Easement Donations

The vast majority of conservation easements held by Mesa Land Trust are donated by generous landowners.  Since there is limited funding and programs available for purchased easements, many landowners choose to donate conservation easements and recoup some benefits from the tax incentive programs available. There may be fewer restrictions associated with an easement donation, and the process may be quicker and simpler compared with purchased easements.  Please contact MLT for more information on easement donations and to find out if there are other programs that will fit your property.

Easement Acquisitions

MLT has funds from time to time to purchase easements in certain project areas of Mesa County, particularly the Mesa County Community Separator Area.  MLT receives land protection funds for qualifying properties from sources such as Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) and the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource Conservation Service's Farm and Ranchland Protection Program.  Landowners may inquire to see if they qualify for any of these easement purchase programs.   While we work on projects across the county, we have focus areas that include the following:

     Colorado Riverfront Greenway Partnership

The Colorado Riverfront Greenway partnership is an ongoing local conservation initiative among over a dozen local organizations to enhance and preserve the Colorado and Gunnison River corridors in Mesa County. This collaboration has received several million dollars over the past decade from GOCO, putting it to use by building riverside parks, recreational trails, and public wildlife viewing areas, as well as by protecting wildlife habitat and agricultural lands. MLT is a partner in this effort; its role is primarily to protect wildlife habitat and farmlands through conservation easement acquisition in the Colorado River corridor where it intersects with the Mesa County Community Separator Area project. 

     Mesa County Community Separator Area Project

The Mesa County Community Separator Area project is an award-winning, public-private partnership that protects transition areas, or buffer zones, between the fast-growing communities of Grand Junction, Fruita, and Palisade. MLT handles the conservation easement acquisition component of this project, working with project partners, Mesa County, Fruita, Grand Junction, and Palisade to protect the high-quality farmland and wildlife habitat that exists in these areas.  The hope is that this project will prevent the Grand Valley from becoming an unbroken stream of development from Palisade to Fruita.  As of February 2006, the program had protected 20 properties and 800 acres in the two buffer zones.  For more information on the buffer program please contact Margie Latta at 970-263-5443 or email her at margie (at) mesalandtrust (dot) org.   

     Glade Park Initiative

The Glade Park Initiative is a long-term working partnership between Mesa Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), an international conservation organization.  Both MLT and TNC have identified and prioritized the Glade Park area, located about twenty miles southwest of Grand Junction, as one of their biologically significant priority areas.  The two organizations have agreed to combine resources in an organized effort to work closely together towards the realization of a shared vision for permanent protection of the natural and working landscape attributes that exist there.  The effort will also focus on ancillary lands including the Dolores River, the Unaweep Canyon and the Colorado River corridors.  A Land Protection Specialist has been specifically employed by the initiative and is based at Mesa Land Trust.  The Glade Park area plays host to unique sets of wildlife and plant communities.  The area also supports a considerable number of long-established livestock ranching enterprises.  The Glade Park Initiative will advance a variety of conservation tools, including but not limited to the application of conservation easements to permanently protect these natural and agricultural characteristics that are both unique and irreplaceable and such a short distance from western Colorado’s largest urban center.  For more information about the Glade Park Initiative please contact Ilana Moir at 970-263-5443 or email her at ilana (at) mesalandtrust (dot) org.