- Cobb & Ebert
Happy New Year!
Our next Open Space Tour will be in February. We will post more information soon.
Planning for 2012 events underway: Please see below for the latest news on upcoming events and projects in 2012.
Find us on Facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/continental.divide.land.trust
Thank you for your support!
Continental Divide Land Trust
Upcoming Events:
• Phantom Ranch Ball: April 1, 2012, with artwork by Ann Weaver.
- Pulling for Colorado Weed Pull, Saturday, July 7, 2012.
• Art & Wildflower Celebration, returns July 19-21, 2012 in Breckenridge.
• History of Ranching in the Lower Blue with Mary Ellen Gilliland, part of the Friends of the Lower Blue Annual Meeting on August 11, 2012. At the Slate Creek Hall. Please note change of date. Mary Ellen Gilliland will share a folksy history of the ranching families of the Lower Blue River Valley and their deep connection to the land. Details to come soon.
• Fall Slide Show with John Fielder: Information to be announced in the spring.
• Open Space Honors Awards: Who deserves recognition for their contributions to open space and natural resource protection in our community?!? Details to come soon.
Update on Colorado's Conservation Tax Credit Program for 2012 and 2013.
Changes to the Colorado’s Conservation Tax Credit program began with tax year 2011 and continue through 2013.
The Colorado Conservation Tax Credit provides significant tax benefits to a Colorado taxpayer who donates a conservation easement. The tax credits are also transferrable, allowing landowners to realize cash for their easement donation.
The generous Colorado tax credits for conservation will continue in 2011 through 2013, but 2010 legislation (HB10-1197) caps the total amount of credits that will be granted in any one year to $22 million in 2011 and 2012, and $34 million in 2013, with a total cap for the three years at $78 million.
Tax credits for 2011 were issued by November 9, 2011, creating a wait list of eligible recipients in 2012. The likely outcome is that 2012's $22 million in tax credits will be used up well before November 2012. Hopefully, the balance of $34 million in 2013 will allow most easement donors in that year to realize the tax benefit.
The U.S. Congress has not extended the generous Federal Tax benefits for conservation that applied in 2010 and 2011, though we are hopeful that the enhanced tax deduction for donation of a conservation easement will be extended or made permanent in 2012. In the meanwhile, the tax benefit reverts back to the previous deduction which is outlined on our FAQ page.
Other incentive programs for conservation are also available to landowners, such as wildlife habitat preservation, and sage grouse habitat improvements.
As of January 1, 2010, Continental Divide Land Trust is Certified by the State of Colorado to accept and hold conservation easements, license #CE0026, 2011 renewal license #CE005.
For more information on tax benefits, conservation easements, and an extensive FAQ section, please contact us or click on Land Matters on the left-side navigation panel.
Continental Divide Land Trust is your local non-governmental land conservancy group. We provide free consulting on land conservation options. Please give us a call or email if you have any questions or if you are considering a conservation easement. We’d like to hear from you.
Leigh's Blog - from the Executive Director
June 1, 2011
It has been nearly a year since my last "blog" entry, so clearly I'm not doing a good job of keeping up with this. However, I have been updating CDLT's Facebook page regularly with sightings of animals and wildflowers, tidbits on conservation projects, and CDLT events. Please check our Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/continental.divide.land.trust
July 2, 1010:
I was asked by The Summit Foundation to speak at the annual grant and scholarship awards ceremony in Breckenridge on June 30, 2010, as a representative of the Environmental group category. Here is the text of my presentation:
It is an honor to represent the environmental community today, especially on these longest days of summer when we all want to be outside enjoying our environment. It is the environment that brought us here and keeps us here, that brings the tourists and the vacation homeowners and the dollars.
The natural environment of Summit County is our most important economic driver. Without scenic beauty and large tracts of undeveloped land for discovery and renewal, without watersheds and wetlands, without abundant wildlife and wildflowers, we wouldn’t be here.
