Routt County: The Board of Commissioner’s pony up $1 million in tax dough for two conservation easements
May 6, 2012
From Steamboat Today (Tom Ross):
The first property is Elkhead Ranch, where 1,560 acres of agricultural land will be conserved in the foothills of the Elkhead Mountains about 16 miles north of Hayden. The ranch is visible from Routt County Road 56.
The second is the Agner Mountain Ranch, where 1,337 acres of conserved agricultural land and wildlife habitat will be added to the 1,237 acres already under easement. The southern two-thirds of the ranch is typified by rolling hills covered in a mix of gambel oak and sagebrush. Calf Creek runs through the valley below, and Buck Mountain is a nearby landmark.
The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust will hold the conservation easements.
Funding for the county’s purchase of development rights program comes from 1.5 mills of voter-approved property taxes that were renewed most recently in 2006. The purchase of development rights program is intended to give landowners an economically attractive alternative to selling land for development by instead compensating them for the development rights they agree to put under a conservation easement. By giving up those future development rights, the owners typically donate more than half of the appraised value of the land.
More Yampa River basin coverage here.
Here’s the link to RiGHT’s annual report. Here’s an excerpt:
Thanks to the generosity of our landowners, funders, volunteers and Conservation Partners, 2011 was our busiest year yet! We completed eight conservation projects that will permanently protect 3,400 acres of land and over four and a half miles of the Rio Grande river corridor. This brings the totals for the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust (RiGHT) to 20,555 acres of protected land and 19.9 miles of river corridor. We appreciate the many landowners who have chosen to conserve their lands with RiGHT!
We had a strong community engagement effort in 2011 that included seven events focused on connecting people to the land and the role of conservation. As a part of this overall effort, we launched our brand new “Conservation Partners” program aimed at involving more people in our work and sustaining our organization by increasing individual support. In November, we were honored to be recognized for our successful partnership with The Nature Conservancy with their “Phil James Award.” We are the first organization to receive this special award.
The Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas River to screen the documentary ‘Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time’ February 17
February 16, 2012
From email from the Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas:
The Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas is pleased to invited you to the showing of “Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time”. The documentary will be screened from 6:00 – 7:30 Friday, February 17th at Salida Mountain Sports, 110 N. F Street.
The documentary explores Leopold’s life in the early 20th century and the many ways his land ethic ideas continue to this day. It also deals with the influence his ideas have had in shaping the conservation movement as we know it. The film was produced by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, the U.S. Forest Service and the Center for Humans in Nature.
Please join us in watching this documentary. Cost will be $ 3.00 for adults and children under 12 are free. For more information give us a call at the Land Trust, 539-7700.
More conservation coverage here.
Denver: The Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts presents ‘Conservation Excellence 2012′ March 12-13
February 16, 2012
Here’s the announcement from the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts:
The Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts is pleased to invite you to join us for Conservation Excellence 2012. With over 40 sessions to choose from and CE credits available for attorneys, real estate professionals and appraisers, we’re confident that this is a “must attend” conference for:
Land Trust staff and volunteers
Local Government Open Space staff
Appraisers
Attorneys
Realtors
College students and faculty
Accountants
Others interested in Conservation in ColoradoDate: March 12-13
Location: The Cable Center (map)
Colorado Water 2012: The Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust continues to protect water resources in the San Luis Valley
February 16, 2012
Here’s this week’s installment of the Valley Courier’s Water 2012 series. Here’s an excerpt:
RiGHT grew out of the Citizens for San Luis Valley Water, who were seeking a tool for the community to help keep water in the basin. One of the co-founders, Cathy McNeil, along with her husband Mike of the McNeil Ranch and neighboring ranchers on the Rock Creek corridor south of Monte Vista were among the first to conserve their own lands with conservation easements.
They did this for a number of reasons, ranging from overall estate planning to their real desire to keep their land and water intact for agriculture and not allow it to be broken into the proverbial “ranchettes” that are fragmenting far too much of Colorado’s historic ranchlands, and thereby converting agricultural water rights to domestic and other uses.
