News

Colorado Open Lands and San Isabel Land Protection Trust announced today they have merged operations, effective Dec. 31. The two nonprofit organizations share a mission – to permanently protect Colorado’s wild and working lands.

Great Outdoors Colorado has awarded $28,350 to San Isabel Land Protection Trust for wildfire recovery and mitigation work to be completed next fall.

Mile High Youth Corps crews will remove noxious weeds, plant saplings and thin overstocked forests on three protected properties in the Wet Mountains burned in the 2016 Junkins Fire.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust, the Trust for Public Land, Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, Great Outdoors Colorado and the Natural Resources Conservation Service have partnered to protect the 2,727- acre Taylor-Oswald Ranch, a working ranch next to the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness in Fremont County.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust honored key volunteers and announced a special fundraising campaign for a pending merger with Colorado Open Lands at Beer & Brats, our annual member appreciation event held Aug. 22.

Fine art and fun experiences mark the San Isabel Land Protection Trust’s 2021 online auction to support conservation in southern Colorado.

Water in the Wet Mountain Valley. Mention it, and people pay attention.

This year is one of abundance, but every year is a crapshoot on whether our watersheds will get the snow needed to ensure an adequate supply for agriculture and residential use in Custer County. Many times, it comes down to a few key snowstorms in the spring.

Springtime marks change and new beginnings, and for San Isabel Land Protection Trust that is particularly true this year. We are excited to announce an addition to our conservation team. Karen Foley joins us as our land and water steward.

You make it possible to keep this region wild and beautiful, with abundant wildlife, productive agriculture, flowing water and thriving rural communities.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust, one of the first small land trusts in the country awarded national accreditation, has earned that distinction for the third time.

DENVER – Keep It Colorado and the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust have partnered with Colorado State University to research and develop a tool that would enable conservation practitioners in Colorado to assess alternative ways of valuing conservation on private lands.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust has received $10,000 to purchase satellite imagery to monitor its 134 conservation properties across four counties. Keep It Colorado, a nonprofit coalition of conservation partners, awarded the grant.

Keep It Colorado received $155,000 from Great Outdoors Colorado's Resilient Communities program and the Gates Family Foundation to support safer, more efficient monitoring. Monitoring usually takes place through in-person visits.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust invites you to help celebrate its 25^th anniversary with a special online Art for the Sangres fine art sale.

In late 1994, the warning signs were gathering like smoke on the horizon, signaling trouble ahead.

Rapid population growth, troubling ranching economics and increasing development pressures worried newcomers and pioneer ranching families, environmentalists and private property rights advocates. What could save the Wet Mountain Valley’s sweeping landscape of working ranches and open spaces, an agricultural heritage that enriched the lives of longtime residents and the newly arrived, as well as provided unparalleled wildlife habitat?

Perseverance and patience are today’s watchwords, and the recently completed conservation easement on Redwing Ranch in Huerfano County demonstrates the rewards of such traits.

You make it possible to keep this region wild and beautiful, with abundant wildlife, productive agriculture, flowing water and thriving rural communities. We are grateful for your partnership in this important work. THANK YOU!

Irrigated hayfields in naturally arid lands offer a verdant oasis in an otherwise brown landscape. But what happens when the water leaves the land?

With our world reeling from COVID-19 and its uncertainties, the constants in life comfort us.

Here in southern Colorado, we see the signs of emerging spring – bluebirds return, green colors the landscape’s edges, wet snow lies atop the mountains. These glimpses of renewal strengthen us, especially when our daily lives are upended by health and economic gut-punches from a pandemic.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust has handed off the Hardscrabble Mountain Trail Run to long-time race director Hal Walter.

Please join us Thursday, Feb. 20, for the third of five meetings to develop a community plan for the Bluff and Summit parks. Continue Reading...

Anyone heading west on Main Street enjoys iconic views of the majestic Sangres and the pastoral beauty of the valley floor. It’s no accident the views are there for you to enjoy.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust, among the first land trusts in Colorado to be nationally accredited, is pleased to announce that it is seeking its second, five-year reaccreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance.