We wouldn’t be in this room celebrating The Summit Foundation and philanthropy and the many environmental groups that make Summit County such an outstanding place to live and visit. A wide variety of groups are working in our community to protect the environment – preserving water, minimizing waste, providing access to public lands, developing trail systems, and educating young people on the science of nature.
Continental Divide Land Trust works to protect open spaces and natural lands. We fill a unique niche in the environmental non-profit community here – we are eligible to hold conservation easements. We are qualified by the federal government and certified by the State of Colorado as a land conservancy. Conservation easements are a perpetual responsibility that we take very seriously. But we also have fun and offer educational events as well, because what good is protecting nature if you don’t take the time to appreciate and enjoy it.
In times of economic distress, the environment suffers as we seek to exploit natural resources in the name of economic development. And financial support to environmental groups declines as well.
This is where The Summit Foundation is so important. The funding is invaluable, but even more important is the leadership that The Summit Foundation provides. It sets a high bar for philanthropy in our community and we all benefit from being asked to be generous. The Summit Foundation has set up agency endowment funds and the Land Trust is a beneficiary of one of those. And The Summit Foundation is so helpful with resources, expertise and advice. We are truly blessed to have such an outstanding organization in our community.
Please don’t take the environment for granted. It is the golden goose laying golden eggs for our community. We all need to do our part to preserve it. And your philanthropic support of our environmental organizations today will pay great dividends for future generations.
From Julia Butterfly Hill (posted May 17, 2010):
"So often activism is based on what we are against, what we don't like, what we don't want. And yet we manifest what we focus on. And so we are manifesting yet ever more of what we don't want, what we don't like, what we want to change.
"So for me, activism is about a spiritual practice as a way of life. And I realized I didn't climb the tree because I was angry at the corporations and the government; I climbed the tree because when I fell in love with the redwoods, I fell in love with the world. So it is my feeling of 'connection' that drives me, instead of my anger and feelings of being disconnected."
Why I Love Mud Season (posted April 26, 2010):
Yesterday morning, when Breckenridge was blanketed with a fresh layer of snow and all the ugliness of litter and dog poop were hidden, the roads and parking lots were empty, the robins were singing, Breck Ski area was covered with snow and not a track to be seen to mar the perfect surface, I said to my sweetie as we walked the dogs "I love mud season."
I love the quiet, the lack of traffic. I love how you can actually see Breckenridge because there are no cars blocking views of the streetscape. I love how there is time to connect to friends I was too busy to spend time with during the season. I love how the pace slows down. I love how the only people who are here are the seasoned locals - not seasonal, but seasoned. I love being able to ski at the Basin then hike or bike the same day.
Mud season reminds me of what Breckenridge was like when I was a kid - much more quiet, many fewer people, slower paced than nowadays. It's a nostalgic time of year for me.
I love seeing nature come alive after a winter asleep under the snow. The birds start arriving from points south and I mark the arrival of the robin and the bluebird. The trees start budding then developing leaves, ever so slowly. The smallest sprouts of grasses become taller and taller. Wildflowers begin their journey of growth from base leaves to stem to bud to bloom. The first dandelion of the season is always a joy as it is the first flower.
We are in the midst of mud season now in the high country and it is one of my favorite times of year.
January 4, 2010
Wow, 2009 was a crazy year. We were so busy with events and our Certification application that I hardly had time to think about a blog toward the end of the year. I also lost my grandmother, Dodie Bingham, in October, which was a sad loss for me and my family. Dodie loved nature, birds and bugs, animals large and small, wind in the trees, the babble of a brook, and most especially her garden for which she became quite famous. I am grateful to her for imbuing in me, in her children, and in her many grandchildren, a similar love and appreciation for all things wild.
Posted September 1, 2009
No blog this month. We have 2 events, 5 grant applications, 14 easements to monitor, and all of our materials for Certification due by the end of the month!
