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Events
Mesa Land Trust Annual Open House
Friday, November 4th, 5:00 to 7:00 pm
1006 Main St., Grand Junction
Land Trust members, conservation landowners, supporters, volunteers, friends
and partners are invited to help us continue a year-long celebration of 30
years of conservation success.
We had over 200 guests stop by the Land
Trust to help us celebrate another wonderful year!
MLT receives GOCO funding to conserve
 four
more properties in the East Valley!
Mesa Land Trust will be completing
a series of 4 orchards and vineyards in the East Valley this year thanks to funding from
Great Outdoors Colorado, Natural Resource Conservation Service and our
local partners totaling nearly $1 million. Read more about
this most recent grant
here.
Palisade Peach Farms: Conserve d
as part of the Fruitlands Forever Initiative
We are pleased to announce the conservation of 4 family farms in the Palisade
area as part of the Fruitlands Forever Initiative. These farms cover
115 acres of both peach orchards and vineyards. Read more about these
accomplishments in the
Denver Post and in the
Free Press.
If you haven't been to Palisade recently, it's definitely worth a
trip to see the beautiful spring blossoms!
Pinyon
Mesa Ranching, Wildlife & Heritage Conserved
 This
past December, Dennis Carns, cousins
Carrol and Richard Reigles, and Mesa Land Trust preserved the 200 acre Carns
Mountain Place, on Glade Park. The landowners donated a conservation
easement on this magnificent property, which has been in the Carns family
for over 60 years. Situated on Pinyon Mesa, the property is adjacent to BLM
and other conserved land. It serves as a migration route for deer and elk
traveling to lower elevations for the winter and also contains habitat for
black bear, mountain lion, bobcats, and a wide variety of birds. A nice mix
of partially irrigated farm/grazing land, the Carns Mountain Place also
features sage brush and oak brush habitat, aspen forests, and significant
riparian areas along Sheep Creek. This is the second
time that Dennis has worked with Mesa Land to conserve his family’s
heritage. Thank you, Dennis, Carrol, and Richard, for preserving this
remarkable property for future generations.
1% for
MLT from Crossroads Wine & Spirits: when you shop there!
Jerry and Eleni Sica at
Crossroads Wine and
Spirits have made a
very generous offer to MLT. T hey will donate 1% of each MLT
member’s purchase, made at Crossroads
and 1.5% at the adjoining Wild West Steaks and Seafood or the Artisan Cheese
Shop, to Mesa Land Trust. They will also be offering regular specials to
MLT members. All you have to do is shop with them, tell them you are an
MLT member, and they will code it in the computer and do the rest.
Every time you shop there, Mesa Land Trust will receive 1% or 1.5% of your
total purchase. It costs MLT members nothing! Please shop with them
whenever possible and see the contributions to the Land Trust add up! They
are located cattycornered from the new City Market and between American Bank
and Firestone Complete Auto Care.
We
Surpassed 60,000 acres!
 This
past week, and in our 30th anniversary year, Mesa Land Trust surpassed
60,000 acres of protected ground in and around Mesa County! After
closing on the Lumbardy Ranch, which lies east of Whitewater, we passed the
60,000 acre threshold. We were happy to complete this project which
conserves 440 acres of land adjacent to other protected ground and BLM land.
This ranch includes excellent riparian habitat along Whitewater Creek,
irrigated farm ground and numerous ponds and wild land. We now
conserve 60,386 acres of wildlife habitat, farms, ranches and open space in
and around Mesa County. Stay tuned as we finish off the year with even
more projects!
Mesa Land Trust
2010 Dinner Series
a huge success
Three
themed dinners hosted 30 guests this year and raised funds and awareness for
the Land Trust. Thank you to dinner hosts, Kathryn & Ken Stubler, Joe
& Sherrie Frye, Nancy & Bob Wilson, Angelina Salazar & Gary Tullio, Deedee &
David Mayer, and John & Cathey Pabst and to Jerry Sica for presenting the
beer tasting. We are proud to partner with the following local businesses
who donated wine, beer, and cheese for the dinners: Palisade Brewing Co.,
Carlson Vineyards, and Crossroads Wine & Spirits.
Mesa Land Trust announces
GOCO grant to conserve even more of the region’s best orchard and vineyard
land
Last week Mesa Land Trust announced
the award of a $552,200 grant
 from
Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) toward the purchase of conservation easements
on three neighboring parcels. These orchard and vineyard properties, just
south of Palisade on East Orchard Mesa, total just over 77 acres. The
effort is part of the Land Trust’s Fruitlands Forever Initiative, a project
to conserve a critical mass of the East Valley’s prime orchard and vineyard
land in the coming five years. To read more click here and see the article
that appeared in last week’s
Grand Junction Free Press.
