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Pitkin County Open Space & Trails | Sky Mountain Park | Photo courtesy of Robb Williamson

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• Aspen Valley Land Trust†*• Black Canyon Regional Land Trust†*• Clear Creek Land Conservancy†• Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust†*• Colorado Open Lands†*• Colorado Water Trust• Colorado Wildlife Heritage Foundation• , e Conservation Fund†• Continental Divide Land Trust†• Crested Butte Land Trust†• Douglas Land Conservancy†• Ducks Unlimited, Inc.†• Eagle Valley Land Trust†*• Estes Valley Land Trust†*• Gunnison Ranchland Conservation Legacy• Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas†• La Plata Open Space Conservancy†*• Legacy Land Trust†• Mesa Land Trust†*• Middle Park Land Trust†• Montezuma Land Conservancy†*• Mountain Area Land Trust†• , e Nature Conservancy†• Orient Land Trust†• , e Palmer Land Trust†*• Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust†*• Roaring Fork Conservancy†• Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation†• San Isabel Land Protection Trust†*• San Miguel Conservation Foundation†• South Metro Land Conservancy• Southern Plains Land Trust†• Trust for Land Restoration• , e Trust for Public Land†• Wilderness Land Trust*• Yampa Valley Land Trust†

† Certifi ed by the State of Colorado* Accredited by the Land Trust Alliance Accreditation Commission

“CCLT – /

,

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Kathy Roser, First Executive Director for CCLT & recently retired

Executive Director of La Plata Open Space Conservancy.

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Colorado Water Trust | Scotty Moser

Eagle County Open Space | Two Bridges Boat Launch

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• Adams County Parks and Community Resources†• Boulder County Parks & Open Space†• City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks• City of Fort Collins†• City of Loveland†• Douglas County Open Space• Eagle County Open Space• Jeff erson County Open Space†• Larimer County Rural Land Use Center• Larimer County Parks and Open Lands†• Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservation District†• Pitkin County Open Space & Trails†• San Miguel County Open Space & Recreation

† Certifi ed by the State of Colorado* Accredited by the Land Trust Alliance Accreditation Commission

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Gunnison Ranchland Conservation Legacy | Conserved hay meadows on Tomichi Creek

Ducks Unlimited | Bridge Farm

Adams County Parks & Community Resources | McIntosh Dairy

C C L T

PresidentKen MirrMirr Ranch Group

Vice PresidentBuck Fredericksonretired

Secretary

Greg VallinBrownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP

TreasuryKevin SheaShea Appraisal Company, LLC

Directors

Joe Almon – Avant-Garde Advisors, LLC

Cary Baird – Chevron

Scott Campbell – Palmer Land Trust

Martha Cochran – Aspen Valley Land Trust

Jason Corzine – , e Trust for Public Land

Jeff Crawford – RMI Capital Management

Deborah Froeb – , e Nature Conservancy

Erik Glenn – Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust

David Nichols – Montezuma Land Conservancy

Kerri Rollins – Larimer County Dept. of Natural Resources

Brian Ross – Colorado Conservation Trust

Janis Whisman – Boulder County Parks & Open Space

STAFF

Executive DirectorJohn Swartout

Director of OperationsJeannie McGinnis

Policy DirectorGreg Yankee

LEGAL ADVISERS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Larry Kueter – Law offi ce of Lawrence R. KueterBill Silberstein – Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell LLP

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Center of Excellence Program ManagerAmanda Barker

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In 2011, CCLT celebrated its 20th year of representing conservation in

Colorado. What a great twenty years it’s been! , e small group of executive

directors who met together in Pagosa Springs in 1988 to talk about capacity

building, not only began an organization but they also set the tone for what

still makes this community unique today... a desire to be on the cutting edge

of land conservation.

CCLT has grown over the years. What was primarily an education and

networking organization in the early days has become a multifaceted

organization committed to education, outreach and advocacy. We’ve also

seen tremendous growth in the land conservation community over these

twenty years. Some of those small land trusts and open space programs who

began CCLT are now the state’s leading conservation organizations. Land

conservation deals have become highly sophisticated, creating the need for

more and more capacity building and collaboration.

