RBC | The Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) board awarded a $40,000 grant through Keep It Colorado to Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT) to permanently protect 2,800 acres of Nine Mile Ranch with a conservation easement.
This grant is part of Keep It Colorado’s Transaction Cost Assistance Program (TCAP), which re-grants GOCO funds to nonprofit land trusts to help cover the costs associated with conservation easement transactions. It enables landowners who have urgent opportunities to conserve their properties, but who face financial barriers to facilitating the transaction, to conserve land more quickly.
With its $40,000 grant, CCALT will permanently protect the Nine Mile Ranch property, which includes rangeland and 3.9 miles of stream between Meeker and White River National Forest. It sits adjacent to the Jensen State Wildlife Area and Bureau of Land Management lands. The high-quality habitat and connectivity to other undeveloped landscapes mean that imperiled species like sagebrush vole, burrowing owl, dusky grouse, Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, and greater sandhill crane have the opportunity to thrive. Hay meadows are irrigated by water rights that will be tied to the property for agricultural use.
To date, GOCO has invested more than $21.4 million in Rio Blanco County and partnered to conserve 35,034 acres of land there. GOCO funding has supported Meeker Riverfront Restoration, the protection of Collins Mountain Ranch, and Meeker School District Stadium Renewal, among other projects.
Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to help preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers, and open spaces. GOCO’s independent board awards competitive grants to local governments and land trusts and makes investments through Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Created when voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1992, GOCO has since funded more than 5,700 projects in all 64 counties of Colorado without any tax dollar support. Visit GOCO.org for more information.