Photo of the Beaver Meadows project in Park County.
DENVER, Colo. — A new round of funding through the Transaction Cost Assistance Program is advancing the protection of high-value conservation lands across Colorado. Funded by Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) and managed by Keep It Colorado, the program helps nonprofit land trusts cover critical costs associated with conservation easement transactions, accelerating projects that protect wildlife habitat, agricultural lands, water resources, and public access.
As Colorado continues to experience rapid population growth and development, particularly in rural and mountain communities, conserving working lands and natural areas has become more urgent and more complex. While Colorado’s conservation easement tax credit remains a nationally recognized tool for private land conservation, it does not cover all the costs required to complete an easement, and demand for state and federal conservation dollars continues to outpace available funding.
This round of grants invests in seven conservation projects from the Roaring Fork Valley to the San Luis Valley and southwest Colorado, collectively safeguarding 5,144 acres of ecologically and economically important landscapes.
“A conservation easement is a powerful tool to protect Colorado’s land, water, and way of life,” said Robyn Paulekas, Executive Director of Keep It Colorado. “But these projects are complex, and funding gaps can stall or even stop them. These grants help ensure that locally led conservation efforts can move forward in an evolving funding landscape.”
Together, these projects reflect a shared commitment to conserving Colorado’s most important landscapes: working lands that sustain rural economies, natural areas that support biodiversity, and places that provide outdoor recreation and cultural connection.
By covering transaction-related costs, the Transaction Cost Assistance Program helps ensure that conservation projects can move forward efficiently, leveraging local partnerships and private landowner leadership to deliver lasting impact.
Funded Projects
Aspen Valley Land Trust, $75,000 for Siebert on the Roaring Fork
This 50-acre property just outside Basalt includes irrigated hayfields, intact river habitat, and nearly half a mile of frontage along the Roaring Fork River. Located in the rapidly developing Willits corridor, the land provides important open space and wildlife habitat in an area facing intense residential development pressure.
Adjacent to Glassier Open Space and the Willits Lane multi-use trail, the property is the last large undeveloped and unprotected riverfront parcel in this section of the mid-valley. Recognized for its high biodiversity, the land supports a wide range of wildlife and sensitive plant species, including the rare Ute Ladies’ Tresses orchid. Conserving the property will help protect river health, wildlife habitat, agricultural land, and scenic open space in one of the Roaring Fork Valley’s fastest-growing areas.
Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, $50,000 for RH Ranch
This approximately 1,400-acre working cattle ranch between Meeker and Rifle supports livestock grazing, seasonal hunting, and wildlife habitat across sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, and riparian landscapes. Managed with practices such as rotational grazing, wildlife-friendly fencing, invasive weed control, and water improvements, the ranch provides important habitat for elk, mule deer, greater sage-grouse, burrowing owls, bald eagles, and other species.
The property also serves the local economy through agricultural production and seasonal outfitting. In 2026, the Lee Fire burned part of the ranch, damaging miles of fencing and water infrastructure. Despite those setbacks, the family remains committed to restoring the land, and new vegetation growth is already demonstrating the resilience of the landscape and the long-term value of conservation-focused stewardship. Note: This grant was funded by The Nature Conservancy.
Colorado Open Lands, $75,000 for Koch Ranch
This 425-acre ranch in the Wet Mountain Valley of northern Custer County includes wetlands, grasslands, irrigated hayfields, and conifer forests that provide year-round habitat for elk, mule deer, pronghorn, black bear, wild turkey, cutthroat trout, sandhill cranes, and many other species. The property’s rare groundwater-fed wetlands also support uncommon native plants found in few places in Colorado.
Stewarded by the same family since 1871, the ranch contains highly productive agricultural land and important water rights that help sustain both farming and wildlife habitat. Conserving the property will protect its agricultural heritage, ecological value, and scenic character while supporting broader efforts to preserve the Wet Mountain Valley’s ranching landscape and natural resources for future generations.
Montezuma Land Conservancy, $75,000 for Trail Canyon Ranch
Situated between Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe lands, this 200-acre property is part of a larger effort to protect more than 1,000 connected acres and three miles of Trail Canyon in southwest Colorado. Conserving the land will create an important wildlife and conservation corridor linking McElmo Canyon and Trail Canyon while building on previous regional conservation successes.
The property includes wetlands shaped by decades of beaver activity, nearly two miles of creek habitat, irrigated farmland, a native plant nursery, pinon-juniper woodlands, and sandstone canyon walls. Managed to support wildlife and native plants, the land provides habitat for several sensitive species, including the western yellow-billed cuckoo, southwestern willow flycatcher, and the rare Primula specuicola flower.
Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, $75,000 for Bachelor Loop
Mineral County acquired 300 acres of mountainous land north of Creede through a historic settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency and plans to permanently protect the property while creating a new outdoor recreation area with public access. Located near the Creede Underground Mining Museum, the site will highlight the region’s mining history as well as the long-standing connections Indigenous and other communities have to the area.
Protecting the land will also help safeguard a stretch of Willow Creek near the headwaters of the Rio Grande by limiting disturbance in an area affected by historic mining impacts. The property has been recognized for its important wildlife habitat and biodiversity, with more than 20 sensitive plant and animal species identified across its forests, wetlands, and mountain terrain.
Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, $75,000 for Timberline Cattle
This 2,040-acre ranch in the San Luis Valley uses senior water rights to support seasonal flood irrigation, livestock grazing, and drought-conscious farming practices designed to improve long-term resilience in a region facing significant water challenges. The landowner uses strategies such as strategically fallowing fields and growing water conscious crops to conserve water while maintaining agricultural productivity.
Connected to other conserved lands near the Alamosa National Wildlife Refuge and the Rio Grande Natural Area, the property includes nearly 1,000 acres of wetlands and important upland habitat for elk, migratory waterfowl, and other wildlife. Sandhill cranes regularly stop there during spring and fall migrations. Conserving the ranch and its water rights will help sustain agriculture, wildlife habitat, and future generations of producers in the San Luis Valley.
The Conservation Fund, $75,000 for Beaver Meadows
Located just 45 minutes from Denver in the Upper South Platte River watershed, this 729-acre property borders a roadless area of Pike National Forest and Staunton State Park. Its rolling meadows, rocky outcroppings, streams, and forests provide important habitat for elk, moose, mule deer, bighorn sheep, black bear, wild turkey, and other wildlife.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife has identified the property as a high conservation priority for the area and is working with The Conservation Fund to place a conservation easement on the land to permanently protect its natural resources and wildlife habitat, including efforts supporting native Greenback cutthroat trout restoration.
For more information about the Transaction Cost Assistance Program, visit keepitco.org/tcap.
About Keep It Colorado
Keep It Colorado serves as a unified voice for conservation organizations focused on private lands conservation, and does so by bringing together land trusts, public agencies and conservation champions around a vision to create a Colorado where people, lands, waters and wildlife thrive. Keep It Colorado advocates for sound public policy; provides connection and collaboration opportunities for conservation partners; offers a forum to address emerging conservation issues and opportunities; pursues sustainable funding and programmatic tools and solutions; and works to advance a culture of conservation in Colorado. Learn more at www.keepitco.org.
About Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO)
GOCO invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces. Created by Colorado voters in 1992 through a constitutional amendment, GOCO has since invested $1.7 billion in 5,900 projects across all 64 counties. Learn more at GOCO.org.