In response to this need, in 2011 CCLT, in partnership with the Colorado

Conservation Trust and Great Outdoors Colorado, launched the Center

of Excellence. , e COE came about because of the perceived need for the

conservation community as a whole to voluntarily increase standards and

capacity of diff erent facets of our work. In order to achieve this, we formed a

commission of 27 conservation professionals from all areas of the fi eld (land

trust and open space professionals, attorneys, appraisers, tax credit brokers,

GOCO, the Division of Real Estate, and the Division of Wildlife) Subjects

that the commission have chosen as the most important to address include

easement standards, the technical capacity of organizations and public

outreach. , e progress that the Center of Excellence has made goes far

beyond our hopes and expectations and we look forward to seeing the eff ects

that this project has on conservation in to the future.

, e Center of Excellence was only a part of CCLT’s busy year. We hope you’ll

look through this report to see the other accomplishments that CCLT and our

member organizations achieved over 2011 as well as enjoy the outstanding

photos of conserved lands that represent those accomplishments. , ank you

for your support throughout the last twenty years. Here’s to the continued

work and growth of conservation in Colorado over the next twenty.

Sincerely,

John Swartout

Executive Director

J S, CCLT’ E

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In the early 1900’s, Fruita, Colorado’s orchards were some of the highest priced agricultural land in the world. William Edgar Pabor had visions of the Grand Junction area as a mecca for fruit production and fi lled orchards with apples, pears, peaches, cherries, plums, and grapes. By 1909, the area was a leading producer of apples with thousands of acres in production. Developers, sensing the possibility of fantastic profi ts, split the land up into 10 or 20 acre parcels, built irrigation systems and sold the lots to east coast professionals with little or no knowledge of fruit growing. Poor irrigation practices soon led to a heavy buildup of salts in the soil and that factor, combined with an insurmountable infestation of the coddling moth, led to the complete downfall of fruit production in the area. Fruita orchards never recovered. In more recent times, unplanned sprawling development emerged as the greatest threat to Mesa County’s fruit industry. Mesa Land Trust (MLT) was founded in 1980 by fruit growers who were determined to preserve Palisade’s orchards in the face of the shale energy boom and its commercial and residential development. , e Land Trust adheres to that vision today and works with local peach growers in Palisade. Talbott Farms, the largest peach farm in Colorado and the employer of around 100 workers a year, was a pioneer of land protection in the area. “My father, Harry Charles, put the fi rst easement on this land,” says Bruce Talbott with a laugh. “He got a $20,000 tax credit and the Internal Revenue Service challenged it. He fought the challenge and that cost him $20,000. He eventually received a letter from the IRS saying that he owed nothing. He framed that letter and it hung on the wall in his offi ce for many years.” Talbott’s family has been raising primarily peaches, grapes and cherries on the land in Palisades for fi ve generations and his passion for the family business shines through every word he speaks. “We don’t want this land to be developed. We don’t need to have every inch of it under easement for that to happen. If we can just have a checkerboard of easements across the Palisade area, then it becomes diffi cult for the land to be developed.” Talbott Farms is already over 1/3 conserved and recently partnered with Mesa Land Trust to conserve another 37 acre farm on a bluff overlooking the Tilman Bishop State Wildlife Area. “, irty-fi ve acres is a pretty small easement”, says Bleiberg. “When you think of a conservation easement, you’re usually talking about a large parcel of land. , e uniqueness of this area makes small easements of value.” MLT is partnering with Great Outdoors Colorado and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to raise funding for the easement. When asked what he will do with the proceeds from the sale of his development rights, Bruce doesn’t hesitate. “It goes back into the land,” he says. “, e economy has brought the price of land back to where it’s aff ordable. , is is a great time to buy land. It’s also a great time to plant orchards. When the economy is booming, smaller landowners tend to think more about selling out to developers. When times are bad, the land isn’t worth as much and more orchards get planted as landowners try to get a profi t from their holdings.”

