Legacy Land Trust touts new strategic vision

Legacy Land Trust has been preserving farmland and open space in Northern Colorado for more than 15 years, but it’s never before had the precision tools needed to target the region’s most strategically important private land for conservation.

LLT recently added a Geographic Information System that’s enabled it to map out its three-county focus area – Larimer, Jackson and Weld – down to the parcel level. Specific overlays highlight wildlife habitat, important agricultural areas, scenic vistas and other attributes deemed valuable to the region’s identity and economic viability.

It’s all part of LLT’s mission to preserve and protect 150,000 acres of key landscapes in the counties, a goal set by its board of directors in 2006. Focus areas of priority are the Laramie River Valley, Laramie foothills, riparian areas of the Poudre, Big and Little Thompson rivers and the Buckeye, Wellington and Waverly agricultural areas in Larimer County; North Park in Jackson County; and the Chalk Bluffs, Pawnee Grasslands, Crow Valley and Briggsdale ag areas and Poudre River riparian areas in Weld County.

LLT’s founder, Jane Clark, has been working to preserve private land in Northern Colorado since the trust was formed in 1992. Over the last 16 years, more than 37,000 acres in 104 projects have been preserved for farming, ranching and scenic values through conservation easements that give landowners a tax break and the financial ability to continue agricultural operations or simply preserve the open nature of their property.

Clark said LLT’s new “Strategic Conservation Vision” is designed to help the trust and its clients become more targeted in efforts to preserve private land as development pressures build.

“We need to be more proactive, more focused and strategic in our protection process,” she said. “It’s about how are we (as a region) going to look in the next 50 years.”

Ryan Boggs was recently hired to serve as LLT’s executive director. Boggs said the trust’s GIS-based Strategic Conservation Vision – which includes maps that identify areas of highest interest – will take LLT’s work to a higher level.

“It allows us to really project where we can do the maximum conservation and take a business-like approach to conservation,” he said.

And while lands can be preserved through a fuller knowledge of their scenic, wildlife and agricultural values, the vision can also help avoid future development confrontations.

“It keeps us away from areas that are trending toward maximum density,” Clark said.

Adds Boggs: “It allows us to do more conservation without competing with development, which is healthy for the economy.”

Economic benefits

Clark and Boggs say the strategic vision will enhance one part of LLT’s mission that’s always been there: to serve as an economic driver for the region. They point out that one of the main economic benefits is realized by the landowner, who can receive a conservation easement tax credit of up to $375,000 per transaction. Clark said some landowners use that money to add to the sustainability of their ag-based operation, such as Fagerberg Produce in Eaton, which used a portion of the tax credit to finance a new drip irrigation system.

Helping ag operations – farmers and ranchers – stay in and expand their businesses is probably the most obvious economic benefit to the region. But there are many others, Clark and Boggs note.

Businesses that stay in business pay taxes and provide jobs and contribute to a more diverse economy. “A byproduct of what we do is to maintain a diversity of economic factors that are part of our (region’s) economic engine,” Clark said.

And then there’s tourism brought by scenic, open landscapes and new employers that decide to set up operations in Northern Colorado because of its beautiful, undeveloped horizons.

“Open space and scenic vistas are some of the reasons people come here and the area is noticed,” Boggs said.

And while the individual landowner’s decision to choose a conservation easement over a development buyout benefits that person first and foremost, Boggs said each such decision adds up to a healthier place for all to live and work.

“It really is a big decision that affects the entire economy in a way that most people don’t usually recognize,” he said.

Steve Porter covers agribusiness for the Northern Colorado Business Report. He can be reached at 970-221-5400, ext. 225 or sporter@ncbr.com.

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