So we're setting regular office hours at San Isabel Land Protection Trust. Starting Jan. 6, we will be at the office reliably from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays. 

Our mission: San Isabel Land Protection Trust employs collaboration, innovation and science to safeguard health and resiliency of land, waters and wildlife in Colorado’s Fremont, Custer, Huerfano and western Pueblo counties. Through land protection and care programs, strategic partnerships and outreach, we help connect people to nature and ensure the lasting vitality of our land and rural communities.

How can we meet our unswerving mission in an ever-changing world? With so many environmental, social, economic and personal issues pulling and shoving us in different directions, how do we wisely choose the one path we take? These are questions San Isabel's leaders grapple with daily.

Great Outdoors Colorado has awarded San Isabel Land Protection Trust $525,000 to help protect the 2,687-acre Taylor-Oswald Ranch in Fremont County.

The grant is part of GOCO’s open-space grant program, which funds private and public land conservation projects that give outdoor recreationists a place to play (or simply enjoy the view), protect wildlife habitat, safeguard the state’s water supply and watersheds, and sustain local agriculture. 

San Isabel Land Protection Trust is positioning itself and the region for a strong future. We update you on the challenges ahead and how we are navigating our way through them by using collaborative, innovative and regenerative approaches.

Read the 2019 Fall/Winter Newsletter here.

Thank you to those who have donated already in 2019. They have invested in a forever beautiful, wild and productive future for the people and nature of the San Isabel region. Please join them by giving before Dec. 31. Continue Reading...

It’s not too late to let us know what you think the future should hold for the Bluff Park, a vital community asset.

Linda Poole, executive director at San Isabel Land Protection Trust, talks about our “Open Park” event for the Bluff Park in a “Valley Views” interview with KLZR’s Gary Taylor. The interview will air on 91.7 FM after the news at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Oct. 24, and at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 26.

The entire community is warmly invited to attend an “Open Park” event at the Bluff Park on Tuesday, Oct. 29. Thanks to a generous grant from the Laura Jane Musser Fund to San Isabel Land Protection Trust, the Open Park event will launch a community visioning process, which aims to culminate next spring in a comprehensive, long-range plan that adds value to the community through strategic management of the Bluff.

Valda Terauds, staff hydrologist at San Isabel Land Protection Trust, talks about fractured rock aquifers and how wells may behave in these areas in a “Valley Views” interview with KLZR’s Gary Taylor. The interview will air on 91.7 FM after the news at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, and Thursday, Oct. 17, and at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 19.

Well owners in the fractured rock areas of Custer and Fremont counties are invited to learn more about the region’s groundwater resources.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust is sponsoring a community discussion on the characteristics of fractured rock aquifers and how wells may behave in these areas. The meeting is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22,  in the community room at Cliff Lanes, 25 Main St., Westcliffe.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust named Cathy Griffin its Alice Proctor Outstanding Volunteer of the Year at the land trust’s annual member and volunteer appreciation event Aug. 18 at Mile 66 Ranch near Westcliffe.

A key component of San Isabel Land Protection Trust’s Sustainable Water Program is finding and sharing the best available science and information with the people who live or own property in the region. Staff hydrologist Valda Terauds shared what she had learned about how water works in Custer County in a June 27, 2019, special presentation: “Hydrogeology in Custer County – a Tale of Many Aquifers.” 

Envisioning the future of the Bluff Park is the focus of an $8,000 grant San Isabel Land Protection Trust has received from the Laura Jane Musser Fund.

The grant will provide resources for "open park" events and community meetings to develop a shared vision and management plan for the park. That will include identifying partners and ways to pay for sustaining the park in perpetuity. The park events and meetings are planned for this fall and winter.

We are excited to announce three new members on our San Isabel team.

The U.S. Forest Service Fisheries Program needs your help stocking a unique strain of cutthroat trout in Cottonwood Creek near Westcliffe. The cutthroats were rescued from Hayden Creek during the Hayden Pass fire in 2016. On July 1, they hope to introduce 3,000 fish into Cottonwood Creek.

Join us Thursday, June 27, for an informative presentation on how water works in Custer County.