In response to the intense pressure for land development and conversion of water from agriculture to other uses, the interest in conservation has grown steadily across Colorado. RiGHT has led the nation in providing support and incentives for private land conservation, including the lottery funded Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO). GOCO also serves as a model for the America’s Great Outdoors initiative, with Secretary of the Interior Salazar as a key proponent of that effort. Colorado has also passed significant tax benefits to encourage voluntary conservation easements.
While RiGHT continues to work throughout the entire San Luis Valley, after the drought of 2002, protecting the Rio Grande river corridor and its water resources emerged as the clear priority for San Luis Valley residents. RiGHT found that, in contrast to the highly fragmented ownership of many of Colorado’s river corridors, there is still a substantial amount of relatively intact land along the Rio Grande corridor, much of which has senior water rights associated with it. With the help of partners at The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited and many willing landowners, RiGHT launched the Rio Grande Initiative in 2007.
Since 2007, RiGHT has been able to triple the pace of conservation along the river. As of the end of 2011, more than 22,000 acres and 36 miles of the river are protected,thanks to the significant investment of many funders and landowners. A recent Trust for Public Land study indicated that every dollar invested in conservation generates six dollars of economic return in communities, meaning that those funds serve as a substantial economic driver in this rural, agricultural region.
More Colorado Water 2012 coverage here.
Udall Bill Would Help Farmers, Ranchers Hand Down Lands Intact Through Conservation Easements
November 24, 2011
From U.S. Senator Mark Udall’s blog:
Last week, Mark Udall reintroduced bipartisan legislation with Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to help rural families avoid the pressure to sell, break up or develop their property, keeping farms and ranches intact and in the family when handing it down to the next generation. The American Family Farm and Ranchland Protection Act would help families permanently protect their lands for agricultural and conservation use by changing the estate tax code to incentivize permanently conserving the land under easement.
A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement that permanently limits certain development on the land while allowing farming and ranching to continue. Under current law, if a property is placed in a conservation easement, 40 percent of the value of the land can be exempted from the taxable estate, but the amount is capped at $500,000 – despite rising land prices. For example, if an estate included a property in a conservation easement worth $2 million, $500,000 could be exempted from the taxable estate, but if the property were worth $1 million, only $400,000 could be exempted. Udall’s bill would raise the exclusion rate to 50 percent of the total value and cap it to $5 million, giving families tax relief when they choose to preserve portions of their lands for agricultural and conservation use.
“Colorado’s farmers and ranchers are the custodians of our rural and natural heritage, but outdated exemptions in estate tax law are sometimes forcing the loss of valuable agricultural lands,” Udall said. “My bill would make a simple fix to our tax code to help make it more consistent and fair, while encouraging more robust conservation of our open spaces. More important, it will encourage families to permanently protect the natural value of their lands through conservation easements so that they can be handed down to the next generation.”
The bill has broad local support, including from the American Farm Bureau, U.S. Cattlemen Association, Defenders of Wildlife, Land Trust Alliance and the Nature Conservancy. Udall introduced similar legislation last year.
More coverage from Chris Woodka writing for The Pueblo Chieftain.
The Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust recently put 800 acres in the San Luis Valley under conservation easements
September 28, 2011
Here’s the release from the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust via The Del Norte Prospector:
In the last two months, RiGHT protected the Rocky River Ranch west of Del Norte, the Howard Lester Ranch outside of Monte Vista and the Clark Ranch south of Alamosa.
These projects are a continuation of the local land trust’s Rio Grande Initiative, an ambitious effort to protect private land along the river corridor through voluntary, incentive-based conservation easements.
Collectively these ranches contain irrigated fields, wet meadows and prime farmland soils. Their protection helps keep land and water dedicated to agriculture, one of the core pieces of our local economy and the way of life we enjoy here in the Valley. These ranches also protect the cottonwoods and willows along the banks of the Rio Grande, which provide vital habitat for migratory songbirds, raptors, waterfowl and waterbirds, mule deer, elk and many other wildlife species. Equally as important, conservation of these lands protects the scenic views that both residents and visitors treasure here in the San Luis Valley…
Funding for these projects came from a variety of resources, including lottery-funded Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, the Conservation Resource Center and the Colorado Division of Parks and Wildlife’s San Luis Valley Habitat Partnership Program Committee.
