Keep It Colorado Awards $215,000 in Cost Assistance for Conservation

Conservation Will Protect over 13,000 Acres of Wildlife Habitat, Family Orchards
and Agricultural Landscapes

June 14, 2023 – DENVER – The nonprofit coalition Keep It Colorado will award $215,000 in Transaction Cost Assistance Program grants to help four Colorado land trusts complete conservation projects in partnership with landowners across five Colorado counties. The projects will permanently protect 13,335 acres of critical wetlands and wildlife habitat, family orchards and vineyards, agricultural landscapes, water rights and rare species on land that would otherwise be at imminent risk of being subdivided or converted to other uses. The grants from Keep It Colorado are made possible through investments from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO).

“We’re grateful for the chance to help landowners move forward with their conservation goals, an act that not only protects these lands for the future but provides benefits today, every day, to Coloradans,” said Linda Lidov, interim executive director for Keep It Colorado. “Although this assistance isn’t able to meet the full cost of any one conservation easement project, we’re greatly reducing the burden on individual landowners who’ve volunteered to conserve their properties.”

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.

Four land trusts will receive grants to support five conservation easement projects, each described in detail below:

Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust – Nick Theos Family Ranch, Rio Blanco County: $45,000
Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust – Verhoeff Family Farm and Ranch, Bent County: $45,000
Colorado Open Lands – Chris and Carol Kester Ranch, Costilla County: $35,000
Colorado West Land Trust – Avant Vineyards, Mesa County: $45,000
Montezuma Land Conservancy – Ivins Ranch, Dolores County: $45,000

Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust – Nick Theos Family Ranches, Rio Blanco County: $45,000
Located east of Meeker, the Nick Theos Family Ranches Conservation Easement project will permanently conserve approximately 3,426 acres of a multigenerational sheep ranch that shares miles of boundary with White River National Forest and Bureau of Land Management land and connects several thousand acres of public land and private conservation land. The property features a diversity of habitat types, ranging from dryland pastures at 6,600 feet in elevation, to mountainous topography at nearly 8,900 feet in elevation. The Nature Conservancy’s Resilient and Connected Network analysis indicates that the property has both significant biodiversity and climate resilience. Conservation also secures critical habitat for golden eagle, cutthroat trout, and greater sage grouse among other Tier 1 Species of Greatest Concentration Need as listed in the 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan. Maintaining this property as open ranchland supports high-quality wildlife habitat and the highly scenic character of the area.

Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust – Verhoeff Family Farm and Ranch, Bent County: $45,000
This project features 5,344 acres of farm and ranchland and is directly adjacent to John Martin Reservoir State Park in southeast Colorado. The agricultural operation is very productive with over 1,700 irrigated acres of crops and pasture, and the remainder are grasslands utilized for grazing. The conservation easement will encumber the land and water rights to ensure that the farm can remain a key player in this rural community. The Verhoeffs are passionate conservationists and steward over 1,500 acres of wetlands, two reservoirs, and 3.5 miles of the Arkansas River. The family has observed over 300 species of birds in this resilient and biodiverse habitat. While not part of the conservation easement, the Verhoeffs would like to create a public access area for birdwatching off a section of road frontage that is already very popular among birders during migration seasons.

Colorado Open Lands – Chris and Carol Kester Ranch, Costilla County: $35,000
Chris and Carol Kester Ranch is a multigenerational working ranch in northern Costilla County that is 85% irrigated, supplied by both senior water rights and groundwater. The family, which is in the process of transitioning much of the ranch management to their daughter, has a strong stewardship ethic and is proud of the important wetland habitat their property provides to sandhill cranes and other wildlife. Leveraging both the conservation easement tax credit and Natural Resources Conservation Service funding, the project will not only protect 1,471 acres of productive agricultural lands and wetland habitat, but also guarantees that the water supporting both economic and ecological functions will remain in the San Luis Valley. Its protection provides connectivity from the 172,000-acre conserved Trinchera Ranch in the upper watershed, across the valley floor to the mainstem of the Rio Grande River.

Colorado West Land Trust – Avant Vineyards, Mesa County: $45,000
Located west of Palisade, Avant Vineyards lies amid one of Colorado’s most productive and unique agricultural landscapes. Situated along the Colorado River on East Orchard Mesa, Avant Vineyards contributes to this rich agricultural bounty with nearly 15 acres of fruit production, including both grapes and peaches, 9 acres of which will be included in this easement, which encompasses 40.2 acres of a larger 71.6-acre property. The project will also protect 27 acres of lowland riparian habitat along the Colorado River that boasts “outstanding biodiversity significance” as designated by the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. This critical habitat is home to many species of importance, from the globally imperiled Rio Grande cottonwood/skunkbrush riparian forest to wetlands and backwaters adjacent to the Colorado River.

Montezuma Land Conservancy – Ivins Ranch, Dolores County: $45,000
This project protects 3,054 acres of land in north-central Dolores County that is nearly surrounded by public lands with McKenna Peak Wilderness Study Area to the west of the project and Lone Cone State Wildlife Area to the east. Without this timely conservation effort, this multigenerational working cattle ranch would otherwise be susceptible to development pressure as nearby properties are subdivided and the family goes through an internal ownership transition. Conservation of this property achieves landscape-level conservation impact by preserving corridors for wildlife migration along with quality habitat such as elk calving ground, elk winter range, and two seasonal streams. This is particularly important as Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff have observed steady declines in local elk herds over the last few years from human impacts and climate change. Guaranteeing the natural condition of this landscape simultaneously supports the future for wildlife and working lands.

In total, these five completed projects will leverage more than $9.8 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.

About the Transaction Cost Assistance Program

In 2021, Keep It Colorado partnered with Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) to establish the Transaction Cost Assistance Program (TCAP). As of June 2023, Keep It Colorado has awarded a total of $928,915 in TCAP grant assistance in response to $2,020,592 in funding requests. This assistance has enabled or will have enabled Colorado land trusts to complete 23 conservation projects on 27,487 acres of land by June 30, 2025. In total, these projects will also leverage $23.6 million in state tax credits. TCAP regrants funds to nonprofit land trusts to help cover the costs associated with conservation easement transactions. It 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. With this assistance, Keep It Colorado eases the financial burden on landowners and enables them to move forward with protecting critical landscapes that are at imminent risk of being subdivided or converted to other uses. Learn more at www.keepitco.org/tcap.

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.