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Mesa Land Trust | Riverview

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When questioned about the competition from those small landowners, Talbott smiles and shakes his head. “We need the little guys. , ey’re the ones fi lling a truck with ripe peaches and delivering it to the local fruit stand. People stop and buy a box of those peaches and the next thing you know, they’re at the supermarket asking ‘Where are the Colorado peaches?’ , ere’s no competition here. When one of us does well, we all do well.” Guy Parker is one of those small growers. He’s also a newcomer to the fruit business and considers himself somewhat of an outsider because of that. Even though he’s only been growing fruit for a few years, he has a history with the west slope and peach growing. “My granddad grew peaches and apricots. I came out here during the summers and worked until I was about eighteen,” he remembers, “but I didn’t grow up with my hands wrapped around loppers like some of these guys did.” Parker spent a number of years in Vail, mostly working in the ski business and construction. For years, he continued to visit his grandfather, and then his parents when they moved to the area. He talks about seeing orchards slowly disappearing and houses materializing on his visits into Grand Valley. “You used to travel down Highway 6 and turn the corner into Palisade and continue all the way down the road through orchards. It’s all homes now, but it used to be all fruit trees. , roughout the years coming here, I watched the fruit grounds shrinking. As an outsider, I can see the need for preserving the land in a diff erent way than those who have been farming for three generations. I can look at it all and say ‘this is going to disappear if something isn’t done.’” When Guy fi nally gave in to his lifelong urge to try farming, the fi rst thing he did was contact MLT about putting an easement on the property. , e Parker’s property was pretty small, but Beiberg followed up with several neighboring plots to create a more signifi cant piece of conserved land and brought in funding for the project from Great Outdoors Colorado and NRCS. With the funds from the sale of the development rights, Guy plans to put in solar power and upgrade the irrigation system on part of the acreage that he farms. “What I farm will be solar and highly effi cient, due to what we’ve been able to do working with Mesa Land Trust,” he states. “And it will be here forever.” Talbott Farms has been in Bruce’s family for fi ve generations. Guy Parker came into the industry after years of visiting the area. Claire Talbott fell in love with it on fi rst sight. “She and the kids went to visit my cousin Harry Charles (Talbott) for vacation,” remembers Roblee Talbott. “, ey spent two weeks packing peaches and she came back and said she wanted to buy a farm.” Roblee was an engineer and worked for Coors at the time. He had grown up in Grand Junction and spent summers working for family members in their orchards. He and Claire began looking for land in the Palisade area and found a 20 acre plot that seemed ideal. , at was the birth of C&R Farms and the beginning of 15 years of scrimping, saving and weekend farming before Claire and Roblee could aff ord to move to Palisade. “, e kids didn’t have a lot of toys,” says Claire. “Half of every paycheck went into the farm. We spent weekends and vacations working in the orchard.” , ey lost the fi rst year’s crop and nearly lost the farm. A determined Claire realized that they needed to do something diff erent. She started with friends in Golden and then moved on to farmers’ markets, she and Roblee doing the direct marketing themselves. , ey then expanded into fundraisers, selling to rotary clubs, baseball teams, boy scouts, etc. Rob Bleiberg heard about Claire and Roblee while working on an easement with Harry Charles and Talbott Farms. He paid a visit to C&R Farms and liked what he saw. Claire liked what she heard. Two things resonated with her. She wanted badly to protect the farmland. “If the fruit is gone, then what’s left? , ere’s nothing else here.” And, she wanted to bring her children into the business and for C&R Farms to be profi table enough to provide for the three families. , e money from the easement paid for more property and Donovan and his wife, along with daughter Megan, became part of the family business. Today Claire and Roblee own and farm 150 acres, employing eight fulltime people, going up to 40 at harvest. , eir sales are divided between farmers’ markets, fundraisers and supermarkets, but their passion for working with fundraisers is easy to spot. “People are excited by peaches,” says Roblee. “, ey love to see the truck pull in.” He fi gures that between C&R Farms and another farm in the area that works with fundraisers, they’ve enabled raising at least three million dollars, over and above the cost of the fruit, for nonprofi t organizations. “It’s not just about us making money,” says Claire. “, at’s not my reason for doing this” Mesa Land Trust, working with state and federal funding agencies, has over 700 acres of orchards and vineyards under easement on more than 40 family farms. , rough its Fruitlands Forever Initiative, the organization seeks to protect one thousand acres of orchards and vineyards. “, is is a unique landscape and a unique part of the state”, says Bleiberg. “Palisade’s family farms not only provide beautiful landscape, but also contribute to the economy and quality of life of the Grand Valley.” Or, as Roblee Talbott puts it, “Everybody loves a Colorado Peach.”

7

Dale Purdy is a little shy. He doesn’t much like to have his picture taken and he’s really uncomfortable when a video camera’s pointed his way. He’s a modest guy. Most of the time, he doesn’t think that what he has to say is all that important. Or interesting. But when it comes to Purdy Ranch, Dale is the foremost authority and, even though he may say that he’s going about telling it in the wrong way, every word that comes out of his mouth is fascinating.

“I’ve lived here my whole life,” he says, gazing out across the snow-covered shortgrass prairie located just outside Agate in Elbert County, Colorado. “I know every story there is to be told about this country, true or not. I know who was here before me, who the old time cattle ranchers were. I know where all the arrowheads are. Maybe some people would call me possessive, but I like it here and I like what we’re doing.”