These projects would not be possible without the dedication and generosity of the landowners who are protecting what they love about the San Luis Valley for future generations. “Thanks to their vision and commitment to conservation, we are helping ensure that the San Luis Valley we love today will still be here tomorrow,” commented RiGHT’s Executive Director, Nancy Butler.
While RiGHT works with landowners throughout the entire San Luis Valley, they have a special focus on protecting land and water resources in the Rio Grande corridor through the Rio Grande Initiative. RiGHT began the Initiative in 2007 in partnership with Ducks Unlimited and The Nature Conservancy. At the outset, there were 6,000 acres protected between 1986 and 2006.
South Arkansas River: Fish habitat, riparian habitat and water quality improvement landowner meetings scheduled
September 20, 2011
From the Salida Citizen:
Landowner meetings will be at the Chaffee County Fairgrounds on Thursday, September 22nd at 5:30pm and Sunday, September 25th at 3:00pm. In attendance will be representatives from Trout Unlimited and the [Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas], a meeting facilitator, and aquatic experts. Snacks and beverages will be provided. To insure adequate handouts and materials please register by calling the Land Trust office at 719-539-7700 or emailing sawc@ltua.org.
More restoration coverage here.
Finalists named for the annual ‘Leopold Conservation Award’
April 26, 2011
From the Ag Journal:
In celebration of Earth Day, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association (CCA), the Sand County Foundation, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT) Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., and Peabody Energy will present the Leopold Conservation Award to a landowner in Colorado. Each of these organizations believes in working lands conservation as it yields measurable conservation enhancements that benefit livestock production as well as wildlife species and habitats.
The Leopold Conservation Award, named in honor of world-renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, is comprised of a $10,000 cash award and an Aldo Leopold crystal. The award is presented annually in eight states to private landowners who practice responsible land stewardship and management…
The 2011 Leopold Conservation Finalists are: The Fox Ranch; Wineinger-Davis Ranch; Pipe Springs Ranch; and the, Wagon Wheel Ranch…
The 2011 Leopold Conservation Award recipient will be honored Tuesday, June 21st at the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association’s Annual Convention in Steamboat Springs, Colo. The 2011 CCA/CCW/JCCA Annual Convention will be held at the Steamboat Sheraton in Steamboat Springs, Colo., June 20th-22nd. Individuals may register for this “must attend” event by referring to the April issue of Cattle Guard, visiting www.coloradocattle.org
More conservation coverage here.
2011 Colorado legislation: HB 11-1300 (Conservation Easement Tax Credit Dispute Resolution) passes the state House Finance Committee
April 23, 2011
From the Colorado News Agency (Debbie Brazale):
House Bill 1300, sponsored by Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, would allow disputes over the validity of conservation-easement tax credits to go directly to court rather than forcing landowners to await a ruling by the Colorado Department of Revenue.
The measure would also allow those who buy and sell the tax credits granted to the original owners to be a party to disputes in court, and it offers deadlines for resolution of the 600 or so cases currently pending: July 2014 for the donor and 2016 for related parties.
Today’s action by the House Finance Committee represented the second time this month that the panel was asked to dissect aspects of the complex program, which has drawn scrutiny from the media and state regulators in recent years amid allegations of abuse. Earlier this month, the committee also heard House Bill 1208, by Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, and its fate has yet to be decided. McKinley’s bill seeks administrative remedies for current easements that are in dispute
Looper said her bill’s aim is to provide options for landowners and tax-credit buyers who have been snared in red tape over challenges by the Revenue Department over the validity of conservation-easement tax credits.
More 2011 Colorado legislation coverage here.
