Our Mission & History

The Mission of the Black Canyon Regional Land Trust is to conserve the open lands and rural heritage of western Colorado, primarily in the watersheds of the Uncompahgre, North Fork of the Gunnison, and lower Gunnison Rivers and surrounding areas, for the benefit of the public, today and in perpetuity. Since 1993, Black Canyon Regional Land Trust has worked in partnership with private landowners, communities, foundations, and others to conserve and steward more than 54,000 acres of private land through cooperative conservation easement agreements.



The story of Black Canyon Regional Land Trust begins in the early 1990’s with two independent groups of local citizens that each wanted to help preserve open space and protect the special way of life that defined their areas.  Valley Land Conservancy worked within the Uncompahgre River watershed from offices in Ridgway and Montrose. Three Rivers Land Trust worked within the North Fork of the Gunnison River Watershed.

Valley Land Conservancy and Three Rivers Land Trust both shared the concern that rapid growth and intense development pressure was crowding ranching, agriculture, riparian areas and fragmenting important animal and plant habitats as well as reducing the overall openness of the landscape. Both groups were dedicated to preserving our unique rural heritage. Valley Land Conservancy and Three Rivers Land Trust merged into a single organization, the Black Canyon Land Trust, in 2000.

In 2011, we reenergized the regional character of our land trust and added the term “Regional” to our name. This change simply reminds us that we are a truly regional land trust serving an area that encompasses five counties and a very large part of western Colorado.  Indeed BCRLT holds easements in a few special areas outside of our normal service area. We also adopted a brand new logo that references the character of our entire service area, from the canyons, plateaus and mesas to the tops of the San Juan peaks.

We continue to offer a non-governmental, voluntary approach for conserving open space with unique conservation easements. Each conservation easement is negotiated to fit the desires and conservation values of each individual land owner.  The resulting conservation agreements protect each land owner’s private property rights and do not interfere with the landowner’s ability to continue to work and live on their land in the way they have historically done.

BCRLT Guiding Principles

BCLRT shall:


• Strive to preserve agricultural lands that provide critical mass and have the potential of preserving viable agriculture.
 
• Strive to preserve intact ecosystems for plants and animals.
 
• Strive to preserve land that provides for community separators.
 
• Strive to preserve land that has scenic, cultural, historical, and recreational conservation values.