For many property owners in the county, a critical question is, “Do I have water?”

If the answer is yes, the next question is, “Will I have water when my neighbor drills their well?”

Conserve. Collaborate. Regenerate.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust is growing! HIRING NOW: Bluff Park Steward (1 day a week) and Land Stewardship Specialist (full-time seasonal).

To read more about San Isabel and these job opportunities, click on the links below.

Bluff Steward

Land Steward Specialist

San Isabel welcomes staff hydrologist Valda Terauds and new board members Annie Overlin and Steve Oswald.

By Valda Terauds, San Isabel Hydrologist

In response to the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District’s proposed augmentation plan, I submit that the community’s problem with this plan is not a “lack of understanding.” The problem is that the plan does not include protecting the local aquifer that provides water to many rural residents in the Wet Mountain Valley.

For the third time, the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District, based in Salida, has filed an augmentation plan that uses Wet Mountain Valley water. San Isabel Land Protection Trust opposes this action in order to protect water resources on our conservation easements.

You make it possible to keep this region wild and beautiful, with abundant wildlife, productive agriculture, flowing water and thriving rural communities. 

Are you facing a required minimum distribution from your traditional IRA? A qualified charitable distribution could help you reduce your taxable income.

With a qualified charitable distribution, you can exclude from taxable income any IRA funds directly transferred to a qualified public charity. (San Isabel Land Protection Trust is 501(c)(3) charitable organization.)

“Love the prairies? Thank a rancher and eat a steak!" is a bumper sticker that can be seen in convention center parking lots across the western U.S. these days. The message is not unexpected on dusty ranch pickups and battered Suburbans, whose drivers are attending annual meetings of the state Cattlemen's Association or Farm Bureau.

Thanks to Greg Peterson of the Colorado Ag Water Alliance and Phil Brink of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association Ag Water Network for their information-packed presentations on community watershed planning in rural and agricultural communities in Colorado and the resources available to make it happen.

Learn how rural, mountain communities across Colorado are dealing with water shortages, buy-and-drys, augmentation plans and other water-related issues at a special presentation by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association Ag Water Network and the Colorado Ag Water Alliance.

The presentation, sponsored by the San Isabel Land Protection Trust, will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Cliff Lanes/Rancher’s Roost community room, 25 Main Street in Westcliffe. It is free and open to the public.

Tim, Ken and Becky Humphreys help make the 2019 Art for the Sangres a success.                       ©2019 Greg Smith

Our volunteers play a vital role for San Isabel Land Protection Trust. In 2019, they donated nearly 1,500 hours. The many ways they give to San Isabel is humbling and heartwarming.

In 2014, Kathi and Jack Thomas found their dream home in the Wet Mountains east of Westcliffe. But just two short years later, that dream went up in smoke in the Junkins Fire, an 18,000-acre conflagration that erupted in the early morning hours pushed by hurricane-force winds.

The fire destroyed the Thomases’ home and burned about 200 acres, much of it under a conservation easement with San Isabel Land Protection Trust. But they didn’t give up on their dream, and they didn’t give up on the land.

San Isabel Land Protection Land Trust would like to clear up any confusion about land preservation and our most commonly used tool, conservation easements. 

Our goal is simple: Protect land, water and wildlife while there is still time. 

San Isabel Land Protection Trust would like to thank all who contributed to the success of the 2018 Art for the Sangres – our talented artists, hard-working volunteers and generous sponsors and patrons.

Celebrate art and nature at the 22^nd annual Art for the Sangres, a fine art sale that supports vital land protection efforts in southern Colorado.

Art for the Sangres takes place in a refurbished barn at beautiful A Painted View Ranch just outside Westcliffe at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, offering a stunning fall backdrop for this special event.

The 2018 edition of the show features 11 returning favorites and 10 new artists. The sale and reception will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29.

Autumn's Essence by Kate Kiesler, 2018 featured artist 

This summer, San Isabel has enjoyed the hard work and very enjoyable company of stewardship intern Olivia Baxter, a recent graduate of Colorado State University with a bachelor’s degree in Ecosystem Science and Sustainability.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust named Mike Liebman its Alice Proctor Outstanding Volunteer of the Year at the land trust’s annual member appreciation event Aug. 12 at the Ruzanski Ranch near Westcliffe.

