Colorado Gives Day is Colorado’s biggest day of giving. Join your community members and make your Colorado Gives Day donation today!
If you’ve already done so, thank you!
  
Your donation will support LPOSC’s work to permanently protect natural and working lands critical to our region, work alongside landowners to support strong land stewardship practices, and provide community-centric conservation programming.  Donors like you are instrumental to our work. To learn more and donate, visit LPOSC’s Colorado Gives Day page.
Thank you!

Scroll on to see some snapshots of what our work has accomplished this year. From workshops to youth programs, listening sessions, new conservation projects, and stewarding our existing lands, we have had a busy and productive 2023 thanks to the support of donors like you.

Save the date for our annual Snowdown fundraiser! Cocktails for Conservation is a lively, elegant event featuring handcrafted chocolates from Animas Chocolate Company, specialty cocktails, fine foods, local brews and a silent auction. All proceeds from this popular event support LPOSC’s work to conserve Southwest Colorado’s land, water, and way of life. Must be 21+. Ticket sales will be announced right here in our newsletter later this month. 

Not sure what to expect? Check out this video of last year’s event in the Main Mall, courtesy of Blue Lily Productions.

Interested in sponsoring?  Please click here to view our sponsorship opportunities and contact Adrienne Dorsey at adrienne@lposc.org to learn more.

LPOSC welcomed Rick Borkowski to its Board of Directors earlier this month. Rick and his wife, Annette, purchased a property conserved by LPOSC in 2018, and they have been hard at work improving their property ever since.

“Since acquiring the pasture and wetlands areas near Turtle Lake, Annette and Rick have been steadily working to restore the pasture after overgrazing damaged the grasses and soil. Through LPOSC’s seminars on soil health, noxious weed control and pollinator health, they gained the knowledge to help restore the pasture to a mix of healthy native grasses. Clover and cover crop seeding was used to enhance damaged soil with the added benefit of fixing nitrogen.  Adjustments to the irrigation ditch system aided in restoration of the bare and weed-infested areas. Native grass seeds collected from adjacent parts of the pasture were used along with equine blends and Orchard grass for restoration.  Thanks to several good winters snow and last year’s strong monsoon rains, the grasses have filled in nicely. Wildflower growth is a secondary enhancement, although the deer have other ideas of what should grow.” -Rick Borkowski

Many of our landowners, like Rick and Annette, are passionate about protecting their land and work tirelessly to improve it. From improving soil health to removing fences, placing nesting structures, and much more, their efforts benefit us all. During this season of gratitude, we would like to acknowledge our landowners and their hard work – thank you!

The season of giving is just around the corner, which means
 Colorado Gives Day is fast approaching.

Colorado Gives Day is Colorado’s biggest day of giving. But you don’t have to wait until December 5th to make your gift. You can schedule your Colorado Gives Day donations today! If you’ve already done so, thank you!
  
Donors like you are instrumental to advancing LPOSC’s mission.  With your support, LPOSC will continue to permanently protect natural and working lands critical to our region, work alongside landowners to support strong land stewardship practices, and provide community-centric conservation programming.  To learn more about our work and donate, visit LPOSC’s Colorado Gives Day page. Thank you!

Save the date for our annual Snowdown fundraiser! Cocktails for Conservation is a lively, elegant event featuring handcrafted chocolates from Animas Chocolate Company, specialty cocktails, fine foods, local brews and a silent auction. All proceeds from this popular event support LPOSC’s work to conserve Southwest Colorado’s land, water, and way of life. Must be 21+. Ticket sales will be announced right here in our newsletter next month. 

Not sure what to expect? Check out this video of last year’s event in the Main Mall, courtesy of Blue Lily Productions.

Interested in sponsoring?  Please contact Adrienne Dorsey at adrienne@lposc.org to learn more.

We had a great time on September 9th at Ska Brewing’s 28th Anniversary Party and Brewer’s Invitational.  We met over a hundred supporters of open space, and raffled off a Ska Brewing Paddleboard to one lucky winner, Diane Komick. Congratulations, Diane!

