The Journal
The Great Outdoors Colorado board awarded a $72,377 grant to Montezuma Land Conservancy to implement community-informed strategic conservation plan revisions, launch a small farm protection initiative and hire a conservation fellow.
Montezuma Land Conservancy has faced a 50% budget cut in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the funding will support its financial stability and ongoing work in Southwest Colorado.
With the funding, MLC will continue work on its community values assessment to inform a new strategic conservation plan and identify priority conservation areas determined through GIS mapping, data from drought resiliency and climate models, and big game habitat.
Funding will also explore a farm conservation program to protect small, family-owned farms producing local fruits, vegetables and meats.
Finally, the grant will assist MLC in hiring a conservation fellow from the community. The fellow will lead outreach programs to stakeholders, develop tools to advance the small farms protection initiative and help analyze community survey results.
For more information, visit www.GOCO.org.