What we do

• Colorado Conservation Success!
• Map of Lands Protected by CCLT Members (as of 2006)

Who we are

Staff

Executive Director: Jill N. Ozarski

Jill Ozarski is the Executive Director of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, the umbrella organization uniting 53 not-for-profit land trusts and local government open space programs across Colorado. The Coalition supports its members by providing important leadership at the state capitol, trainings, policy updates, and public relations. Ms. Ozarski has over a decade of experience in public and private land management, including work for The Wilderness Society, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and local government. She was a recently appointed by Governor Ritter to the Colorado Natural Areas Program Council. She received a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science in 1997 and a Master of Public Policy and Master of Environmental Management from Duke University in 2001.

Office Manager: Jeannie McGinnis

Jeannie was most recently the Finance and Development Director for Earthlinks, which is a local non-profit that connects homeless and at-risk, low-income persons with nature.   Before moving to Colorado in 2006, she worked overseas in Costa Rica and Nigeria for over twenty years at the University level and on community development.  She has a Bachelor's degree in horticulture from the University of Kentucky and is fluent in Spanish.

 

President: Ken Mirr (Mirr Ranch Group)

Ken Mirr is one of the West's top producers and has brokered the purchase and sale of thousands of acres of land in the western U.S and South America. He was previously a renowned public lands attorney and assisted ranchers, natural resource companies, ski areas, telecommunication companies and others in handling specialized land transactions with State and Federal land agencies throughout the West. Ken has brokered open space and land conservation transactions and consulted on conservation easements, federal grazing, and special use permits throughout the American West.

Vice-President: Dan Pike (Colorado Open Lands)

Daniel E. Pike joined Colorado Open Lands after 20 years in conservation real estate in Colorado. Dan came to Colorado in 1975 as Director of the Rocky Mountain Field Office of the Nature Conservancy managing programs in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming. A founder and principal in the Western Land Group, he specialized in completing land exchanges with government agencies from 1981 to 1996. Most recently, Dan has served as a Board member of the Gunnison Ranchland Conservation Legacy, a non-profit agricultural land preservation group in Gunnison County, and the Mountain Area Land Trust in Evergreen, Colorado. He also served on Governor Owens Commission on Saving Open Spaces, Farms and Ranches and is a Board member of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts.

Treasurer: Kevin Shea (Conservation Tax Credit Transfer, LLC)

Kevin Shea is a Colorado Certified General Appraiser who has appraised property for Open Space, Land Trusts, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as parcels for the acquisition of DIA, E-470, and state and local highways. He acquired land for Jefferson County Open Space, the City of Boulder and the City and County of Denver, where he was Coordinator of Property Acquisition for the latter. He is a board member of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, a member of the board for the Jefferson Conservation District and on the board of the local chapter and President of the International Right of Way Association. He holds the professional designation of SR/WA from the International Right of Way Association. Kevin is a Colorado native.

Secretary: Greg Vallin (Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck)

Greg Vallin is a Shareholder in Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck's Denver office and member of the Real Estate Group. His practice focuses on commercial real estate transactions, including real estate acquisitions and dispositions, leasing, real estate financing and development. Greg has represented a wide variety of clients that include the country's largest homebuilder, two national restaurant chains, large corporations and shopping center developers. He has also represented land trusts and landowners in transactions involving the preservation of unique and scenic property through the use of conservation easements and other land preservation techniques. He recently represented Colorado Open Lands in the negotiation and preparation of the largest donated conservation easement in Colorado history. Previously, Greg served as in-house real estate counsel for Boston Chicken, and as the director of real estate legal services for Einstein/Noah Bagel Corp.

K-Lynn Cameron (Larimer County Trails and Open Space)

A Colorado native, K-Lynn Cameron has been employed with Larimer County for the past 24 years; first as a parks planner and current ly as Manager of the Open Lands Program. Funded by a quarter cent open space sales tax which was approved by voters in 1995 and extended in 1998, the Open Lands Program is housed in the Parks and Open Lands Department at Larimer County. K-Lynn oversees all aspects of the program from acquisition to management of open space lands, including agricultural properties. K-Lynn holds a Master's degree from Colorado State University's Department of Recreation and Tourism and is recognized statewide as an open space professional. She is a board member for the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts and Our Land Our Future, demonstrating her commitment to open space statewide. Additionally, K-Lynn was instrumental in creating the successful Colorado Open Space Alliance (COSA), a statewide organization of publicly funded open space programs, and her active involvement in COSA ensures its success.

Martha Cochran (Aspen Valley Land Trust)

Martha Cochran is currently the Executive Director of Aspen Valley Land Trust. Martha has spent more than 30 years working for the community and environment of the Roaring Fork Valley. She is a former educator, business owner and newspaper publisher, with degrees in journalism and public administration. She served on the Glenwood Spring City Council and the city planning commission, worked on political and open space campaigns and has been on the board of many community organizations, including a founding board member of Colorado Animal Rescue. She currently serves on the board of the Aspen Valley Community Foundation and the J.Robert Young Foundation.