Join Kaitlin Haase, Pollinator Conservation Specialist with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and Gail Morris, Coordinator of the Southwest Monarch Study, for a full day short course on the conservation of monarch butterflies in the Four Corners. Agricultural producers, land managers, environmental educators, landowners, and the general public are welcome!

DuranGoats uses goats to reduce wildfire fuel loads and invasive weed species. With their uniquely vigorous appetites and digestive systems, goats will eliminate hazardous underbrush in fire-prone areas and reduce the seed-bank of unwanted weeds on pasture. At the same time, the will leave behind fertilized soil, setting the stage for a healthier future landscape. Find out more at www.durangoats.com.

Earlier this month, LPOSC welcomed two new interns to help us gather data about recreational impacts on conserved properties in La Plata County. Thanks to a generous funding from the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office, Over the next two years, LPOSC will hire 14 interns from Fort Lewis College to conduct research for the organization while providing valuable job training experience for those seeking career pathways in the outdoor sector.

Please join LPOSC for burgers, beers, and fireflies on Wednesday, July 19^th.  The viewing party will be generously hosted by Jerry and Karen Zink on their conserved property, Sunnyside Farm.  Fireflies only appear in SW Colorado for a few weeks each year, so this gathering will provide a unique opportunity to view the fireflies before they leave in late July while enjoying food, drinks, and good company.
 
When: Wednesday, July 19^th, 7:30-9:30pm
Where: Sunnyside Farm
What to bring: layered clothing, a chair or blanket to sit on, and footwear that can get wet
 
Space is limited! Please RSVP by Tuesday, July 18^th to claim your spot. 
$10 suggested donation supports LPOSC’s efforts to conserve land and water in Southwest Colorado, like this unique wetland firefly haven.

Fireflies in Colorado? Yes, it’s true – check out a recent Colorado Sun article about the relatively rare Western populations.

Ska Brewing will hold their 28th Anniversary Party & Brewer’s Invitational on September 9, 2023, and you are invited!  The event will take place at Ska’s World Headquarters in Durango, and there will be breweries, friends, family, and great live music.  This event has become one of the premier fall events in Durango and this year is shaping up to be the BEST yet! 

All proceeds from this event will benefit La Plata Open Space Conservancy’s work to protect land and water in Southwest Colorado. Sponsor or attend this great event to support our mission!

Is your property in need of forest management with an eye towards restoration? Do you have an iconic tree you’d like to preserve? Whether you have one tree or a large forest, Momentum Tree Experts is our recommended tree service company. With their attention to wildlife habitat improvement and overall ecosystem enhancement, they are a great choice for private lands – whether conserved or not.

Nearly 900 acres of conserved land at Destination Ranch buffer the San Juan National Forest, BLM land, and the Perins Peak State Wildlife Area

The Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act, passed and signed into law in December 2022 to combat syndicated easements, contained a “Safe Harbor” provision. This provision directed the IRS to create Safe Harbor language for extinguishment/proceeds clauses and boundary line adjustments in conservation easements. The IRS has issued the Safe Harbor language and landowners now have until July 24, 2023 to amend their conservation easements to substitute the Safe Harbor language for provisions the IRS has determined are not acceptable. Conservation easements executed between 2008-2023 may be affected. This notice only impacts landowners who took a federal deduction when donating their conservation easement. LPOSC recommends landowners work with their lawyer and/or CPA to determine if their conservation easement may be impacted. LPOSC has sent a separate notice to conservation easement donors for whom it has current contact information and who may be impacted.
 
Resources:
IRS Safe Harbor Bulletin
IRS Safe Harbor Notice: Conservation Easements – Safe Harbor Deed Language for Extinguishment and Boundary Line Adjustment
 

Not just for realtors – this educational workshop on conservation easements and how to navigate real estate transactions involving them will also be useful for appraisers, title and closing officers, lenders, and others involved in real estate. We hope to see you on June 2nd!