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Matt Hildner):
The Environmental Law Institute in Washington, D.C., gave its National Wetlands Award for Conservation and Restoration to Rio de la Vista on Monday for her work in helping conserve more than 27,000 acres of wetlands. De la Vista has done a big portion of that work as a coordinator for the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, which since 1986 has protected more than 19,000 acres along the Rio Grande that include ranch land, wildlife habitat and senior surface water rights.
More restoration coverage here.
2011 Colorado legislation: HB 11-1300 — Conservation Easement Tax Credit Dispute Resolution
April 19, 2011
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Patrick Malone):
Under HB1300, easement donors whose claims are being disputed by the Colorado Department of Revenue could forego hearings before the Department of Revenue and take their cases straight to court in a jurisdiction close to home. The bill includes a provision that would remove the surety bond requirement that is presently necessary to take a conservation easement case to court. The prohibitive sum of those bonds has been a barrier to challenging easements in dispute for some landowners in the past…
One aim of HB1300 would be resolution of easement challenges that are pending. To that end, it calls for suspending interest and penalties against donors who willingly participate in resolution of their cases through district court. The bill’s primary sponsors are Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, and Sens. Kevin Grantham, R-Canon City, and Jeanne Nicholson, D-Black Hawk. Its first hearing will be in the House Committee on Finance.
More 2011 Colorado legislation coverage here.
Conservation: The Mesa Land Trust adds 115 acres of orchard land to their ‘Fruitlands Forever Initiative’
April 17, 2011
From the Grand Junction Free Press (Sharon Sullivan):
“We feel for our children, and our children’s children, we really don’t want this valley to be totally without fruit farms,” Guy Parker said. “We feel the ability to grow food in western Colorado is too important to leave to chance, or the economy.”
The Parkers joined three other family farms in conserving 115 acres of peach and wine grape producing lands, as part of the Land Trust’s Fruitlands Forever Initiative, which seeks to conserve a critical mass of farmland sufficient to support fruit growing into the future. The families sold their development rights, but retain ownership and may continue to live on and farm the land. They can even sell the property, although it can never be subdivided or developed.
Sons of longtime farmer Harry Talbott agreed to conserve their 37-acre Riverview Vineyard which sits atop a Colorado River bluff, and which buffers the Tillie Bishop Wildlife Area. Talbott was one of the original founders in 1980 of the Mesa County Land Conservancy, whose name later changed to Mesa Land Trust. “We were first in the United States to conserve agricultural land,” Talbott said.
Meanwhile the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust has completed a conservation easement for the Soward Ranch near the headwaters. Here’s a report from Toni Steffens-Steward writing for The Mineral County Miner. From the article:
The first easement of 580 acres on the land was through the Wetland Preserve Program and set aside much of the “moving water” on the ranch. Then they started to look at a way to preserve at least some of the lakes. After a great deal of planning and negotiations, they now have 268 acres under a conservation easement with the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust.
The project was made possible through funding through Great Outdoors Colorado, the Gates Family Foundation, The Brown Family Foundation and the North American Wetlands Conservation Act and a donation from the Soward Ranch, LLC.
Silverthorne: Conservation easements seminar March 29
March 19, 2011
From Summit Daily News:
A water rights and land conservation educational seminar, “Water on the Land, Keeping Water Local: Protecting Water Rights through Land Conservation,” is scheduled for March 29 from 12:30-5 p.m. at the Silverthorne Pavilion. Presented by the Continental Divide Land Trust and the Colorado Water Trust, the seminar is $65 for Realtors, attorneys and CPAs seeking Continuing Professional Education credits and $15 for those not looking to earn credit. Admission includes handouts, refreshments and a complimentary ticket to Peter McBride’s evening presentation on his new book, “The Colorado River: Flowing through Conflict.”
More Blue River watershed coverage here.
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Patrick Malone):
On Monday, a bill that aimed to compel fair-market values for easements was retooled, and now calls for a task force to study the issue in the months between legislative sessions. Hundreds of conservation easements ceded to the state for tax credits are being challenged by the Colorado Department of Revenue on grounds that appraisers overvalued the parcels…
The 12-member interim task force that SB50 proposes would be appointed by Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, and House Speaker Frank McNulty, R-Highlands Ranch. It would include two landowners who have placed easements on their property…
Sen. Kevin Grantham, R-Canon City, asked the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, whether the task force would be seated with respect to regional representation. Roberts said she hoped so, but that would be up to the Senate president and the House speaker. Legislative Council is studying the feasibility of the interim effort, and will report back to the Legislature.
