Colorado faces a $1.2 billion gap between land-conservation goals and funding resources, according to a report released Monday by the Colorado Conservation Trust.
Local governments and land trusts surveyed by the Colorado Conservation Trust identified about 2 million acres in Colorado they want to protect over the next decade.
An increase in rural ranchettes, projected growth and a shortage of public funds create a roadblock to those goals, the report states.
“Colorado is at a conservation crossroads,” said Will Shafroth, executive director of the Colorado Conservation Trust, one of the state’s largest land-protection groups.
“We need funding, better conservation tools and more effective approaches toward conservation if we are going to be successful in achieving this goal,” Shafroth said.
Only 1 percent of charitable giving in Colorado goes toward land conservation.
The primary public funding source, Great Outdoors Colorado, can fund only one out of every three applications, according to the report.
The Colorado Conservation Trust identified 12 counties most likely not to meet their goals, based on funding and growth.
The counties are: Archuleta, Chaffee, Elbert, Garfield, Grand, Lake, La Plata, Montrose, Montezuma, Ouray, Pueblo and Weld.
In Pueblo County, the lack of a local tax source to help fund open-space programs has made it difficult for Colorado Open Lands to obtain state and federal grants that require matching funds, said Dan Pike, president of Colorado Open Lands.
Pike’s group is trying to conserve agricultural land on the east side of the Wet Mountains near Beulah and Rye.
“We haven’t had any problems finding landowners who want to protect their land. The problem is most of these landowners are agricultural operators who need to be compensated to make it work,” Pike said.
In Weld County, development has raised property values so much that conservation programs can’t compete, he said.
Development hasn’t necessarily been an obstacle in Garfield County, said Martha Cochran, director of the Aspen Valley Land Trust.
“Oil-shale development has people talking about what they want to do with their land in 30 to 60 years,” Cochran said. “And that discussion has served conservation well.”
The report’s recommendations include tripling state funding to $75 million a year and raising private funding from $15 million annually to $25 million.
Staff writer Kim McGuire can be reached at 303-820-1240 or kmcguire@denverpost.com.