He’s been doing it a long time. A fourth generation rancher, Dale started riding a pony at two and was on a horse by the time he was four or fi ve. At twelve, even though he was riding the bus into Agate every day to go to school, he could hardly wait to put in a full day on a tractor. “, is is all I know,” he says. “I’m a cowboy.”

He comes by it naturally. Purdy Ranch has been in the family for four generations, homesteaded by Dale’s great-great-grandfather, Richard Mathews in 1894 and passed down from generation to generation. It’s hasn’t always been an easy life.

“, ings were tough in the 50’s,” he reminisces. “, ere weren’t any 4-wheel drive pickups. You rode horses and you hauled hay to where the cows were and forked it over the fence and then you went somewhere else and did the same thing. It was a hard life. Everybody had what they needed, but that was about all.”

“, ings turned around in the 70’s and 80’s and even into the 90’s. , ere were some big snows and enough water for good wheat crops. And, prices for cattle were pretty good. But then, I’ll tell you what, the last ten years or so the expenses, the drought, low cattle prices...”

“My brother and I have been in debt pretty much our whole lives. It didn’t seem like we’d ever get out from under it.” , ere’s always been some farming on

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Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust | Purdy Ranch

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the Purdy Ranch, and some years had been good. But with the drought, he was losing money on the farming and paying an enormous amount of interest each year on the debt. “, at farming pays off if you do it right,” he says. “I’m just not a very good farmer.”

Dale’s son and daughter both live on the ranch with their families and work in the public school system. He’s got two teachers, a principal and a librarian all in the immediate family. His son works full time in addition to ranching so that he can get health insurance for his two children. Even with family income added into the mix, it wasn’t enough to cut into the debt accumulated by trying to keep a ranch going through a drought at a time when cattle prices were low.

“We were going in the hole every year,” he states. “We knew that if interest rates went up, the ranch was in trouble. We’d have to sell the cattle and get a job in town somewhere.”

About that time, the Ag Journal ran an article on conservation easements. Dale read it and decided it might be worth his time to make a few phone calls. He thought the conservation easement idea was a good deal, but was also cognizant of what he and his family would have to give up.

“We knew we’d have to give up plowing the native prairie and we’d have to give up development,” he says. “I’d feel bad if my kids or grandkids wanted to build some day and they couldn’t because I’d tied it up. , at was a concern. We all sat down and visited about it and we decided that we like the way it is so let’s just leave it the way it is.”

Dale was shocked though, when his property was inspected and he realized the value that it had for conservationists. Five thousand acres of short-grass prairie which had never been plowed maintained rare habitats for the Swift Fox, (“Well, I knew I had them, so I thought everybody else did too.”) Mountain Plovers and other species that made this easement attractive to funders such as Great Outdoors Colorado and the Nature Conservancy. Even more unusual were the four or fi ve seasonal playa lakes that were important to migratory birds and brought National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funding into the picture. , e Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT) spearheaded the transaction. , e combination of the Purdy family’s ranching roots, their excellent land stewardship and the opportunity to keep the land in permanent agricultural use made this project an easy decision for CCALT.

By the time the easement process ended, Dale had donated some of his development rights and received a conservation easement tax credit and sold others in a “bargain sale” (the outright sale of the development rights). , e money he realized from the sale went straight back into the local economy.

“I paid off the debt,” he states. “Now someone else has the opportunity to borrow that money.” He also put money back into the property. “We put off a lot of stuff for a lot of years. Now we’re putting money back in the ranch.” He points out the steady trickle of water being pulled from 160 feet underground by a new solar pump that replaced a 50 year old windmill. “, at’s the greatest thing in the world there.”

Dale doesn’t expect that selling the development rights to his ranch is going to make life easier. Life’s never easy for a rancher.

“It’s tough,” he says with a shrug. “You worry about not having enough hay, or what you’ll do if a big storm comes. We get 14 inches of rain on average.... this year we got 9. But, I like living out here. I take pride and satisfaction in what I do. I’m not just selling any old calves for whatever I can get. I have a quality product. It’s a lot of work. And then sometimes, it’s not a lot of work. Sometimes you can just let a cow be a cow.”

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CCLT M D

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Aspen Valley Land Trust | Open Hearts Ridge | Photo courtesy of Dawn Reeder

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, e Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts would like to express its appreciation to the following individuals and organizations for their support during 2011. Without your support we would not be able to continue our eff orts to promote conservation in Colorado.

