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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Wildlife, watershed benefit from land trust initiative

The Daily Sentinel, November 13, 2021–Wildlife and the watershed in the Glade Park/Piñon Mesa area will benefit from a new landscape restoration initiative being undertaken by the Colorado West Land Trust thanks to a grant of about $380,000.

The land trust hopes the project will help make some of the lands in the Little Dolores River watershed more resilient in the face of extended droughts and a warming and drying climate. It received the grant from the National Fish and Wildlife ...

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Glade Park conservation protects habitat, ranch uses

The Daily Sentinel of Grand Junction, February 5, 2020—

Critical land used by deer and elk, as well as a working ranch on Glade Park will all be protected under a newly announced Colorado West Land Trust conservation agreement.

“It’s an incredible property,” Colorado West Land Trust Director of Conservation Ilana Moir said. “It has a multitude of conservation values. It has working ranch land, wildlife habitat, potential for Gunnison sage grouse habitat, incredible views and its part of the ...

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Twenty Years of Habitat Restoration in Delta County

John Welfelt moves through a dense patch of willows and I lose sight of him for a moment. “Keep track of how much water you see!” he yells back with a sense of well-deserved pride. There’s water everywhere on his property; spring-fed reservoirs form a loose grid pattern that percolate water down to a wetland near the Uncompahgre River.

Rabbitbrush, three-leaf sumac, cattails and milkweed stand tall and thick against the shoreline of the ponds. Brush them aside and you see ...

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