Eagle Valley Land Trust

Monitoring: EVLT Safeguards the Public Benefit

The Land Stewardship Program ensures that the conservation values of our easements are protected . . . Forever.

Land Stewardship Program

The Land Stewardship Program facilitates the long-term sustainability of the character of our community.

EVLT’s Land Stewardship Program prevents our lands from being abused or overused so that future generations may enjoy them.  This program establishes benchmarks, guidelines and actions for monitoring conserved easements.

EVLT Stewardship Responsibilities

Our responsibilities are to:

  • Establish conservation value.
  • Monitor conservation properties each year.
  • Protect conservation values of the properties.
  • Collaborate with landowners to identify land management issues.
  • Provide an appropriate recommendations and actions to protect land.
  • Prevent damage to future conservation projects.
  • Document monitoring findings and archive.
  • Ensure public access to recreational conservation easements.

Protecting our Open Space

EVLT is the land steward of over 30 properties and 7,700 acres of our precious open spaces in Eagle County, Colorado.

Partnering with other organizations, we are able to conserve an additional 4,000 acres for the benefit of all Eagle County residents and guests.

This year, Eagle Valley Land Trust worked with the owners of West Avon Preserve to improve wildlife closures, restore old social trails, improve user experience and re-vegetate illegal trails and protect the conservation value of the property.

Together, we protect our favorite places

Each year, EVLT aims to conserve 1,000 acres of new land.  Contact us to learn how you can support the Land Stewardship Program.

The Land Stewardship Program facilitates the long-term sustainability of our community’s environment. When a property is conserved, its “conservation value” is assessed and established as the baseline, or benchmark, against which all future monitoring visits will be compared. As a major part of the Stewardship Program, EVLT is required to monitor the properties each year to ensure the conservation values of the properties remain protected, collaborate with landowners regarding management issues, and document findings to provide an appropriate archive of the fulfillment of EVLT’s stewardship duty.

The Land Stewardship program ensures that the conservation values of our easements are protected in perpetuity. Failure to provide this program could result in trail closures, damage to educational venues, and inability for the Land Trust to conserve additional lands.

EVLT’s Land Stewardship function prevents our lands from being abused or “loved to death” (overused) so that future generations may enjoy them. We visit each conserved property every year, collaborate with the owners regarding management issues, and document our findings to provide an appropriate archive of our stewardship duty. When resource damage is found, EVLT intervenes to make sure that the damage is remedied before it sets a precedent that could jeopardize future conservation projects or cause restrictions on recreational access altogether.

For example, EVLT staff worked with the owners of West Avon Preserve to improve wildlife closures, restore old social trails, improve user experience and re-vegetate illegal trails that were having a detrimental effect on the conservation values of the property. EVLT performs this kind of duty on all of the properties it oversees.

The importance of this vital function cannot be understated and your support will ensure that it continues. We cannot add to our portfolio of conserved land if we do not first proficiently steward what we already have. Our work is important today, but essential if we are to sustain our mountain environment for future generations to enjoy.

EVLT, through its monitoring and landowner outreach program also encourages and facilitates improvements to wildlife habitat, forest management, agricultural practices, recreational access, and water quality.

The Land Stewardship Program is both a legal requirement and mission-critical for Eagle Valley Land Trust. The program is essential as EVLT promotes the environmental sustainability of all conserved properties, ensuring yearly that they are properly stewarded and managed (cared for), and conserved to the standard established by the conservation easement.

EVLT’s Land Stewardship Program expects the following outcomes:

  • All properties are monitored and any issues resolved;
  • All trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding remain open and new trails can be created;
  • All acres providing scenic views remain beautiful and unprotected scenic views can be permanently protected in the future;
  • All acres of wildlife habitat remains robust and additional habitat can be conserved;
  • All acres of stunning, working ranch lands (that produce food locally, provide critical winter range habitat, secure water rights for our rivers, and create pastoral vistas) remain so, allowing for additional acres of agricultural land to be preserved;
  • All public river access remain available for recreation and additional river corridors can be protected in the future;
  • All acres remain open to the public for picnics, hikes, and recreation and additional acreage can be preserved;
  • EVLT will spend less time performing fundraising which distracts from our goal of conserving more land; and
  • 10s of thousands more acres are managed well because EVLT’s trained staff collaborates with all interested landowners by providing support, management feedback, technical advice, and resources for their land management issues; and
  • Hundreds of youth and adults receive outdoor education on EVLT properties annually, and additional properties secured by EVLT increase youth education throughout the Valley.