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.

We have done several projects in the Kentucky Placer, a narrow but critical piece of previously unprotected property between the town of Telluride and its glorious back country, running from Bear Creek Preserve to the famed Bridal Veil Falls along the south side of the valley.

In 2016, The Trust for Public Land protected the last piece of privately-held commercial property within Rocky Mountain National Park. Just down valley from the park’s entrance station on Fall River Road, the Cascade Cottages offered a rustic retreat for seven decades of park visitors.

In late 2009, The Trust for Public Land helped permanently protect a high mountain meadow in Chaffee County through conservation easement on this family-owned ranch.

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.

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.