Take a ride to some Colorado place you haven’t seen for awhile. Chances are good that houses are covering what were once meadows and hillsides, or your favorite ranch landscape is now a suburban subdivision. That’s what’s happened to Colorful Colorado as we grew from 2 million population in 1970 to more than 4 million in 2000. Consider what’s going to happen as we grow to the predicted 7 million by 2030.
Fortunately, we have a lot of savvy, dedicated and innovative citizens who are committed to protecting the natural beauty and open space that define this state. It’s an uphill battle in an era when many people want their own piece of the countryside, but there’s hope.
Monster growth affects farmers and ranchers the most: Since 2000, an estimated 1,135,000 acres have been converted from rural use to development, with a prediction of 1,011,000 rural acres erased by 2030. The state’s total developed area was 1.3 million acres in 1970 and 2.5 million acres in 2000, with 3.5 million projected by 2030.
Ranchers and farmers who see their land as their retirement fund may welcome the burgeoning market. But for those who cannot imagine life without working the land, or who want to bequeath the land they inherited from fathers and grandfathers to their children, these growth pressures are disastrous.
The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust was founded in 1996 to protect major working landscapes. The trust completed about 21 donated and purchased conservation easement transactions in 2005. It has protected more than 225,000 productive acres, partnering with families representing 120 ranching properties.
Colorado has 46 non-profit land conservation groups – local, state and national – and 40 community open space programs that work with hundreds of landowners who’ve donating land for conservation purposes, protecting 1.6 million acres of farms, ranches, rivers, valleys and scenic vistas. In 2004, the 46 land trusts protected 80 percent of the land, with 60 percent of it protected by conservation easements, Will Shafroth, executive director of Colorado Conservation Trust, told the City Club of Denver members last week. Collectively, about $80 million a year is spent for open space; even communities considered “anti-tax” have overwhelmingly passed open space taxes.
A CCT survey of the conservation groups projected that land protection over the next five years will cost $1.06 billion, with $423 million available in public funding. Money will be needed from individuals as well as governments.
To meet those goals will take a great deal of determination and ingenuity; to not meet them means we leave a diminished Colorado. It’s one public policy that both Democrats and Republicans should agree on.
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“Saving Places 2006: Building on the Past,” Colorado Preservation Inc.’s annual conference, will be held Feb. 8-10 at the El Jebel Shrine Temple, 1770 Sherman St. This is the largest statewide preservation conference in the nation, and dozens of experts on all aspects of preservation make this a goldmine of information. Call CPI at 303-893-4260, or e-mail info@coloradopreservation.org.
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The Denver public meeting regarding roadless areas in our national forests will be Feb. 24 from noon to 6 p.m at the Adams Mark Hotel. The public also may attend (but not speak) during a session on Feb. 10 at the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, 1313 Sherman St. in Denver.
Joanne Ditmer’s column on environmental and urban issues for The Post began in 1962.
