“The creek that runs through our pasture feeds the hayfields that sustain us each winter. Cottonwoods line its banks, providing refuge to deer, elk and migrating birds and trout. Our fences follow lines first strung by our family decades ago. Like many ranching families across Colorado, we don’t just work this land — we care for it, season after season, hoping to pass it to the next generation and preserve a way of life that helps define our state.

“Keeping lands like ours intact is getting harder. Development pressure is constant. Land values climb while property taxes, operating costs and weather uncertainty rise. Profit margins are thin. For many families who want to keep ranches whole and productive, the financial realities make it nearly impossible to resist offers that would break up or sell the land. Once subdivided, a ranch rarely returns to working condition.

“That is why Colorado’s Conservation Easement Tax Credit Program matters.”

— Jo Stanko

Jo Stanko is the owner and operator of a centennial ranch in Steamboat Spring. Stanko has held positions on the Cattlemen's Beef Board, the Colorado Agricultural Commission, and was the chairperson of the state committee for the Farm Services Agency. Read more from Jo in The Daily Sentinel: https://www.gjsentinel.com/opinion/columns/conservation-easements-conserving-more-than-just-land/article_b7a10c01-3994-4381-850c-c0394375e6a4.html

Photo: Noah Wetzel