Local Motion: Preserving the Land, One Easement at a Time: How Colorado Families Are Protecting Open Space for the Future

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KVNF April, 15, 2025– As open land across Colorado’s Western Slope disappears at a record pace, a growing number of landowners are turning to a legal tool to keep their property intact: the conservation easement. While the term may sound like bureaucratic jargon, the concept is remarkably simple—and profoundly impactful.

In a recent episode of Local Motion from KVNF, host Brody Wilson explores what conservation easements are, how they work, and why families across ...

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Fields in Mack preserved to protect wildlife, water

KKCO, March 1, 2023 – The Colorado West Land Trust has added just over 300 acres of land in Mack to the tens of thousands it already protects in Mesa County.

Landowner Jim McCurter says the wildlife habitat and water rights are worth conserving for future generations.

Conservation easements, or land agreements, are set up and monitored by non-profits like Colorado West Land Trust, and specifically state no subdividing or development of certain land can ever be done once the land trust ...

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Couple protects land by reservoir with ties to family ancestors

The Daily Sentinel, December 7, 2022— A family’s decision to permanently protect 310 acres south of Crawford not only benefits wildlife and preserves a landscape, but adds another chapter to the family’s long and colorful history in that area.

The Colorado West Land Trust has partnered with Larry and Lorell Cotten to conserve the acreage along Gould Reservoir, where Larry Cotten’s ancestors had a hand in building the reservoir dam more than a century ago.

The conservation project is one ...

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The Lazo family conserves wildlife habitat in Delta County

Delta County Independent, July 12, 2022—Colorado West Land Trust (CWLT) recently announced that it has partnered with the Lazo family to conserve 146 acres of wildlife habitat in Delta County’s Fruitland Mesa area.

Fruitland Mesa is a plateau between the Smith Fork of the Gunnison River’s canyon to the north and Red Canyon to the south. Standing on it, one can see the West Elk Mountains to the east, Black Canyon of the Gunnison to the south, and Gunnison Gorge to ...

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Wetlands conserved in the Smith Fork Valley

Montrose Daily Press, December 21, 2021—Colorado West Land Trust, working with the Crawford Clipper Ditch Company and Bureau of Reclamation, on Dec. 17 conserved 42.5 acres as part of a habitat replacement project in Delta County.

The project is part of the Salinity Control Program, authorized by the Salinity Control Act, which stipulates that the loss of fish and wildlife habitats from implementation of salinity projects be replaced so there is no habitat loss.

The CCDC and Bureau began the project to ...

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