SUMMIT COUNTY — With a strong volunteer base and big dreams, Continental Divide Land Trust works hard to preserve Summit County's natural landscape.

“Open space and preserving it is one of the most important things to think about in Summit County,” said Terry Hershey, a CDLT volunteer and board member.

And, according to executive director Leigh Girvin, “our mission is to permanently preserve and protect irreplaceable natural land in and around Summit County for current and future generations through land preservation agreements, acquisition, education, and stewardship.”

“I think most people here in Summit County — whether vacationing, living here, or second-home owners — do it because of the natural beauty. It's the number-one driver of our economy, and people want to protect the natural resources they've come here to enjoy,” Girvin said. “Land conservation provides for the protection of scenic views, wildlife habitat, agriculture and ranching — things that are critical to quality of life in the community.”

What makes CDLT unique is that it's eligible to hold conservation easements — “A voluntary conveyance of a legal interest in land where the land owner gives up certain property rights that might harm natural qualities of the land,” Girvin said. “And in giving those up, they are essentially donating them to a land conservancy like CDLT.”

Girvin also noted that once a land owner enters into a conservation easement, he or she is eligible for generous tax benefits.

“We have 2,600 acres protected in 14 conservation easements,” Girvin added. “We also own one property. Those are in Summit and Park counties.”

To help everyone understand conservation easements with a concrete example of a local property, Girvin used the Giberson Ranch explain.

“The Giberson Ranch, located above the Frisco/I-70 roundabout, is about 200 acres of private land that could easily have been developed into condos, roads, houses, motels and gas stations. But the landowner, Howard Giberson, didn't want to see that, so he protected his family's ranch with a conservation easement that permanently preserves the scenic views of the aspen groves and rolling meadows that we all see from Summit Boulevard, as well as the ranching uses and the wildlife habitat,” Girvin said. “Development for homes for family members is limited to a narrow strip above the Interstate. We all see the Giberson Ranch as we drive on Summit Boulevard and look up toward Buffalo Mountain. It is a beautiful backdrop to Frisco and an appropriately wild foreground to the Gore Range.”

How CDLT operates

With three part-time employees, CDLT operates on an annual budget of $115,000.

“We need to raise about $115,000 every year, entirely by fundraising efforts,” Girvin said. “The economy certainly has been tough. Individual and foundation support is down. We had to cut some programs out of our budget and delay hiring replacement people. Overall, we're hanging in there. We have a hard-working group of board members stepping up with creative fundraising ideas.”

The nonprofit also has a stewardship fund— similar to an endowment fund Girvin said is used to provide for long-term stewardship of easements CDLT holds.

Luckily, CDLT has 50 active volunteers and up to 50 more who help from time to time. They help with nonprofit programming, and get involved with outdoor activities like snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and wildflower hikes.

“We do all kinds of stuff,” Girvin said. “It's important to connect people to the land. It drives home what CDLT does.”

Most recently CDLT held its Easement Stewardship Day, a volunteer effort to monitor the conservancy's easements.

“It's a great way to get people out onto privately held conserved lands,” Girvin said.

CDLT president Dave Bittner said he got involved with the conservancy because he “decided it was a group doing something long-term and good for the community. Its accomplishments would be around forever.”

“Their goals of preserving open space were worth making an effort on,” Bittner said. “As the organization has gotten more successful, it's been more and more interesting. People working with CDLT are just fabulous and there's lots of people passionate about the land.”

SDN reporter Caitlin Row can be reached at (970) 668-4633 or at crow@summitdaily.com.