Conservation by private landowners made possible through Legacy Grant

MONTROSE — Landowners seeking a way to continue working their lands while preserving them for future generations now have the opportunity.

Montrose-based Black Canyon Land Trust received one of 15 Legacy Grants to pursue land conservation projects in Ouray, La Plata and Montezuma counties. The organization was entrusted with $4.4 million — $1.8 million of which is set aside for Ouray County — through the Lottery-funded Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund Board, GOCO announced this month. About $57 million in Legacy grants were awarded statewide.

“We’re hoping to work with traditional working ranches where we can preserve river corridors, ranching and traditional ways of life,” said Barbara Hawke, Black Canyon Land Trust executive director. “We’ll be doing that specifically by conservation easements.”

With these easements, the land stays in private ownership, while the private landowners agree to limit or prevent development on the property, said Hawke.

“This is a great benefit for the Montrose area, to preserve the quality of life that a lot of us moved here to enjoy,” she said.

Potential conservation lands will be agriculturally productive lands, riparian (an area of land adjacent to a stream, river, lake or wetland) corridors and quality wildlife habitat, said Brandon Hatter, program director of Black Canyon Land Trust’s Northern San Juan Initiative.

“It’s a great opportunity for landowners to stay on their land if that is what they choose, or if they want to see their land passed on to their family this can aid in that process,” Hatter said. The initiative can also provide a great opportunity for landowners to use some of their property’s equity without physically selling their property, he added.

“Most (people) are forced to choose between their land and money, and this can provide an opportunity to take advantage of both,” Hatter said.

This is the first project for this type of GOCO funding for land conservation awarded to the Black Canyon Land Trust, which has had two years of program support for the Northern San Juan Initiative.

The funding will be used to fund a purchase of a portion of the conservation easement value, Hawke said. As a condition of funding, the organization will need to match its grant; and in 2008, it aims to do so through a fundraising campaign.

“We will be turning to the community and we know how much the community loves these areas and would want to protect them,” said Hawke.

Legacy grants were first awarded by GOCO in 1996 and have been offered periodically as GOCO’s Lottery cash flow allows, according to GOCO. Prior to recently announced awards, which also include the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s Wildlife Habitat Protection and Gunnison Headwaters Project, 40 Legacy projects have been funded. Additionally, other types of GOCO/Lottery grants support local governments such as Delta and Ridgway in their public land projects.

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For information about Black Canyon Land Trust: www.blackcanyonlandtrust.org

Contact Lisa Huynh via email at lisah@montrosepress.com