Rivers, Arroyos, and Ranchland
Palmer Land Trust (PLT) was awarded in December 2009, a Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Conservation Excellence Grant. For GOCO, this is a brand new grant designed to expand land trust operations into geographically underserved areas. PLT has capitalized on this opportunity by facilitating the community-driven Rivers, Arroyos, and Ranchland Conservation Planning Project (RAR). The planning area encompasses a varied landscape characterized by biologically diverse riparian habitat and rushing waters of the Arkansas, Huerfano, and Saint Charles rivers; the bucolic foothill region in and around Beulah and Rye in western Pueblo County; the intact and untilled Huerfano Uplands of southern Pueblo County; and the shortgrass prairie and productive ranchlands of western Crowley and Otero Counties. 
The Lower Arkansas Valley within the RAR project area is an important component of PLT’s service territory that contains conservation values of state and national significance; however the area remains largely underserved by conservation organizations, with no state certified, local land trust leading strategic conservation efforts. In an effort to accelerate conservation efforts in the region, PLT has launched a grassroots, community-driven planning effort that defines conservation objectives and establishes strategies for success. These objectives include:
- completing a detailed analysis of natural, visual, and agricultural resources;
- increasing landowner education and stimulating conservation inquiry by conducting a series of landowner forums across communities; and
- increasing conservation capacity by identifying partnership opportunities and strengthening conservation constituencies.
The Lower Arkansas Valley region is a landscape in flux. Once a vast countryside of prairie, canyons, and foothills, this area is increasingly becoming fragmented by rural development. The region’s historical agriculture and ranching uses are quickly being replaced with residential homes and hobby ranches (aka “ranchettes”). Land conversion from large parcels historically used for ranching and agriculture to small parcels for residential and recreational uses is driven by several factors, including aging ownership, agricultural abandonment, rising land values, population growth, and competing water and resource interests. A majority of the RAR project area is shortgrass prairie habitat. The conservation of the shortgrass prairie is urgent. Temperate Grasslands are one of the least protected and most highly converted habitat types on Earth, with only 2% protected globally and less than 5% protected in the United States. Many of the species that call the shortgrass prairie home require large chunks of unfragmented, undeveloped land.
The future of the RAR project area is unknown. However, even in the face of growing number of challenges, numerous large parcels remain in their natural historic state: intact and untilled. PLT is optimistic the RAR conservation plan will be a catalyst for conservation success in a region worthy of protection.