The event brought together more than 140 people, who celebrated the Land Trust’s 23 years of conservation work. The Ruzanski Ranch has been protected by a conservation easement since 2003.

WESTCLIFFE – The arts take center stage in this iconic mountain town in late September, with two premier events and a celebration of the arts for all ages.

Linda Poole has been named San Isabel Land Protection Trust’s new executive director.

“It is with great pleasure and anticipation that I tell you we have hired a new executive director,” said Larry Vickerman, board president. “Our search took many months, but the hard work has paid off. We have found the right person to take San Isabel into a bright future.”

Our sixth annual Hardscrabble Mountain Trail Run was a wonderful event Saturday thanks to our runners and walkers, the friends and family who came to Bear Basin Ranch to cheer them on and our generous sponsors. We are particularly grateful to Amy Finger and Gary Ziegler for hosting us at beautiful Bear Basin Ranch on a glorious June day. (Friday's winds died down, and much appreciated rain held off until Sunday.) More than 250 runners and walkers participated, including dozens of young people ages 17 and under who ran for free. To see more photos, click here.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust and the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District invite you to a special screening of a new documentary, "The Arkansas River: From Leadville to Lamar."

Connecting people to the land lies at the heart of the Hardscrabble Mountain Trail Run, an outreach and fundraising event for the San Isabel Land Protection Trust.

Such connections are drawing acclaimed adventure athelete, coach and author Steve Ilg and his family to this year's event. The sixth annual Hardscrabble run takes place at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 2, on Bear Basin Ranch, a 3,400-acre protected ranch just east of Westcliffe.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust seeks a stewardship and outreach intern to contribute to its land conservation and stewardship mission this summer. Start date is May 5; end date is Aug. 5 (flexible). To learn more, click here.

Last summer's intern, Veronica Travers (third from right), on a bird outing at Music Meadows Ranch. 

 (Photo ©2017 Greg Smith) 

San Isabel Land Protection Trust, in partnership with the Coaldale Alliance, is working to complete a precedent-setting agreement in the Upper Arkansas River Basin to ensure good stewardship of the CB Ranch following dry-up.

There are as many reasons for giving as there are people who give.

What connects you to the land? Why is protecting our land, water and wildlife important to you?

Why do you give to San Isabel Land Protection Trust?

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

An important part of our mission at San Isabel Land Protection Trust is facilitating parks and trails in our communities.

Connected communities encourage new development in areas more conducive to growth, taking pressure off the agricultural and open lands that define our part of Colorado and enhance our quality of life. Protecting our scenic farm and ranch lands and open space is central to San Isabel’s overall mission.

That’s why we’re involved in the Custer County trails initiative, Trails for All.

A Mile High Youth Corps crew recently carried out critical wildfire recovery work on a San Isabel conservation property burned in the 2016 Junkins Fire.

The crew accomplished a tremendous amount of work in late May and early June on Jack and Kathi Thomas' conservation property. The crew used materials on site to build an extensive series of erosion-control barriers and redirect water flow in an area damaged by heavy rains last summer.

This fall, a crew will remove unhealthy trees to improve wildlife habitat and reduce wildfire risk on Music Meadows Ranch. The crews will use removed trees to build erosion-control structures in erosion-prone areas on the ranch.

The crews are being paid through two $18,000 grants from Great Outdoors Colorado.

Huckleberry Hills Ranch, a 500-acre agricultural property in southwestern Pueblo County outside Rye, has been protected forever by a conservation easement held by San Isabel Land Protection Trust.

Conservation leaders Randy and Claricy Rusk talk here about their ranching lives and why conservation is important to them, our landscape and our way of life. We need your help to carry on their legacy.

Join San Isabel Land Protection Trust today! 

San Isabel’s board of directors has named fellow board member Chris Skagen interim executive director.

Kate Spinelli has been promoted to Stewardship Director at San Isabel.

