Colorado Open Lands
For Land Trusts
According to the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, land trusts have helped to protect well over 630,000 acres of valuable agricultural, wildlife, and natural resources through the placement of perpetual conservation easements on properties across Colorado. To date, Colorado Open Lands has protected over 179,000 acres in 34 counties and holds 148 conservation easements.
The business of running a land trust is very complicated indeed. Often a small staff must do everything from accounting and fundraising, to complicated real estate transactions and working with landowners.
This section is for those in the land trust business who are looking for help with the daily activities of running a land trust. Over time, we hope to increase the usefulness of this area - your input and suggestions are greatly appreciated!
The Conservation Easement Program Manual is a downloadable zipped file with a variety of procedural forms and task lists to help you through the process of doing a conservation easement, not only due diligence and easement drafting, but into the stewardship phase as well. It is, of course, a work in progress and we welcome any suggestions you have for improving its functionality. Feel free to adapt it to the needs of your organization.
The Model Conservation Easement is Colorado Open Lands' boilerplate easement document. It is a comprehensive document that provides language and formatting for a typical conservation easement. Not all sections of the model conservation easement apply in each landowner's situation, and as such, we make a practice of tailoring a draft version for each project’s unique provisions before sharing the document with the landowner. The model conservation easement is Colorado Open Lands’ approach to beginning the easement drafting process. We urge you to seek your own legal advice before adopting any portion of COL’s model conservation easement.
The Professional's Directory is a list of consultants who provide services that may be required in the process of doing a conservation easement project. Among others, the list includes attorneys, appraisers, base line consultants, and environmental specialists. Individuals listed in this directory are included on the basis of their stated areas of competence and expertise, and other information provided by them. Inclusion does not imply confirmation of the information nor any endorsement by Colorado Open Lands.
Helpful Links are sites we commonly use for information, find out about grant opportunities, or to do research. We welcome any relevant additions you might have.