Colorado

Since 1961, the Applewood Golf Course in Golden, Colorado has provided community members and area golf enthusiasts with a picturesque course nestled against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. In late 2016, The Trust for Public Land purchased the property, ensuring the protection of 146 acres of urban open space from residential development.

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.

Since 1981, The Trust for Public Land has protected nearly 10,000 acres of Colorado greenbelts—land that provides a buffer between open space and development or helps define a community's growth boundary.

Creekside Experience is a tucked-away gem of a park where all-natural play features, including a treehouse, boulders, logs and a water play area, invite kids and their families to be active and connect with nature.

In 2001 the National Park Service asked The Trust for Public Land to help preserve the 57 acres for the Curecanti National Recreation Area adjacent to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.

Between October 2017 and March 2018, The Trust for Public Land, Blackfoot Challenge, and Civic Canopy worked with the community of Lincoln, Montana, to bring community leaders and residents together to set a solid foundation for collaboration. The Partnership guided a process called Envision Lincoln that was designed to build on Lincoln’s existing efforts and accomplishments and invite all residents to participate and share their perspectives. Envision Lincoln developed an overarching vision to guide a collaborative effort that will help attract families to Lincoln and retain them, spur economic opportunities, and keep what makes Lincoln a special place to live.

Located just ten miles northeast of Gunnison, Fossil Ridge is completely surrounded by the Gunnison National Forest. Butch and Judy Clark purchased 960 acres here in the 1970s and have always allowed the community to use their property for hiking, hunting, cattle grazing, camping, and cross-country skiing.

Sale and development of the ranch would have compromised recreational access to the river as well as water quality. To prevent this, The Trust for Public Land worked to protect the ranch with a conservation easement that will safeguard the corridor’s rural character and scenic views.

The Trust for Public Land and Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust have permanently protected over 5,000 acres of working ranch land, known as the Hill Family Ranches, in Saguache County, Colorado.

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.

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

Ringed by 13,000-foot peaks, the Ophir Valley is one of the San Juan mountains' hidden gems. The Trust for Public Land protected more than 1,200 acres here, virtually all of the private land remaining in this still-pristine valley.

The Trust for Public Land is committed to preserving and creating parks, natural areas, and trails in our urban communities, particularly in Denver and along the Front Range.

The Trust for Public Land is proud to have played a part in the creation of the country's 548th National Wildlife Refuge, by working with two landowners to purchase the mineral rights underlying 460 acres of tallgrass prairie.

Central Colorado's Saguache Creek corridor has a rich history: once home to prehistoric peoples, it was also an important transportation route for the Ute Indians.

Much of our Parks for People-Denver program focuses on the South Platte River, where land that used to be taken up by industrial development is being offered for sale.

Located along the Collegiate Peaks Scenic & Historic Byway at the intersection of U.S. Highway 285 and U.S. Highway 24 just outside the Town of Buena Vista, the 186-acre Steel Ranch has been in ranching since the late 19th Century and has been passed down through several generations. With its substantial water rights and over a half mile of frontage on the Arkansas River, the Steel Ranch plays an important role in the agricultural, ecological and scenic heritage of the Upper Arkansas Valley, which has been documented by nationally renowned nature photographer John Fielder.

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.