Keep It Colorado Receives $1 Million from Great Outdoors Colorado
GOCO’s renewed investment in conservation supports 10-year roadmap and a call to action
Sept. 22, 2023 – GOLDEN – Keep It Colorado has launched year two of the Emerging Conservation Opportunities (ECO) program, thanks to Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO)’s renewed commitment to invest in the program. In 2022, GOCO committed to a three-year, $3 million grant to support the nonprofit coalition’s statewide conservation initiatives. Today, GOCO’s board approved the second installment of $1 million, which will advance on-the-ground projects to protect lands through conservation efforts; demonstrate the economic return on investment of conservation; and grow land trusts’ capacity to engage more people in conservation while reflecting the multifaceted interests of Colorado’s diverse communities.
GOCO’s investments will help Keep It Colorado and its coalition members, including land trusts, public agencies and other conservation champions, take critical next steps in implementing Conserving Colorado: A 10-year Roadmap for the Future of Private Land Conservation. Published in April 2023, the roadmap sets goals to double the conservation community’s impacts in the next decade: double the number of acres conserved, double the engagement of Coloradans in this work, and double the resources needed to achieve the goals.
“The roadmap lays out a framework to help this community ‘meet the moment’ and get to our collective goals,” said Amy Beatie, Keep It Colorado’s executive director. She added, “GOCO’s continued investment is absolutely essential to helping us put that vision into action. We’re very grateful that they prioritize our work to create a Colorado where people, lands, waters and wildlife thrive.”
GOCO’s renewed investment will support these Keep It Colorado initiatives:
1. Transaction Cost Assistance Program (TCAP): This program awards grants to nonprofit land trusts working with Colorado landowners who volunteer to conserve their land through a conservation easement. For landowners who want to conserve their land but face financial barriers to covering the significant costs of the transaction, grants ease the financial burden and make the project feasible. With TCAP assistance, landowners can conserve more land more quickly – thereby protecting critical plant and wildlife habitat, local food systems, iconic viewsheds, wetland and river corridors, and places of historic and cultural significance. In Year 1 of the ECO program, Keep It Colorado’s two competitive TCAP grant cycles resulted in eight project awards that will help conserve 21,360 acres of land. Year 2 will enable eight to 10 awards and help meet the growing demand for assistance.
2. Making the Economic Case for Conservation: Keep It Colorado will commission Colorado State University to update a 2017 study titled, A CSU Study: Investing in Colorado - Colorado’s Return on Investments in Conservation Easements: Conservation Easement Tax Credit Program and Great Outdoors Colorado. The earlier study found that for every $1 invested in conservation through the tax credit, the people of Colorado receive up to $12 in economic benefit through the conservation of prime farmland, habitat for Colorado’s wildlife, and land along streams, lakes and rivers. Keep It Colorado will leverage the updated study to conduct educational outreach among legislators, funders, partners and other decision makers about the return on investment in conservation and its benefits to Coloradans.
3. Organizational Advancement: As part of its work to ensure that the conservation sector stays healthy and relevant for all current and future generations of Colorado, Keep It Colorado will continue a partnership with the Land Trust Alliance to deliver trainings and grant programs to land trusts. Programs will support conservation projects that engage and center local communities in conservation; advance efforts to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive conservation movement; and build or sustain organizational capacity. In Year 1 of this program, grants, trainings and a peer-learning cohort attracted 100% of Colorado-specific land trust members and supported strategies to build capacity, expand programs, advance new projects and build relationships with new communities. Year 2 will refine and deepen these initiatives in response to land trusts’ high level of demand for ongoing support and coaching – enabling them to take action on their community engagement goals and advance community-centered conservation in their regions.
“Land trusts and their landowner partners play a critical role in protecting our state's natural resources,” said GOCO Executive Director Jackie Miller. “We're proud to invest in this strategic effort supporting the sustainability of land trusts and the landscapes they protect, while elevating the value of this work to Colorado.”
Beatie emphasized that GOCO’s investments are a starting place, and challenges all Coloradans to support this work and amplify the conservation sector’s collective impacts. “The conservation community can’t do this alone. Our roadmap includes a call to action to people and organizations that care about Colorado’s future to support this work in whatever ways they can,” she said, citing actions Coloradans can take, including donating, volunteering, advocating for policy, voting with their values, and participating in programs of nonprofit land trusts and open space agencies.
About Great Outdoors 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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Photo: Iniciativa EVOM
