ESTES VALLEY LAND TRUST

As the only local organization devoted to conserving land in the Estes Valley, our mission is to preserve land forever and buffer Rocky Mountain National Park. Our land conservation efforts protect scenic views, critical wildlife habitat, public trails and historic structures. We also educate and engage the community through public events, newsletters and service project.

We work with willing landowners to execute conservation easements that protect land in perpetuity. We ensure the terms of the easements are met every year through our monitoring program that utilizes over 100 volunteers each summer. We are one of the few land trusts that utilizes volunteers for monitoring. Wildlife and environmental experts speak at our summer events and educate the community on the importance of land conservation. We partner with landowners, other non-profit organizations and local and state agencies to conserve land.

We have 2.8 full time equivalent staff, a 14-member Board of Directors and approximately 450 members that serve the organization. Staff conduct daily business, the Board of Directors provides governance and fiscal oversight and our members volunteer over 600 hours a year to ensure our conservation easements are upheld.

The scenic beauty and wildlife habitat of the Estes Valley are still intact, even though Estes Park is growing and more than 4.5 million people visit Rocky Mountain National Park each year. Our Open Space and Recreation Plan, developed in coordination with local and state partners, will help ensure additional wildlife habitat is preserved. We have prevented major violations to any conserved property, such as prohibited road building, or clearcutting, by building trust and educating each landowner.

We negotiate new conservation easements with landowners, to conserve additional wildlife habitat and scenic views and we continue to improve our annual monitoring process and educate successive landowners to prevent easement violations that harm the environment. We are also building our operating endowment to ensure the land trust is financially stable, forever, and engaging our membership through enriching public events, that encourage them to be better stewards of our mountain environment.