More 2011 Colorado legislation coverage here. More conservation easements coverage here and here.
Conservation easement review in the offing
November 9, 2010
Update: From The Denver Post (Jessica Fender):
Lawmakers in the 2010 legislative session added $1.1 million to the Revenue Department’s budget to hire staff and contract third-party appraisers to resolve the backlog. That money became available at the start of July, department spokesman Mark Couch said. His agency welcomes an audit, he said. “We hope it will help resolve concerns about these tax credits,” Couch said. “These are very complicated tax returns. They take a lot of review when they go through the process of being disputed and protested. We didn’t have the funding until the beginning of the fiscal year.”[...]
An unknown number of landowners and tax-credit buyers around 2005 began getting notices from the Revenue Department advising them they had claimed a larger break than they were entitled to and questioning the appraised value of the land that determines the size of the credit. Of 2,847 conservation easements the state has considered between 2000 and 2008, about 500 have been denied or are in question, Revenue Department figures show. Letter recipients are given a month to appeal the decision. Many do.
And that’s where the bottleneck starts, according to J.D. Wright, president of Landowners United. The group advocates for about 90 landowners entangled in easement disputes. He said some property owners have erroneously had wages garnisheed. Others live in uncertainty about their financial futures.
From the Associated Press (Stephen K. Paulson) via Bloomberg Businessweek:
The Legislative Audit Committee on Monday said it will consider whether to audit the state Department of Revenue later this year to find out if landowners are being treated fairly and disputes are resolved in a timely manner. State Rep. Marsha Looper, a Republican from Calhan who requested the audit, says it could take 10 years at the current rate to resolve disputes from 355 landowners who claim over $90 million in tax credits. Those credits have been challenged by the state. Lawmakers first want to find out how much information is available because it involves confidential state and federal tax records. “Some of these property owners only have 30 days to protest denial of their appeals that could lead to foreclosure, and they’re not even getting a certified letter. Credit buyers are already getting liens on their loans. The state is going after the credit banks,” Looper said.
The Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District approves conservation easement rules
August 23, 2010
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
The district has more than 60 conservation easements throughout the Arkansas River basin, and uses them to protect water resources. The state is adopting new policies after abuses of a tax-credit law led to improper valuations on some properties, many in Southeastern Colorado. In one Weld County lawsuit, landowners who claimed $160,000 in tax credits are facing repayment of $250,000, said Jay Winner, Lower Ark general manager. The new policies would make sure the easements are valued properly and executed according to standards that align with the new state policies. They also spell out legal actions to deal with violations of easement agreements…
“We’re doing this already, but have not adopted these specific measures,” said attorney Bart Mendenhall. “This gets our policies in line with state policies.”
Middle Park Land Trust Fraser River restoration project protects a quarter-mile corridor
July 19, 2010
From the Sky-Hi Daily News (Reid Armstrong):
The easement, which was recorded June 23, will protect for perpetuity some 17 riparian acres on property owned by Eric and Kathy Pietz. Another 70 acres on the neighboring Devil’s Thumb Ranch, which was placed into a conservation easement between 2007 and 2008, completes the corridor. “This is something we’d been working on for several years,” said Cindy Southway of Conservation Assistance who helped guide the project. The conservation easement wasn’t part of the original plan for the quarter-mile river corridor, which has been completely restored in the last two years through a wetlands mitigation project funded by Rendezvous…
The property didn’t always have a rich wetlands habitat. Two years ago, that 600 foot stretch of river was 75 feet wide, shallow, steep and was considered to be very poor fish habitat. In fact, said project manager Geoff Elliott of Grand Environmental Services, satellite photos indicate that section of river might have been straightened at some point to help transport logs through the Fraser Flats down to the lumber mill in Tabernash…
Elliott said that he spent three years studying the Fraser River in different places, determining what features helped create a healthy river. He took along a fishing guide who showed him the best fishing holes in the area, and Elliott studied their geometry and then recreated them in the restoration project. The project, which was funded entirely by Rendezvous as part of its development permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, involved creating multiple bends in the river and adding features to improve fish habitat and water quality, such as pocket and shallow rapids and spots where the river will actually spill out of its banks and feed the wetlands…
The project more than doubled the length of the river, creating an ‘M’ out of what had once been an ‘I,’ and narrowed the channel down to 35-45 feet, allowing the water to flow deeper and cooler. Elliott said that two years after the completion of construction along that section of river, willow and other riparian plants along the river banks are thriving and the wetlands are growing. Within just one year, the river had been recolonized by the bugs that are the backbone of hearty fishery habitat — stone flies, water beetles and worms among other. And now, there are even signs of brown trout spawning in the new habitat.