Ska Brewing will be celebrating their 28th Anniversary Party on September 9, 2023, and you are invited!  The event will take place at Ska’s World Headquarters in Durango, and there will be breweries, friends, family, and great live music.  This event has become one of the premier fall events in Durango and this year is shaping up to be the BEST yet! Stay tuned for more event details to come, and check out sponsorship opportunities below…

All proceeds from this event will benefit La Plata Open Space Conservancy’s work to protect land and water here in the Southwest. 

The Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act, passed and signed into law in December 2022 to combat syndicated easements, contained a “Safe Harbor” provision. This provision directed the IRS to create Safe Harbor language for extinguishment/proceeds clauses and boundary line adjustments in conservation easements. The IRS has issued the Safe Harbor language and landowners now have until July 24, 2023 to amend their conservation easements to substitute the Safe Harbor language for provisions the IRS has determined are not acceptable. Conservation easements executed between 2008-2023 may be affected. This notice only impacts landowners who took a federal deduction when donating their conservation easement. LPOSC recommends landowners work with their lawyer and/or CPA to determine if their conservation easement may be impacted. LPOSC will send a separate notice to conservation easement donors for whom it has current contact information and who may be impacted.
 
Resources:
IRS Safe Harbor Bulletin
IRS Safe Harbor Notice: Conservation Easements – Safe Harbor Deed Language for Extinguishment and Boundary Line Adjustment
 

The land trust accreditation program recognizes land conservation organizations that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever. La Plata Open Space Conservancy is pleased to announce it is applying for accreditation.  A public comment period is now open.

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, conducts an extensive review of each applicant’s policies and programs. La Plata Open Space Conservancy considers it a priority to fulfill the highest national standards for excellence and conservation permanence. Accredited land trusts have demonstrated fiscal accountability, strong organizational leadership, sound transactions and lasting stewardship of the lands they conserve.

The Commission invites public input and accepts signed, written comments on pending applications. Comments must relate to how La Plata Open Space Conservancy complies with national quality standards. These standards address the ethical and technical operation of a land trust. For the full list of standards see http://www.landtrustaccreditation.org/help-and-resources/indicator-practices.

To learn more about the accreditation program and to submit a comment, visit www.landtrustaccreditation.org, or email your comment to info@landtrustaccreditation.org. Comments may also be mailed to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, Attn: Public Comments, 36 Phila Street, Suite 2, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

Comments on La Plata Open Space Conservancy’s application will be most useful by July 21, 2023.

 La Plata Open Space Conservancy is partnering with Compañeros to host La Escuelita students on conserved properties for outdoor enrichment programming.  We will dig our hands into the working soils of productive veggie farms, learn from southwestern cultural heritage sites, and play along the banks of the rivers that feed our county’s ecosystems. This collaboration, Conservation Connections, began back in 2021 and we are excited to be hosting youth on to the land for the third year running.   

Conservation Connections will continue on through the summer as part of the Wellness in Nature collaborative – La Plata Open Space Conservancy is partnering with San Juan Mountains Association, Mountain Studies Institute, and Southwest Conservation Corps to provide outdoor enrichment programming for students in the our region, and much of this programming is happening on conserved lands.  Thanks to the many landowners who have offered to host programming on their properties!

Cheers to open spaces!

Ska Brewing will be celebrating their 28th Anniversary Party on September 9, 2023, and you are invited!  The event itself will take place at Ska’s World Headquarters in Durango.  There will be breweries, friends, family, and live music!  This event has become one of the premier fall events in Durango and this year is shaping up to be the BEST yet! Stay tuned for more event details to come, and check out sponsorship opportunities below…

All proceeds from this event will benefit La Plata Open Space Conservancy’s work to protect land and water here in the Southwest. 

The land trust accreditation program recognizes land conservation organizations that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever. La Plata Open Space Conservancy is pleased to announce it is applying for accreditation.  A public comment period is now open.

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, conducts an extensive review of each applicant’s policies and programs. La Plata Open Space Conservancy considers it a priority to fulfill the highest national standards for excellence and conservation permanence. Accredited land trusts have demonstrated fiscal accountability, strong organizational leadership, sound transactions and lasting stewardship of the lands they conserve.