The landowners, who will be named
later this year, will continue to live and work on their land but are
relinquishing future development rights through the conservation easements.
Since the organization’s founding in
1980, Mesa Land Trust has conserved 58,600, including 500 acres of the
orchard and vineyard land around Palisade. The goal of the Fruitlands
Forever Initiative is to double conserved fruit land acreage over the next
five years to help assure that the agricultural land, that is so vital to
the area’s economy and way of life, is permanently preserved.
Read about MLT's accomplishments over the past 30 years!
As we celebrate our 30 years of
conservation here in our County, we recognize how far we have come and the
many accomplishments along the way.
Click here to read about the Land Trust's accomplishments
over the past 30 years. We are proud to have worked with so many
landowners, members, and partners along the way and thank them all for
helping make our work a success to benefit everyone in our community!
Mesa
Land Trust’s Annual Picnic Kicked Off our 30th Anniversary
Celebration
To recognize Mesa Land Trust’s
humble beginnings in Palisade, founders Harry and Bonnie Talbott and their
family hosted our Annual Picnic at Talbott Farms. We had a record turn
out and everyone enjoyed the cool packing shed on the very hot day, the
delicious food, excellent company and the wonderful tours of the operation.
Click here to see more pictures of the event!
Thank you to our event partners and underwriters!
Event Partners:
 
Premier Underwriter:
|
WITHERS,
SEIDMAN, RICE & MUELLER P.C. |
Underwriters:
  
Founders leave a lasting
legacy for
future generations
In honor of the lasting legacy
that Mesa Land Trust’s founders have passed on to our community we will
feature these visionaries in upcoming newsletters this year. 
Together John and Doris Butler have
devoted 60 years to Mesa Land Trust. Today, they can hardly believe that
the organization that they helped found is celebrating its 30th birthday.
John remained an active member of the Board of Directors until 2009 and
Doris has continued to assist with bookkeeping efforts. Today, they both
maintain their commitment to the organization by lending a hand with
stewardship monitoring.
In the early days of the
organization John and Doris, along with other founders, placed a
conservation easement on their farm in Palisade. Today, that conserved land
has been has been newly planted in peach trees. All across Mesa County we
can see evidence of the positive efforts that our founders put into place.
As we prepare to celebrate 30 years of conservation success we say a
heartfelt “thank you” to the founders who provided a lasting legacy for
future generations.
Colorado State Tax
Credits: Critical to Conservation
Recent articles (read
here and
here) in the Grand Junction Daily
Sentinel highlight some of the pending changes to the Colorado State tax
credits and the importance of these credits to land conservation. Read
here about one of many landowners that has benefited
from the tax credit and used the money to hold an historic ranch together.
We have
many reasons to celebrate!
Articles in the Free Press, Grand
Valley Magazine, Fruita Times and the Business Times have
highlighted Mesa Land Trust's many reasons to celebrate. These include
working with 16 different landowners last year to conserve over 5,300 acres
of farm ground, wildlife habitat and scenic lands, and kicking off our 30th
anniversary! Read our article in the Free Press
here.
Land Matters:
 Read
a
Landowner's
Story
Do you ever wonder what motivates a
landowner to conserve their property? Do you want to learn more about
some of the farmers and ranchers we work with everyday?
Read
here about Penny Kelly, one of our generous landowners and
the story behind her Glade Park Ranch, some history, and why she feels so
strongly about protecting the ranch. Flyer provided by the Colorado
Coalition of Land Trusts.
Mesa Land Trust
Hosted John Fielder
In November MLT hosted renowned photographer John Fielder
for a slideshow and talk. The event
gathered over 180 people from our community and everyone enjoyed a slideshow
of beautiful conserved ranches in the state, followed by a book-signing and
meet and greet with John Fielder. In 2007 and 2008 renowned photographer John Fielder
traveled to 50 of Colorado’s most scenic working ranches. The result was
his most recent work, Ranches of Colorado, a 235 page book containing
375 photographs of Colorado’s ranches.
Photograph from Ranches of Colorado,
copyright John Fielder, 2009
Thank you to our generous underwriters! Lead underwriters
Moody Valley Insurance and Allied
Insurance, and underwriters Safari Ltd and Atlasta Solar Center.