From the Sterling Journal Advocate:
The Colorado Great Outdoors (GOCO) Board has awarded Colorado Open Lands (COL) $452,043 for the Prewitt Reservoir Conservation project in Logan and Washington counties. COL will purchase conservation easements over two adjacent ranches covering 4,370 acres in the South Platte River Corridor in northwest Washington and southwest Logan Counties. The ranches lie between Prewitt Reservoir and Interstate 76 and serve as large areas of open space that provide highly scenic views of the reservoir and a rural landscape to travelers along I-76. They both support local agriculture, with one as a self-contained cattle ranch and alfalfa farm and the other leased annually for seasonal grazing. Due to their proximity to Prewitt Reservoir and the Prewitt Reservoir State Wildlife Area, both properties provide important wildlife habitat for white-tailed dear and waterfowl and create a contiguous protected area of almost 7,400 acres. Water on one ranch is provided by seep from the reservoir and the landowner intends to acquire additional water rights for wetlands improvements in the future. The other ranch has two adjudicated irrigation wells that will be tied to the land with easement.
The South Platte River Basin is being threatened by demand for water for Front Range cities and other residential development and 94 percent of the corridor is still unprotected.
More South Platte Basin coverage here.
From The Durango Herald (Joe Hanel):
Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday signed House Bill 1197, which sets a statewide limit of $26 million on conservation easement tax credits. The Department of Revenue estimates the bill will save $37 million in the popular tax credit program.
More HB 10-1197 coverage here. More 2010 Colorado legislation coverage here. More conservation easement coverage here and here.
From The Pueblo Chieftain (Chris Woodka):
Land Owners United, a group that represents landowners who are having difficulty with conservation easements in Southeastern Colorado, filed for the information under the Colorado Open Records Act. Last week, Judge Sheila A. Rappaport ruled the state Division of Real Estate wrongly withheld material on appraisers Bill Milenski, who surrendered his license in 2008, and John Stroh, who was put on probation in 2006. “The ruling by the Denver District Court is a significant step forward for our group,” said J.D. Wright of Fowler, president of Land Owners United. “Some of us have been trying to get to the bottom of charges against our appraisers for the last six years. The only answer we received has been that the appraisal value was too high.”[...]
The appraisers had provided information to numerous owners of farm and ranch lands in Southeastern Colorado who entered into conservation easements.
From The Monte Vista Journal:
The Dow Live Earth Run for Water is a series of 6 km run/walks —the average distance women and children walk every day to secure drinking water — taking place over the course of 24 hours in 150 countries across the world, featuring activities to ignite a massive global movement to raise awareness of the water crisis. Local organizers are proud to host the High Country Hustle near the headwaters of the Rio Grande. There is a $20 pre-registry event fee, which will include an event t-shirt and post-run/walk refreshments. All monies raised will be donated to the RGHRP.
The worldwide water movement will begin at 10 a.m. near the Creede Ball Park and travel along the running trail south of town, down the Airport Road to the Deep Creek Bridge on the Rio Grande, and back to town…
For more information, please see the website at www.tinyurl.com/hchustle, or contact Forrest at Freeride600@gmail.com, or Heather at Hmessick@rams.colostate.edu.
