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Conservation Easements
Easement Questions
- If I Want to Donate an Easement in Montezuma or Dolores Counties, Who Should I Contact?
- What are the Costs of Completing a Conservation Easement?
- How Can Giving an Easement Reduce Taxes?
- How Is The Value of A Conservation Easement Determined?
- What Does The Land Trust Do?
- Who May Give, and Who May Accept A Conservation Easement?
- How Long Does A Conservation Easement Last?
- Does A Conservation Easement Allow Public Access?
- How Restrictive Is A Conservation Easement?
- What are the “Conservation Values” that qualify?
Category Archives: Conservation Updates
Piece of Paradise
McClellan Conservation Easement, Dolores County
Montezuma Land Conservancy closed on its 67th conservation easement in June with the McClellan project. This 800-acre property located in central Dolores county possesses critical habitat for big game and safeguards scenic views. Landowner and easement donor Richard McClellan wanted his pristine property to forever be a place where elk roam and the lights of subdivisions are not to be found.
This projects brings the total to over 14,500 acres of protected lands in Montezuma Land Conservancy’s Groundhog Glade program area. This high altitude corner of the Colorado Plateau contains some of the largest undisturbed tracks of land left in Dolores County.
Posted in Conservation Updates, MLC Updates
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Humiston Farm: Postcard View in the Mancos Valley Protected
Glen Humiston stands on the Humiston family farm on the south side of Mancos. Humiston heirs and the Montezuma Land Conservancy recently worked together to secure a conservation easement on the property.
On May 26th an agriculturally productive farm in the Mancos Valley was protected forever by the Humiston Family, in partnership with Montezuma Land Conservancy. With its gambrel barn and green fields framed by the peaks of the Southern San Juan Mountains, this scenic property embodies the slogan, “Where the West Still Lives,” which appears on a welcome sign as travelers enter the Mancos Valley.
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Ivins Ranch Conservation Easement Completed!
Ivins Ranch, Dolores County Colorado
Today, the Ivins Family conveyed a conservation easement on their 6,750 acre ranch in central Dolores County. The completion of this and the Crescent Ranch conservation easement represent more than 11,000 acres of protected land in the Groundhog Glade area!
Posted in Conservation Updates, MLC Easements, MLC Updates
Tagged bargain purchase, conservation easement, Dolores County, GOCO
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Crescent Ranch Conservation Easement Closes!
Crescent Ranch, Dolores County Colorado
On Tuesday, Montezuma Land Conservancy completed a two year process to protect the 4,847 acre Crescent Ranch. The property is in two parcels: one in central Dolores County containing high elevation aspen forests and oakbrush woodlands and a second parcel located in western Montezuma County containing natural desert habitat and alluvial basins.
In the landowner’s words, “this project keeps the land all together just like Dad wanted from the beginning.”
Posted in Conservation Updates, MLC Easements
Tagged conservation easement, Dolores County, FRPP, GOCO, land protection, Montezuma County
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Dolores River Land Protection
One recent easement conserves 147 acres of ranch land, hay fields and pasture. The Property contains senior water rights and soils designated as Farmland of Statewide Importance by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It is bounded on two sides by the San Juan National Forest and occupies the Dolores River Valley floor, and upland forested slopes and includes ¾ mile of the Dolores River. The river supports approximately 20 acres of woodland riparian habitat within the property boundaries. The importance of riparian areas for southwestern migrating and nesting birds is well documented; they support a higher diversity of birds than all other western habitats combined. In addition to conserving agricultural lands and protecting important wildlife habitat the easement protects scenic views. The property is bisected by the San Juan Skyway Scenic Byway, an All-American Road as designated by the National Scenic Byways Program of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. More than 75% of the Property is visible from this roadway.
Posted in Conservation Updates, MLC Easements, MLC Updates
Tagged Dolores River, irrigated land, NRCS, water rights
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RSL Ranch 2010 Conservation Easement Closes
Rick and Helen Lee on their property on Haycamp Mesa
The new RSL Ranch conservation easement embodies the rich qualities of the landscape in our area. It includes irrigated farmland, grazing land for cattle, and ponderosa forest for timber production. At the same time it includes important forest habitat for wildlife along with riparian habitat along Lost Canyon Creek and scenic views from an access road to the San Juan National Forest. Rick and Helen Lee, representing the current generation of the ownership RSL Ranch have partnered with Montezuma Land Conservancy, Great Outdoors Colorado and the Farm and Ranch Protection Program to conserve the core of this historic family ranch. The ranch has been in the family since 1874 and a portion of the property is registered as a Centennial farm. Rick Lee talked about how this family history led him to consider a conservation easement,
Posted in Conservation Updates, MLC Easements, MLC Updates
Tagged Centennial farm, irrigated land, NRCS, purchased easement
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Conservancy Maintains Open Space
Over 6,500 acres protected in 2008
In its most fruitful year ever, Montezuma Land Conservancy protected 6,740 acres in 2008 by completing 10 conservation easements with local landowners. The easements protect the full spectrum of natural and agricultural resources, including low elevation desert and canyon country, dryland and irrigated farms, prime soils and ranches, wetland and riparian areas, high-mountain wildlife habitat, stunning scenery, and local agricultural heritage.
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Saving irreplaceable lands responsibly
By Dave Nichols & Nina Williams
Recent coverage of Colorado’s conservation easement tax credit has raised questions about this important program that is helping to conserve irreplaceable lands in Colorado. No one is more concerned about possible abuses of the tax-credit program than the Montezuma Land Conservancy (MLC) and other responsible land trusts. Colorado’s land trusts must demonstrate that we are using conservation easements for real public benefit. That is why we are working to ensure that tax benefits go only to worthy transactions.
Posted in Conservation Updates
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