The move emphasizes San Isabel’s commitment to working with landowners to protect and care for land and water in Huerfano, Custer, Fremont and Pueblo counties. The land trust aims to ensure the region remains a beautiful and wild landscape with a strong agricultural foundation and a vibrant, healthy community.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust named Vic Barnes its Alice Proctor Outstanding Volunteer of the Year at the land trust’s annual member appreciation event Aug. 27 at the Harold G. Vickerman Ranch.

Vic, who until earlier this year had served on San Isabel’s board of directors since 1999, helped lead the land trust through major growth during its first two decades.

Here in southern Colorado, we value our wild and working open spaces, productive agricultural lands, wildlife habitat and scenic open spaces for what they bring to our quality of life. Many of us are here because of the beauty and because the valley offers a quiet escape from the rapidly developing cities of Colorado and beyond.

Colorado’s spending on land conservation returns far more than pretty views, according to a recently released study. It provides a solid foundation for the state’s economic future.

Art for the Sangres enters its third decade of showcasing remarkable art for a vital cause – helping to protect land, water and wildlife while there is still time.

The event will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30, at A Painted View Ranch just outside Westcliffe.

The fine art show and reception is San Isabel Land Protect Trust’s largest fundraiser. The land trust has protected more than 40,000 acres of working ranches, agricultural and forest lands, water resources, wildlife habitat and scenic open spaces throughout southern Colorado.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust this summer has enjoyed the hard work and energetic personality of stewardship intern Veronica Travers. 

San Isabel Land Protection Trust remains engaged in western Fremont County, advocating for the agricultural use of water and ranchland preservation. Toward this end, the Gates Family Foundation has awarded San Isabel $210,000 toward purchasing water rights and a conservation easement on the Maverick Ranch, located along the Arkansas River five miles downstream from Salida.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust is one of six land trusts selected in the West to participate in a pilot program to develop ways to engage community members in our work and to better engage San Isabel in the community. The program is being developed by the Land Trust Alliance, a national coalition of conservation groups, and will be rolled out across the country.

 What better way to learn about the bountiful birds in our area than an early-morning walk with local bird enthusiast Leon Bright at beautiful Music Meadows Ranch.

Please join the Coaldale Alliance and San Isabel Land Protection Trust from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.  Tuesday, June 27, at the Coaldale community building for a summer update on the CB Ranch water court case.

A special thanks to all who have made a 2017 contribution toward our efforts. We so appreciate you; every dollar counts. You can donate here or mail to SILPT, P.O. Box 124, Westcliffe, CO 81252. Be sure to note that your donation is for the Coaldale Alliance.

Randy and Claricy Rusk, Wet Mountain Valley ranchers and conservation pioneers, are this year’s winners of the Stuart P. Dodge Award for lifetime achievement.

The award, part of the Southern Colorado Conservation Awards presented by Palmer Land Trust, recognizes the Rusks’ vision, leadership and influence in the ranching community in support of land conservation. 

Our fifth Hardscrabble Mountain Trail Run was a day to remember thanks to our runners and walkers, the friends and family who came out to Bear Basin Ranch to cheer them on, our wonderful volunteers and our generous sponsors.

San Isabel extends a big thank you to Vic Barnes for nearly two decades of service on our board of directors, most recently as vice president. Vic had served on San Isabel's board since 1998. We’re happy to report Vic will continue to serve on San Isabel’s Land Preservation Committee, keeping his expertise and experience at the table. Thanks, Vic, for 19 years of board service!

Joining the San Isabel board are Kristie Nackord, San Isabel’s former development director, and attorney Chris Skagen.

The 5th annual Hardscrabble Mountain Trail Run was a fabulous success thanks to our participants, volunteers, sponsors, and the friends and family who cheered on our racers at Bear Basin Ranch. We couldn't ahve asked for better weather or better folks to spend the day with. You help San Isabel Land Protection Trust protet working ranches and farms, scenic open spaces, clean water and wildlife habitat. A BIG thank you tall, and we hope to see you next year.