From The Del Norte Prospector:
The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, announced last week that the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust has been awarded accredited status. “Accredited land trusts meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever,” said Commission Executive Director Tammara Van Ryn. “The accreditation seal lets the public know that the accredited land trust has undergone an extensive, external review of the governance and management of its organization and the systems and policies it uses to protect land.”
RiGHT Executive Director Nancy Butker said, “For the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust (RiGHT), accreditation provides our landowners with assurances they need in a changing and sometimes uncertain economic climate. “They can be confident that RiGHT has earned the respect and stamp of approval from our national association for our practices, our standards and the quality of conservation projects.”
Montezuma Land Conservancy awarded accredited status from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission
March 31, 2010
Here’s the release from the Montezuma Land Conservancy:
The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, announced today that Montezuma Land Conservancy has been awarded accredited status.
“Accredited land trusts meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever,” said Commission Executive Director Tammara Van Ryn. “The accreditation seal lets the public know that the accredited land trust has undergone an extensive, external review of the governance and management of its organization and the systems and policies it uses to protect land.”
“Montezuma Land Conservancy’s accredited status demonstrates our commitment to permanent land conservation,” said David Nichols, Executive Director “The rigorous accreditation process has both certified the quality of our past work and aided us in continuing to improve the quality of our current conservation work. It has also helped us to ensure, to an even greater extent than before, the permanence of all the conservation easements we hold.”
Montezuma Land Conservancy is a local non-profit organization founded in 1998. It exists to permanently protect important open lands – in partnership with landowners – in order to conserve agricultural, natural, and scenic open space resources in Montezuma and Dolores Counties. Since its inception, the conservancy has partnered in the creation of 58 conservation easements protecting over 17,000 acres in the two counties.
Montezuma Land Conservancy was one of 11 land trusts awarded accreditation this March. These land trusts join 82 other land trusts from across the country that have been awarded accreditation since the fall of 2008. Accredited land trusts are able to display a seal indicating to the public that they meet national standards for excellence, uphold the public trust and ensure that conservation efforts are permanent. The seal is a mark of distinction in land conservation.
The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., awards the accreditation seal to community institutions that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever. The Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance established in 2006, is governed by a volunteer board of diverse land conservation and nonprofit management experts from around the country. The Alliance, of which Montezuma Land Conservancy is a member, is a national conservation group based in Washington, D.C. that works to save the places people love by strengthening conservation throughout America.
Nichols concluded, “Achieving the right to use the accreditation seal provides tangible assurance to our members, easement donors, and financial contributors that the trust and financial support they have invested in the Montezuma Land Conservancy has not been misplaced.”
Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements that landowners use to protect important agricultural land, wildlife habitat, and scenic open space by limiting subdivision and residential development. Lands remain in private ownership and management, and public access is not granted. Financial benefits can include reduction in state, federal, and estate taxes and continued agricultural property tax status. In certain cases, landowners may receive cash for protecting their land. For more information, contact the Montezuma Land Conservancy at 565-1664 or info@montezumalandconservancy.org
Thanks to the Cortez Journal for the heads up.
Colorado Watershed Assembly presents Water on the Land: Water Rights and Land Conservation workshop April 23
March 29, 2010
From email from the Colorado Watershed Assembly:
The Colorado Water Trust is pleased to invite you to its first ever water workshop in Basalt, Colorado on Friday, April 23 at the fantastic Basalt Library in a room overlooking the Frying Pan River.
The workshop is generously funded by Great Outdoors Colorado and the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The agenda includes a description of how the Roaring Fork Basin works, and sessions on basic principles of Colorado water law, the state’s the instream flow program, green water transactions, and water and land conservation. It concludes with a discussion of local hot topics.
This is the first in a series of twelve workshops they will be doing around the state over the course of this year. Up next: Silverthorne and Fort Collins.
For more information, visit Workshop flyer–Basalt.pdf.
More conservation easement coverage here. More instream flow coverage here.
