Colorado Open Lands
Statewide Leadership Program
The Statewide Leadership Program encompasses a variety of projects that allow Colorado Open Lands to positively impact the direction of the land conservation in Colorado. Critical to this endeavor is expanding our knowledge of the business through training, education, and research.
Colorado Open Lands is a leader in helping establish industry standards for quality land conservation through innovative measures such as:
- Developed and distribute to members of the land trust community nationwide our Conservation Easement Program Manual, a comprehensive set of standard documents for use in the acquisition and stewardship of conservation easements;
- Our Land Conservation Fellowship Program, the first ever program in the nation to provide unique, hands-on training in land conservation techniques for professionals who will become tomorrow’s conservation leaders;
- The first-of-its-kind study to evaluate alternatives for the legal defense of conservation easements; a critical but challenging issue within the land trust community,
- Testify and meet with legislators and Members of Congress about policy and legislation of interest to the conservation community, and
- Develop a Statewide GIS Land Conservation database which collects existing data on important land conservation resources, and attempts to fill gaps in the data. Colorado Open Lands is working with other conservation organizations to develop this critical tool for statewide land conservation efforts in Colorado.
In addition, Colorado Open Lands staff works on several levels with the efforts of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, and the Land Trust Alliance to address current issues facing the land trust and land conservation industry.