Colorado

We're working to help renovate two parks in North Aurora, Colorado, that serve a growing population of families and children.

The newly acquired 124-acre Buckley Buffer-Jewel Avenue property is the first in a series of conservation efforts designed to buffer Buckley Air Force Base (Buckley AFB) from encroaching development and create a protected corridor for parks, trails, and wildlife habitat.

The Catamount Ranch near Colorado Springs had been a YMCA camp for decades, but eventually was put up for sale. Competing with numerous development proposals, The Trust for Public Land saved the great majority of the ranch for public access in 1996.

Located just east of Crested Butte, Cold Spring Ranch has operated in Gunnison County since the 1870s.

For many people, Colorado is synonymous with beauty, and despite its growth, the state continues to offer many wild landscapes that people treasure for self-renewal and enjoyment. Both residents and visitors come to these places to hike, bike, camp, hunt, fish, and view wildlife.

Green space is in short supply in Denver's Westwood neighborhood. In fact, Curatro Vientos—or Four Winds—is the first new park in the area in more than 30 years.

In October 2005, The Trust for Public Land helped the owners of Dunn Ranch place a conservation easement over the property, which protects the land from development and ensures that the ranch's water will continue to be used for agricultural purposes.

This Greenprint identifies critical assets across the county and helps guide land conservation efforts to protect these working ranches and farms, clean rivers, scenic views, and places for recreation.

In 2000, this critical strip of land nestled between two designated wilderness areas near Aspen and Crested Butte was in jeopardy from development. Concerned about the threat to the area’s natural beauty and its importance for biological research, community leaders turned to The Trust for Public Land for help.

Virtually empty of people just a few years ago, the South Platte River Valley north of downtown Denver is projected to have 20,000 residents by 2035, nearly 20 times its current population.

The Trust for Public Land worked closely with the City of Aurora, the Hoffman Youth Community Center, and families and youth in the neighborhood to redesign and completely transform Jewell Park into asset for both the Hoffman Center programs and the surrounding community.

In June 2010, The Trust for Public Land purchased a large section of land on the edge of Crested Butte that had been owned by the local family since 1905. The conservation transaction was the largest in the town's history.

In December 2012, The Trust for Public Land bought the 1,038-acre ranch from the Marrs family, one of best sites in the world to study the K-T boundary—the sedimentary layer below which  evidence of dinosaurs can be found.

Adams County, northeast of burgeoning Denver, had been struggling to maintain farms and open space in the path of growth. In 1999, The Trust for Public Land helped county residents mount and pass a voter initiative that created a dedicated sales tax for the protection of open space.

Middle Bijou Creek Ranch, located just south of Deer Trail and 40 miles east of Denver, occupies an important role in a growing network of public and privately conserved agricultural and wildlife properties that serves to protect the western heritage of Arapahoe and Elbert counties.

We have been working with Denver nonprofit Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) to transform 5 acres in the city's Montbello neighborhood into a restored natural area with native gardens, educational kiosks, walking trails, and interactive nature play spaces.

This land provides a unique opportunity to create a new trailhead and public access to more than 12,000 acres of Clear Creak County and Jefferson County open space. New trails for mountain biking and hiking will connect to an existing trail system that is currently inaccessible from I-70. Protected from development, this land will continue to provide recreation opportunities to people throughout the Denver metro area for years to come.

The Ouray Ice Park may be the only park in the world devoted exclusively to the sport of ice climbing. Located in the Uncompahgre River gorge just a ten-minute walk from the historic mountain town, the ice park allows climbers to test their skills in a controlled ice-climbing environment.

We worked with local partners to protect for the creation of the Rio Grande Healthy Living Park to include a six-mile trail system and 16 acres for community farming.

In the mid-1980s, The Trust for Public Land purchased 748 acres in Douglas County that had been targeted for development, protecting the land as an addition to Roxborough State Park.

Sawtooth Mountain Ranch is now part of more than 18,000 acres conserved by The Trust for Public Land along the San Juan Skyway, one of 31 designated scenic All-American Roads.

South Table Mountain is an oasis of solitude within a sea of development. A volcanic mesa rising above the western Denver metro area, it provides a welcome refuge for people and wildlife.

Scattered across 30 miles of river bottom from Gunnison to the doorstep of Gothic, the lands owned by Trampe Ranch are some of the most familiar, productive, beautiful, and scientifically significant in the Gunnison Valley.

From heart-pumping singletrack to peaceful mountain views, Ute Valley offers outdoor escape in easy reach. Not many folks know that half of this popular patch of wilderness is privately owned  and at risk of development.

This spectacular valley in south-central Colorado is one of the last remaining places where ranching is still the main way of life. Since 2000, we have spearheaded an ambitious and collaborative program to preserve the beauty and way of life in the Wet Mountain Valley.

In 2017, The Trust for Public Land acquired a conservation easement on the 14,000-acre Wilson Creek Ranch in Agate, Colorado, building on a partnership with the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust that has preserved over 20,000-acres of working agricultural land on Colorado's eastern plains. Funding for the transaction was provided by the Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund and the Natural Resources Conservation Service's Regional Conservation Partnership Program.

The Trust for Public Land works closely with local non-profits and government agencies to help farmers and ranchers in Colorado maintain ownership of, and continue working, their lands.