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.

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.)

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.