Conservationists have released a plan to protect key lands and waters in Colorado that people and nature need to survive and thrive in a changing climate. “Conserving Colorado: A 10-year Roadmap for the Future of Private Land Conservation” calls for doubling the number of acres protected over the next 10 years, from 3.3 million to 6.6 million acres. Comments from Linda Lidov, interim executive director, Keep It Colorado.
The Fall 2021 edition of Saving Land Magazine features a story about using remote monitoring technologies - like satellite and aerial imagery - to monitor conserved lands. The story features our partners Colorado Open Lands and Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, as well as Keep It Colorado.
Keep It Colorado has expanded its team with the addition of Raina Roanhorse, who joined the coalition as grant programs and administrative coordinator on September 1. Raina will support the nonprofit’s grant and regrant programs, which benefit the statewide coalition’s work to accelerate the pace and scale of private lands conservation.
Keep It Colorado and the Land Trust Alliance partnered to publish a study which shows that these technologies help land trusts reduce the costs, personnel hours and carbon emissions typically associated with observing and documenting changes to landscapes they have conserved. Several land trusts plan to add these technologies to their stewardship toolbox to be more efficient in their property monitoring activities in the future.
Most everyone is aware of the ecological benefits of conserving land – clean water, healthy plants and wildlife, and rich habitat for animals, birds and fish. But two other critical outcomes of conservation immediately rise to the top for me: a strong economy and climate change mitigation. Most Coloradans agree.
On June 30, 2021, Governor Polis signed Conservation Easement Tax Credit Modifications (HB21-1233) into law. The legislation helps to accelerate land conservation in a state threatened by the ongoing climate crisis and population growth, and ensure that the state’s conservation easement tax credit program functions more effectively and efficiently.
Keep It Colorado’s bill, HB1233 – Conservation Easement Enhancement and Rural Stimulus Act, passed in the Senate on June 7. This bill accomplishes some key policy priorities that will help increase the pace of land conservation and ensure that the conservation easement tax credit program functions as effectively and efficiently as possible.
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