Gifts of $100 - $499D.S. AndersonDavid ArmstrnogRick BachandRichard BangsMelinda BeckGregory and Karen BerryRob BleibergSteve BoyleAlan CarpenterWillis CarpenterRobert and Elaine CollinsColorado Open Space AllianceFrances CorselloJason CorzineHarvey CurtisJim DausPeter & Dee Dee DeckerEarthwork Conservation PlanningDieter ErdmannTawnya ErnstErnest FazekasJay FetcherJohn FielderWayne FormanLinda GerransErik Glenn, omas GougeonJohn GrahamMike HallDavid HallockTerry Hershey

Kent HolsingerWilliam JamesSteve Jeff ersMatthew KelleyRussell KempHoward KenisonRich KoopmannDavid KueterConrad LattesSydney MacyDavid Nichols and Elizabeth LoveLinda OverlinRobert ParkerWilliam PincusGreg PowellRobert and Myra RichElizabeth RichardsonMichael RosserDon ShannonTim and Eva SlatteryDavid SmithPaul SnyderTafoya Barrett and AssociatesKlasina VanderwerfChris WestJim WhiteRuth WrightMary Jane WursterMarty Zeller

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Gifts of $500 - $999Aspen Valley Land Trust, omas E. BergScott CampbellDonna CrownKatherine H. LooNorton Appraisal ServicesPeterson Appraisal CompanyDan PikeElizabeth RichardsonPeter SartucciGreg VallinWestern Land Group, Inc.Mike & Janis Whisman

Gifts of $1,000 - $4,999Joe AlmonAnonymousAlpine BankArnie ButlerAllan BeezleyBill Barrett CorporationBrownstein, Hyatt and Farber, P.CJoyce CheneyColorado LotteryColorado Open LandsDavid ConleyConserveLands.comMichael DowlingDucker, Montgomery, Lewis & Bess P.C.Samuel Gary, Jr.Gunnison Ranchland LegacyLarry Harvey, P.C.Hunsperger & Weston, Ltd.Jessica JayKaplan, Kirsch & Rockwell LLPLarry KueterLand Title Guarantee CompanyLand Trust AllianceKen MirrKevin McCartyNorcross Wildlife FoundationAnne Renaud-WilkinsonKevin SheaSherman & Howard LLC, e Conservation Fund , e Trust for Public LandWalters & Mullins, Inc.

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Crested Butte Land Trust | Rozman Ranch | Photo courtesy of Beth Carter

Douglas Land Conservancy | Historic Abbe Ranch

Gifts of $5,000 - $9,999AnonymousAnadarko Petroleum CorporationColorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land TrustConservation Resource CenterBuck Frederickson, e Trinchera and Tercio FoundationCarl and Karen Spina

Gifts of $10,000+AnonymousColorado Conservation TrustEl Pomar FoundationL.P. Brown FoundationTax Credit Connection, Inc., e Nature ConservancyWestern Conservation Foundation

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A CCLT

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CCLT

C W T G O C.

South Metro Land Conservancy | Lee Gulch

San Isabel Land Protection Trust | Embleton Ranch

Jeff erson County Open Space | Booth Land & Cattle Company

In-Kind DonationsJames ArmstrongMelinda BeckMallory Boyce, Mirr Ranch GroupMartha CochranJohn FielderSteve Imig, ad McGinnisNew Belgium Brewing CompanyKathleen StaksTalon WineryWynkoop Brewing Company

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CCLT C E,

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Douglas County Open Space | Spruce Mountain

CCLT would like to extend a special thanks to Bill Silberstein and Larry Kueter for continuing to donate an extraordinary amount of time to CCLT and its mission.

We would also like to thank all of the individuals who attended our annual fundraiser, Brews, Boots & Bucks, as well as our generous auction donors:

African Eyes TravelArapahoe Basin Ski ResortBrownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLPC Lazy U RanchChris WestColorado Parks and WildlifeComedy WorksCorePower YogaDenver Botanic GardensElk Head RanchHamburger Mary’sHayden MellsopHogan LovellsJay FetcherJohn FielderJohn SwartoutKeltyLa Plata Open Space ConservancyLarimer CountyLoveland Ski ResortMartha CochranMendocino Wine CompanyMountain Sun Pub and BreweryOrient Land TrustPatagoniaPrime Time Beef CompanyRusk RanchSnoozeTattered Cover, e Denver Center for the Performing Arts, e Nature Conservancy, e Palm RestaurantWalter Isenberg, Sage HospitalityWolf Creek Ski Resort

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La Plata Open Space Conservancy | Ackerman Ranch

Clear Creek Land Conservancy | Shack West

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