Letters from the Executive Director
June, 2013
Standing in the Potter Family's Shoes
I and a handful of other land conservation supporters from around the western slope had the privilege to spend a little bit of a late June morning on the Potter family ranch lying just north of the small mining town of Ouray along the Uncompahgre River. Our thanks to Henry Potter for so patiently and happily taking time out of his business day to be with us that morning.
The Uncompahgre River is still in its upper reaches as it passes through the Potter Ranch only a little below where the San Juan Mountains spit the Uncompahgre's flow out through narrow gorges and precipitous declines and into the town of Ouray. By the time that it hits the Potter ranch the valley is wide and the gradient is easy. Nevertheless, there is no effective control of the river above the Potter Ranch and I suspect it has been difficult to predict and a challenge to contain for the Potter family through the decades. Spring flows prevented our getting closer than two football fields away from the river the morning of our visit. Everything depends on the water in that river. This is a fair year.
Mr. Potter showed us his cattle and hay operation as he brought us up to date on the history of the Potter family in the upper Uncompahgre Valley (100 years in 2014) and the ranch itself. In 2009 the Potter family worked with BCRLT to place a conservation easement on a portion of the family ranch. Mr. Potter told us the other morning that he did that because he "just couldn't see a bunch of houses out there", as he looked over to those awesome irrigated fields that so many of us enjoy every time we drive between Ouray and Ridgway below.
I learned an enormous amount in the time I spent on the Potter ranch and it was only a few hours. Interestingly, I learned the self evident truth that the many newer homes that now look directly down on the Potter ranch from their foundations up in the hills above and to the east of the Potter irrigated fields have unalterably and significantly changed the Potter family's visual experience and privacy from their valley ranch land. I say this is a self evident truth because when you are actually standing down there in the Potter fields in the bottom of the valley looking up at the world around you, it is self evident that the presence of the homes looking down on the Potter fields changed the experience of living on the Potter ranch. That is my conclusion, not prompted by anything that Henry Potter said, but because you just cannot escape it when you are down there.
The remarkable thing is, I had no idea that there were so many homes perched up on that hill despite the fact that I have driven that road regularly for almost two decades. I had to stand in the Potter family's shoes down in the valley before I saw the impact to them.
As I wonder about how to process all of that and much more learned on my visit to the Potter ranch, I appreciate all the more the fact that in 2009 the Potter family chose to pioneer, in the Uncompahgre Valley, the idea of a landowning family voluntarily choosing land and agricultural conservation as the exercise of their private property rights. As Ouray County continues to struggle with different regulatory approaches and more compulsive methods of protecting our scenic vistas, BCRLT and remarkable landowners like the Potter family are quietly but effectively securing our community's open space, scenic vistas and working landscapes for ourselves and the next generations.
I did say that the Potters were pioneers in private land conservation in Ouray County in 2009. They continue to be part of a small band of families who have dedicated all or portions of their historic Ouray County ranch land to open space and traditional agriculture forever. BCRLT is working hard to expand that forward thinking band of conserving landowners in Ouray County and we are happy to chat with anyone until we are blue in the face about the benefits of private land conservation and about any concerns or questions that landowners may have about private land conservation options in Colorado.
It doesn't hurt to talk so give us a shout if you are a landowner sitting on your fence about conserving your agricultural land for your family now and forever. I know that there are many of you out there who would dearly love to protect your family's ground and operation from things like death tax and failing interest in ranching in the upcoming generations. If the problem is that you believe that a conservation easement is intrusive, is anti-cow or will make you regret that you did it, I suspect you are laboring under a bit of misinformation. It’s out there but it’s wrong. Come talk with us. It would be our pleasure to speak with you.
Perpetually yours,
Susan McIntosh, Executive Director
March, 2013
A Broader Mission of Land Conservation And Stewardship
At Black Canyon Regional Land Trust we are doing more about land conservation and stewardship today than we ever have before. As we embark on our 20th year it is time to blossom into everything that a regional land trust working in the most spectacular and special country around ought to be.
So, as BCRLT's Stewardship Director Olivia Bartlett departs BCRLT and heads back home to New England, we are excited to welcome our new Director of Land Stewardship Marta Laylander to the BCRLT team. Marta comes to us with a Masters level education and a lifetime spent working for the land.
Photo by BCRLT
It is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work out on the land and that is exactly where Marta has spent all of her life. As a home grown westerner, ranch hand, former county extension agent and long time cattle and hay rancher in Montrose County, Marta is ready to hit the ground running. In addition to the traditional stewardship roles and duties such as easement monitoring and administration, Marta has a few new ideas that we think you will like.
Beginning in this, our 20th anniversary year, BCRLT will begin to give back to our conserving landowners and to our supporting community at large. Using online workshops, field demonstration projects, blogs, newsletter articles and just plain old hard earned experience and advice, Marta and BCRLT will bring the "how-to" and the "why" of good land management to everyone who is interested in listening and learning. Got tough weed trouble, blown out stream channels, tired rangeland, native seeding questions? Marta's got answers.
A very successful launch of our Black Canyon Field Club highlights yet another way that our broadened spirit and energy is touching our community. It also highlights the outstanding work of BCRLT's Communications Coordinator Alecia Phillips. Alecia joined the BCRLT team a few months ago fresh from the Colorado Coalition of Land Trust's Center of Excellence and she is burning up the lines of communication spreading the gospel of land conservation and stewardship far and wide. Nearly 30 hikers gathered at Black Canyon National Park in February for our inaugural Black Canyon Field Club snowshoe ramble around the south rim of Black Canyon. Watch for Field Club outings all through the year and a special kids' learning camp this summer. If it involves human beings communicating about land conservation and stewardship it will involve Alecia.
Photo by BCRLT
Finally, through the course of 2013, we will develop the Ouray County phase of our new Strategic Conservation Plan. Once developed the plan will guide our conservation focus in Ouray County based on a truly strategic approach. We will develop that plan not in a closed land trust silo but by inviting key community members, members of the public and other stakeholders in the county to be our partners in exploring, developing and understanding the right balance of land conservation and use for Ouray County.
That is an ambitious agenda for our 20th year. We are convinced it is the right time and we are ready for it. So come out and join us. We promise to give you many great opportunities to get involved and learn all year long.
Perpetually yours,
Susan McIntosh, Executive Director