  
Read our Fall 2009
Newsletter
Click
the link above to read more in-depth about our recent easements,
celebrations and new programs.
Launching the 1% for Conservation Program
 With
Talbott Farms and
Rapid Creek Cycles
leading the way, Mesa Land Trust launched a 1% for Conservation Program in
Palisade, late last year. The program, a partnership with local businesses,
provides the opportunity for customers to voluntarily add one percent of
their transaction total for donation to the Land Trust. 1% for Conservation
is designed to raise funds earmarked for land conservation work in the
Palisade area. By giving customers the opportunity to contribute a few
cents on each purchase to fund conservation, they can be part of an effort
that will potentially invest thousands of dollars toward preservation of the
region’s scenic lands and rich agricultural heritage. The
Palisade Café and
Grille recently became the third business to support Palisade area
agriculture by joining the 1% for Conservation Program.
Mesa Land Trust Celebrates 3,700 acre Conservation
Agreement on Lobe
Creek and Leslie Place Ranches
Six decades ago, Maxine Aubert came to high country
atop Pinyon Mesa in Western Colroado as a new bride and camp cook f or
the sheep ranching outfit run by her husband’s family. In mid- August
she and her family
celebrated the completion of a
conservation agreement with the Mesa Land Trust that ensures permanent
protection of 3,700 acres on the Lobe Creek and Leslie Place
ranches. Joining the festivities were officials from the Division of
Wildlife, private conservation groups, and sportsmen. The celebration culminated four years of work by the
Mesa Land Trust, Aubert and Hawks families, and the Colorado Division of
Wildlife, to complete conservation easements on the ranches, which sit high
above Unaweep Canyon and provide important habitat for big game species,
species listed in the Colorado SWAP (State Wildlife Action Plan) and over 3
miles of riparian habitat. The Division of Wildlife and Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation provided funding for the project, with the landowners making a
significant donation of easement value.
In addition to celebrating this conservation success, the Colorado
Conservation Partnership (CCP) honored and thanked Mesa Land Trust for their
dedication to work on Glade Park and in Mesa County, with a donation to the
Land Trust.
Dine in the
Vines:
Beautiful Evening Under
the Palisade Stars
Over 70 friends and guests enjoyed a
wonderful evening under the Palisade stars at Mesa Land Trust's
 Dine
in the Vines dinner. On the lovely Red Fox Vineyard,
surrounded by conserved properties, guests dined on local food prepared by
Chef John Barbier of Le Rouge, drank wine paired by Carlson Vineyards and
Garfield Estates, enjoyed music by John Schultz, and bid on fine art
by photographer Malcom Childers and painters Charles Morris and George
Callison. Thank you to all who attended and who helped in making it a very
special evening, including hosts Ken and Kathryn Stubler at the Red Fox
Vineyards; Hoskin,
Farina & Kampf; CSD; Karen Madsen of Merrill Lynch; and all of our
wonderful Board, staff and volunteers. For more photos of the event
visit our
Flickr gallery.
Founders John & Doris
Butler retire from MLT Board after 29 years!
 It
was a poignant evening at our monthly Board meeting when Mesa Land Trust
founder John Butler announced his retirement from the Mesa Land Trust Board.
In 1980 John and Doris Butler, with a handful of others, founded Mesa Land
Trust to help conserve the critical farm ground in Palisade. And at
that time, perhaps unbeknownst to them, they made a lifelong commitment.
Leading by example, the Butlers donated a conservation easement on their own
farm which now grows peaches. John spent at least 600 hours (that's 25
days!) attending Board meetings alone over the past 29 years...and that
doesn't include the countless hours he and Doris spent volunteering,
monitoring, accounting, and working on projects! Doris and John plan
to remain active with the Land Trust. We thank them for having the
foresight to establish Mesa Land Trust and the determination to help make
sure Mesa Land Trust enjoys the success that we do today. Thank you
John and Doris, from all of us, for all your dedication!
MLT Receives GOCO Grant
Mesa Land Trust
recently received a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) for
conservation agreements on 3 contiguous farms in the Fruita buffer. The
acquisition of these agreements will add roughly 75 acres to 490 acres of
working farms and ranches already conserved between Grand Junction and
Fruita. Read more about the GOCO grants
on the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
State distributes grants for trails.
Buy Products from a Local Conserved Farm!
You can now find
local produce, meat,
and other
products all from local conserved ground! Landowners throughout
Colorado are now listed in a publication titled
Bountiful Conservation: A guide to Colorado products and services from
conserved lands.
