.org for more information.
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.
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