Top finishers:

10K Run

• Women, Bridget Rankin, Amarillo, Texas, 55:20.1
• Men, Taylor Stack, Salida, 41:19.9

5K Run

• Women, Joanna McIntyre, Saida, CO, 25:23.5
• Men, Cody Rankin, Amarillo, Texas, 21:26.6

Complete results can be found here.

Wildfire changed our landscape and our community last year. As the coming rains wash over burned soils, the fire’s legacy will continue to change the landscape and waterscape for years to come. Much can be done to help alleviate negative impacts on safety, homes, roads and water supply. But we need your help.

Learn how to protect your home and property at a community wildfire workshop hosted by local, state and federal officials.

The free workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, April 28, at the Wet Mountain Fire Protection District office, 215 Fourth St. in Westcliffe. 

With spring here and the forest beginning to regenerate after last fall’s Junkins Fire, our local community is getting ready for what comes next.

The Bluff Park is the jewel of downtown Westcliffe, and San Isabel Land Protection Trust wants to polish it with your help.

The Land Trust hopes to create a crew of volunteers – Bluff Stewards – to help with planting and maintaining gardens and landscaping. Think Friends of the Library but with a gardening twist – and a spectacular view.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust  — with your help — has drafted a new three-year strategic plan that will take us to 2020. 

San Isabel Land Protection Trust’s efforts to enhance The Bluff Park have received a $3,000 boost from the Colorado Garden Foundation.

Young people from across south central Colorado will work to reduce fire risk and treat invasive weeds on Duckett Creek Ranch, a protected ranch on the eastern flank of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Westcliffe.

A month after firefighters contained the fast-moving Junkins Fire, San Isabel Land Protection Trust is engaging with landowners and agency partners to assess damage, establish a recovery plan and connect landowners with much-needed resources.

The 20^th annual Art for the Sangres proved one for the record books, tallying nearly $170,000 in fine art sales Sept. 23 and 24.

San Isabel welcomes Janet Smith of Westcliffe as our new director of development.

Your support of San Isabel Land Protection Trust shows you care about land, water and wildlife. We hope you will do even more to safeguard our shared legacy. Support San Isabel tomorrow on Colorado Gives Day! Double matching funds are available to make your gift go the extra mile. 

We hope you will join us September 24 for our 20^th annual Art for the Sangres fundraiser. The event is a celebration of beauty – art, land and community. The setting: A Painted View Ranch, three miles outside Westcliffe in the stunning Wet Mountain Valley. It could not be more aptly named for the occasion.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust named Custer County resident Anita Welch its Alice Proctor Outstanding Volunteer of the Year at the Land Trust’s annual member appreciation event Sunday at the Bluff Park.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust is pleased to announce the appointments of Blake Osborn (Cañon City) and Dianne Whalen (Westcliffe) to their 2016 Board of Directors. They wish farewell to outgoing Directors Claricy Rusk, Mary Ellen Lesage and Claudia Cole, and Director of Development, Kristie Nackord.

The Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Board awarded a $50,000 grant to San Isabel Land Protection Trust on Monday to conserve Huckleberry Hills Ranch in western Pueblo County.

If you are a member of San Isabel Land Protection Trust, we invite you to join us and our hosts, Curt & Peggy Sorenson, to tour their protected land and hear the Garden Park story of public-private collaboration for land restoration.

We'd like to introduce you to Michael Banz and Kathy Blaha, long-time friends and members of San Isabel Land Protection Trust and founding members of our Evergreen Giving Club. We recently asked them why they give to San Isabel. Below are there answers.

Join San Isabel Land Protection Trust and the Custer County Chamber of Commerce for community coffee and light breakfast on Wednesday, April 13 from 9am - 10am.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust welcomes Kate Spinelli to the team as the new Stewardship Specialist, bringing the land trust to three, full-time staff members.

San Isabel Land Protection Trust is offering a forest health workshop on Thursday, February 18, covering topics such as local forest history, pests and diseases, and more. The workshop will be located at Second Street Café in Westcliffe and is hosted by San Isabel Land Protection Trust in partnership with Colorado State Forest Service, United States Forest Service, Colorado State University Extension and the Custer County Conservation District.