Use this
guide to find farms and ranches that offer the products and services you are
looking for, as well as supporting landowners who view conservation as a
high priority! Connect to the
Bountiful Conservation website,
or view a
pdf of the publication.
Mesa Land Trust's 2007-2008 Annual Report
Mesa Land Trust has
published it's 2007-2008 Annual Report. Please
CLICK
HERE to view this report. If you want a copy of this
sent to you please call us at (970)263-5443.
Photos of
Our Annual Picnic Potluck
On Sunday we enjoyed
a beautiful day on Ute Valley Ranch, a conserved property on Glade Park.
Under sunshine and rolling clouds over 150 members, landowners and friends
joined us to celebrate and learn about the great conservation success we
enjoy in Mesa County. Thanks to all that attended and contributed to
the event.
Click here
to link to our Flickr page with photos of our Annual Picnic Potluck, and
please share the pictures with your friends and neighbors!
Mesa Land Trust Receives National Accreditation
On Tuesday April 7th,
Mesa Land Trust board of directors, staff, supporters, and members of the
press met in from of Mesa Land Trust's office at 1006 Main St. in Grand
Junction for the announcement that the Land Trust had recently received
accreditation from the National Accreditation Commission. With this
announcement the Land Trust can now display Accreditation Seal, which
assures the public that the land trust is operating an ethical, legal, and
technically sound manner.
Mesa Land Trust Partners With
Mesa County Libraries to Present Family Story Time Every Last Tuesday
of the Month
From 7:00 to 8:00 PM on
the last Tuesday of each month, Mesa Land Trust will sponsor Family
Story Time at the Mesa County Library
 Central
Branch Children’s Center. Former school teacher and
Land Trust board member Angelina Salazar will read to children and present
activities which will focus on conservation and the environment. There will
also be a list of suggested adult readings on the subject.
For more information,
please call Mesa Land Trust Development Officer, Mary Hughes, at 263.5443.
StoryCorps
Highlights founders of MLT: Fighting for Family Farms
This past year
StoryCorps hosted
interviews on Main Street in Grand
Junction. Amongst those telling their stories were Doris Butler and
Paula Anderson. In this interview they discuss the seeds for founding Mesa
Land Trust and the fight to save farms in and around Grand Junction.
Read the article
here.
Mesa Land Trust Partners With
Mesa County Libraries to Present Family Story Time Every Last Tuesday
of the Month
Former school teacher and
Land Trust board member Angelina Salazar will read to children and present
activities which will focus on conservation and the environment. There will
also be a list of suggested adult readings on the subject.
What: Family Story Time
When: 7-8pm, every last Tuesday of
the Month
Where: Mesa County Library Central
Branch, Children's Center
More Info:
Please call our office 263-5443
Press
Lobe
Creek Ranch Conservation Celebration, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, August
16, 2009
Land Trusts team with vintners, chefs for
open space, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, August 5, 2009
State distributes grants for trails,
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, June 23, 2009
Palisade-area growers give 35 acres to Mesa Land
Trust, Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, April 15, 2009
More reason to trust Mesa Land Trust,
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, April 8, 2009
Mesa County Conservation Group in National
Spotlight, KREX-TV, April 7, 2009
A local
landowner and easement donor was featured on AgWeb.com. To watch the video
click here and watch the segment from Friday,
December 7th.
El Pomar Honors Mesa Land Trust
Buffer Zone Project Deemed Successful
Palisade Buffer Zone Grows by
27-acres
Unique Ranch Protected for Future
Awards
In November 2004, Mesa Land Trust was honored with the
Award for Excellence in promoting
environmental awareness and conservation from The El Pomar Foundation. The
award affirms MLT's effectiveness in the community and ability to cultivate and
utilize important partnerships in the Grand Valley.
In January 2003, Mesa Land Trust
received the Land Conservation Excellence Award from Colorado Coalition of Land
Trusts. This award recognizes outstanding efforts among the 38 land trusts in
Colorado.
In 2002, the Colorado Chapter of
the American Planning Association recognized Mesa Land Trust for outstanding
planning in association with the partners in the Community Separator Project.
Read "The Land
Line," Mesa Land Trust's newsletter:
The Landline (Spring-Summer 2008)
The Landline (Fall 2007)
The Landline (Spring-Summer 2007)
The Landline (Winter 2007)
The Landline (Fall 2006)
The Landline (Winter-Spring 2006)
The Landline (Fall-Winter 2005)
The Landline (Spring-Summer 2005)
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