The Commission invites public input and accepts signed, written comments on pending applications. Comments must relate to how La Plata Open Space Conservancy complies with national quality standards. These standards address the ethical and technical operation of a land trust. For the full list of standards see http://www.landtrustaccreditation.org/help-and-resources/indicator-practices.

To learn more about the accreditation program and to submit a comment, visit www.landtrustaccreditation.org, or email your comment to info@landtrustaccreditation.org. Comments may also be mailed to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, Attn: Public Comments, 36 Phila Street, Suite 2, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

Comments on La Plata Open Space Conservancy’s application will be most useful by July 21, 2023.

As the leaves begin to fall and monitoring season comes to a close, we wanted to say thank you for an amazing summer season! 

We kicked off summer in the San Juans with our Southwest Stewardship Series in which a variety of experts led landowners and community members through topics ranging from creating pollinator habitat to mitigating noxious weed populations.  Guest speakers from the Xerces Society, Animas Biological Studies, and Mountain Studies Institute traveled from near and far to provide on-the-land educational experiences to participants. This program was supported by  generous landowners who hosted us on their properties, and funded by Great Outdoors Colorado.

Music was another centerpiece of the summer.  We rang in the summer solstice with Jeff Solon’s Swinging Band, were serenaded by the Kirk James Blues Band as part of the Community Concert Series, and the Ska Brewer’s Party concluded the summer with a lively crowd of Ska music connoisseurs and conservation supporters.  

We completed the Weaselskin Conservation Easement (read more below) and made considerable progress on two additional easements that will  close in the coming months. 

We are grateful to the volunteers, landowners, artists, donors, sponsors and supporters who make our mission to protect open spaces possible.  May we all share in the glory of this golden season and reflect back on an impactful summer of love for the land! 

This week we spoke with Ashley Grandkoski about Durango Wild Soul, a land-based, community-centric program for kids and their families that has just found its homebase at Weaselskin, a property recently conserved though La Plata Open Space Conservancy.  Grandkoski, serving as the Executive Director at Durango Wild Soul, took some time to tell us about their programming and how this conserved property plays a vital role in their work.   

“We are excited about and appreciate Weaselskin for a number of reasons. The main thing we were looking for was access to wild land within a reasonable distance from town and easily accessible in all seasons. Weaselskin fits all these requirements, with the added benefit of providing a large amount of space and a variety of landscapes. This is very valuable for the work we are doing in that it allows for for a range of experiences and activities, from forest exploration, to animal tracking, to crafting and ancestral skills to running and games. On this land, we can choose to hang out close to home-base, or hike, wander and explore over distances. As we are a year-round program, we were also looking for a place with the option of shelter, and Weaselskin provides well for us in that regard.

In addition to these basic elements, the power of the land itself and the connection to ancestral peoples adds special meaning and importance to our very place-based and earth-honoring curriculum. Overall, we love the potential, variety, uniqueness and meaning the land holds and are excited to see how our relationship with it unfolds in the coming year.”

“As we sink our roots into the land, we have big plans to expand our program and offerings, and feel that the amount of space [at Weaselskin], in combination with the variety of landscape, will support us in that growth. Next year, we plan to add a class for younger children (ages 4-6), as well as adding additional days per week to our program for 7-12-year-olds (which is currently at two-days-per-week). In the longer term vision, we also want to expand our offerings for teens, providing both group programming, as well as apprenticeship opportunities.


On the larger scale, our big vision is to build a community-centric, multi-age, land-based program where children (and their families) are given the opportunity to tap into ancestral and earth-centric ways of being, learn skills that develop the whole person, and honor the value inherent in themselves, others and the more-than-human realm. In addition to our normal, weekly programming, we seek to facilitate community-wide celebrations and earth-based rituals, including the marking of the seasons, group ceremony and meaningful rites-of-passage. Our core motivation is not just education and connection to nature, but a re-connection to the ways of life that have supported us as a species throughout most of our history as humans. Connection to land is such an important piece of this equation, so we are grateful to have found a meaningful place in which to base our operations.”