Colorado Open Lands
Cattle, Consensus-building and our Fellowship Program
“Do the cattle ever turn on you?” The words were barely out of her mouth when a steer suddenly took fright, turned and began trotting towards the rest of the group on horses. The steer was promptly followed by the rest of the herd and the novice riders unexpectedly found themselves herding cattle.
Juniper Katz, the current Fellow in our Land Protection Fellowship Program, had just left a site visit on Hidden Springs Ranch five minutes down the road and was on her way to meet with Roy and Shannon Christenson to check on a building envelope on their 1,160-acre protected ranch lands. The meeting with the Christensons had turned into lunch, and then an invitation to join a trail ride on the Christenson Ranch with a family of five other ride participants.
While on the ride, it was agreed that some time could be saved later by helping move the Christensen cattle to a new pasture right then. They were given clear instructions to remain safely at the tail end of the cattle drive, but hadn’t anticipated them turning. As the cattle approached Juniper and the family, Roy whistled – hollered “Hey! Ho!” – and magically headed his cattle in the right direction again.
OurFellowship Program trains each Fellow in skills such as innovative conservation real estate, fundraising, one-on-one negotiations with landowners, and community-based partnership development. However, such first-hand experience on agricultural properties is an irreplaceable way to help build an understanding of how working ranches actually operate. With each experience like this one, Juniper can strengthen her knowledge of cattle ranchers, allowing her to better relate when meeting with other ranching families in the future.
While demand for skilled land conservation professionals around the country continues to increase, there is scant opportunity to generate qualified individuals to fill that demand, either through non-profit programs or educational institutions. Colorado Open Lands is unique nationally in providing the necessary training through our Land Protection Fellowship Program.
The Fellowship Program has also considerably leveraged our work. In fact, the Fellowship Program has become the cornerstone of COL’s approach to land conservation and serves as a crucial component of our community conservation efforts to ensure that the character and landscapes that make Colorado unique will remain.
Fellows have played lead roles in the successful protection of some of Colorado’s special landscapes and natural heritage. The importance of this cannot be overstated. Of the 143,000 acres that Colorado Open Lands’ has protected since the Fellowship Program began, Fellows have been directly involved in the successful protection of more than 46,000 of these acres through 81 projects! The impact of the Fellowship Program is very clear in our ability to leverage our work.
A week after the Christenson cattle drive, Juniper was involved in a very different sort of resource management scenario as she participated in the first meeting of the Land Use Planning and Environment Working Group, a subset of the newly formed Fountain Creek Watershed Vision Task Force. The Task Force has identified two goals: Create a vision for the Fountain Creek Watershed that will make Fountain Creek a regional asset; and create a strategic master plan for the Creek’s watershed to address issues such as water quality and quantity, erosion, sedimentation, flooding, and environmental degradation
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The Working Group has already identified Colorado Open Lands as key to meeting their land use planning and environment goals, and is asking how they can help with grant applications and landowner outreach. For Juniper, this is a natural segue to further develop her leadership skills, but it is also an opportunity for Colorado Open Lands to work with a segment of the public to which it wouldn’t normally have access. It is where the “rubber hits the road” for the Fellow and Colorado Open Lands: new skills, new partners, and ultimately successful land conservation efforts.
“The Fellowship Program has been phenomenal for me,” Juniper remarks. “It takes beginners like myself and turns us into conservation real estate professionals. I feel confident that this Program has allowed me to participate in every aspect of land trust work.”
Through a combination of intensive, experiential training and daily mentoring opportunities, we train tomorrow’s land conservation leaders in a unique learning process. Each graduate leaves the two-year Land Protection Fellowship Program with energy, vision, and a repertoire of skills, while communities all around Colorado benefit from new land conservation legacies.
To read an in-depth look at our Fellow Graduates, please look here.