Posted August 17, 2009
I've been thinking about weeds and wildflowers lately. Our rainy spring has made 2009 an outstanding year for wildflowers. But it has also made conditions outstanding for weeds as well. Our native wildflowers can't compete with invasive, noxious weeds and are losing ground all across our county. Our government entities, charged by the State of Colorado with noxious weed enforcement, are not doing enough to work with private landowners on weed eradication. Are there any others out there concerned about this? Let me know and we'll talk about what we can do.
Leigh’s Blog – Posted June 25, 2009
Most of my adult life I’ve been called a "tree hugger." While I love trees, they are a part of the whole. What I love most is the land and all the plants, birds, bugs, and animals that go with it. If I could hug the planet, I’d really be called an Earth Hugger.
So often we are called to save some part of what we love – a threatened trail, an endangered animal, a trampled plant. But land conservation allows us to embrace the whole. Without the land, we would have no trails to enjoy, no animals to cherish, no birds to watch, no flowers to sniff.
The Earth’s population is projected to reach 9 billion people by 2050. What is the hope for the land and all it supports on a planet with 9 billion people? Private land conservation is our best hope for the future. Private landowners are often the best stewards of the land. Conservation easements allow landowners to continue to own their land, manage and take care of it as they have done. Continental Divide Land Trust is here to work with landowners interested in land protection and conservation easements.
But you don’t need hundreds of acres to be a good land steward. In your own back yard or in planters on your deck you can create wildlife habitat to help support small critters, birds, and pollinators such as bees and butterflies that are so critical to the web of life.
In our mountain environment, it is easy to be a land steward by protecting the native vegetation already on your property, avoiding expanses of lawn, and planting native species that are both beautiful to you and beneficial to pollinators, such as penstemon and columbine. For more information, visit your locally operated garden supply store, or visit www.pollinator.org.
Posted May 10, 2009
My job as CDLT’s executive director provides me with many rich and unique opportunities. I’ve had the opportunity to hold baby goats at the Giberson Ranch, hike on properties that few people ever visit, and other experiences that I’d like to share with you.
Upon occasion, I’ll post my observations on the home page of CDLT’s website. I hope you’ll be a frequent visitor. Here is something to get us started:
Joni Mitchell’s song "Big Yellow Taxi" is a banner for the environmental movement, with the phrase "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot." But to me, the most significant lyric is the reminder: "you don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone."
I’ve lived in Summit County for over 37 years, since I was a child, and I have seen a lot of changes. I’ve learned to appreciate the natural beauty of our community because I’ve seen first hand how quickly it can disappear, how threatened and fragile it is. But one aspect of our natural environment that I failed to appreciate until recently, because it was so ubiquitous, is our Lodgepole Pine forests. But you don’t know what you’ve got until you don’t have it anymore, so lately I have been especially appreciative of the underdog Lodgepole Pine tree.
For so many years, developers have justified cutting the forests by calling the unloved trees "dog hair lodgepole." Who cares about protecting these scrawny, boring trees? Well, me. Two of my favorite Lodgepole Pines are near Harris Street in Breckenridge. Actually one is no longer with us and the other is hanging in there.
Through most of the last century, a slender Lodgepole arched over old Harris Street at the intersection with Washington, like a graceful head gate announcing the entrance to a special place. It made it seem like this particular block of Breckenridge was protected and almost secret. Probably because it was feared that the tree would fall, it was cut down years ago. I still miss that tree. If anyone has a photo of it, I’d be happy to see it.
The other is located on Town of Breckenridge property behind an old barn. It is the only sizeable Lodgepole around and is a critical stopping off point for birds moving through the neighborhood from feeder to feeder.
Like any Lodgepole that is given room to grown, it is luscious and full, with branches reaching every which way. So far, it has escaped invasion by the pine beetle. It’s location near a drainage way giving it extra moisture, may save it from the pine beetle. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
I’m sure I’ll write more on lodgepoles. I’ve been a great admirer lately.
Posted May 10, 2009