The Palmer Land Trust is a public, non-profit land trust composed of individuals, families, and businesses dedicated to the permanent protection of open space, agricultural, scenic, and natural lands in southeastern Colorado. To conserve these resources, we work on behalf of the community with private landowners and public agencies. Our approach to land preservation and the agreements we conclude emerge from the conservation desires of the participants and the unique characteristics of each property.

By preserving diverse, undeveloped, private and public lands in southeastern Colorado, we also secure habitat for wildlife and native plants, support agriculture and ranching on family lands, provide recreational and educational opportunities, protect important historical sites, and maintain scenic vistas for the benefit of present residents and future generations.

Where We Work

 Palmer Land Trust’s service area is coded using warm colors for higher priority conservation areas and cool colors for lower priority conservation areas:

·        Red-             Highest

·        Yellow-       High

·        Green-         Medium

·        Blue-            Low

·        Dark Blue- Lowest

 In considering land protection activities in any area, Palmer Land Trust gauges its involvement based on a variety of factors, including: the priority rating, the conservation values present, the actual or potential presence of conservation threats, the context of other protected lands and/or conservation activities in the immediate vicinity, its own organizational capacity, and other factors.

Our Strategic Priorities

Within its service area, Palmer Land Trust spearheads five strategic initiatives that focus on protecting large, contiguous landscapes.  These strategic initiatives represent Palmer’s highest conservation priorities and include:

·        The Front Range Backdrop Land Protection Initiative (Palmer Lake to Penrose)

·        The Gold Belt Byway Land Protection Initiative

·        The Public Open Space Land Protection Initiative (Urban Recreation/Open Space)

·        The Peak to Prairie Land Protection Initiative (Working Landscapes)

·        Additional Small Areas Initiatives

Photograph courtesy of Michael Myers

Photograph courtesy of Michael Myers

Protecting the Conservation Easement Tax Credits

Colorado’s Conservation Easement Tax Credit Program is designed to protect our State’s diminishing wild lands, open spaces, and agricultural areas.  It does so by supporting the State’s most effective conservation tool, the conservation easement.  The tax credit program has been the single greatest land protection tool in Colorado.  It allows for the protection of important natural areas for significantly less money than would be needed to purchase land or easements outright.  But today the tax credit program faces challenges.  See our Spring, 2008 newsletter for more details on the tax credit program and the its associated difficulties.  Show your support of the progressive tax credit program and land conservation in Colorado by contacting your legislator in Palmer Land Trust's service area.