Brian McPeek (The Nature Conservancy)

Brian McPeek is The Nature Conservancy's Associate Director for Global Conservation Programs and helps manage and support the Conservancy's field conservation programs and priority projects across the world. Prior to taking on his current role, Brian served as the Deputy Director in Colorado, where he oversaw the Conservancy's community-based work in 12 Colorado landscapes, as well as statewide science, land conservation, forest health, water, and public policy initiatives. Before joining the Conservancy, he spent several years as an engagement leader with McKinsey & Co, a global business consulting firm. Prior to his time at McKinsey, he served over 7 years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, including a tour as a military assistant to the Secretary of Defense. Brian completed his undergraduate studies at Duke University in Philosophy and Economics and holds a Master's degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.

David Nichols (Montezuma Land Conservancy)

Dave Nichols is the Co-Executive Director of the Montezuma Land Conservancy in the southwest corner of the state.  He was a founder of the Conservancy in 1998 and moved from the Board of Directors to the position of Co-Executive Director in 2001.  Prior to that he had been a real estate appraiser (professionally designated as MAI) with a practice including the appraisal of conservation easements. Dave has been active in other community organizations including serving as President of the Four Corners Board of Realtors.

Andy Spielman (Hogan and Hartson)

Andy Spielman brings 10 years of public sector experience in environmental protection and public lands management. He assists ski areas, resorts, real estate developers, utilities, telecommunication providers, ranchers, Indian tribes, and governmental clients with obtaining development approvals and permits from various federal, state, and local government agencies across the western United States. Before joining Hogan & Hartson, Andy was an attorney with a Denver-based firm in the area of public law. Prior to private practice, he served in several senior positions at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, Wash., including acting associate director of the Office of Sustainable Ecosystems and Communities in the EPA's policy office, special assistant to the agency's deputy administrator, and special assistant to the regional administrator of the agency's pacific northwest region. Andy's Washington, D.C. experience also includes service in staff positions at the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, and the U.S. Senate. Andy is currently serving as (volunteer) staff director for Colorado Governor-Elect Bill Ritter's natural resources transition team. Andy is a frequent writer and lecturer. He has co-authored numerous EPA publications involving environmental compliance, regulation of municipalities, community-based environmental protection, and international environmental policy. He has lectured on natural resource, environmental, and land use law at the Environmental Law Institute, the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute, the University of North Carolina, Duke University, and the Colorado Bar Association. He has also taught environmental law and policy in Central and Eastern Europe on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development. While in law school, Andy was an editor of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review.

Janis Whisman (Boulder County Parks & Open Space)

Janis Whisman has been working in land conservation since 1989, when she worked on the Exxon Valdez litigation. She spent several years working for The Nature Conservancy and then for Great Outdoors Colorado, where she managed the Legacy and Open Space programs. Janis now manages Boulder County's Conservation Easement Program that includes nearly 800 conservation easements. Janis and her husband (both Colorado natives) live in Longmont. Janis spends any free time she can find enjoying outdoor activities, animals and music.

Larry Kueter (Isaacson Rosenbaum)

Lawrence R. Kueter is a shareholder with the Denver, Colorado law firm of Isaacson Rosenbaum P.C., a firm widely known for its real estate expertise and conservation practice. His practice includes representing numerous landowners, local land trusts, governmental entities, and state-wide and national conservation organizations in land conservation matters, including conservation easements, purchase and sales of conservation properties, and limited developments. Mr. Kueter has been legal counsel to the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust since its creation in 1995. He is a regular speaker in the Rocky Mountain West at land trust seminars, to landowners, and at the conferences of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts, and has spoken on numerous topics at Land Trust Alliance Rallies. Mr. Kueter is legal counsel to the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts and is a key member of their legislative committee and has been active in their legislative successes in the Colorado legislature. In 2003 and 2004, he served on the Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices Revision Committee, in 2005 he was co-chair of the Land Trust Alliance Standards and Practices Program Design Steering Committee, and is presently the Chair of the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. He was appointed to the Land Trust Alliance Board in 2006.

Bill Silberstein (Isaacson Rosenbaum)

Bill Silberstein is the chair of the Conservation Law Practice Group at Isaacson Rosenbaum P.C., a Denver, Colorado law firm. He is a recognized leader in land conservation law in the Rocky Mountain region, working with landowners, land trusts, accountants, appraisers, land planners, and biologists in structuring conservation easements, and conservation-oriented business and estate plans. He and his firm have represented landowners and conservation organizations in over 700 conservation easements, resulting in preservation of hundreds of thousands of the Rocky Mountain Region's most beautiful acres. Recently, he had the privilege of representing Forbes Trinchera, Inc. in the donation of an 80,000 acre conservation easement to Colorado Open Lands. Bill is a frequent lecturer at national, regional and local conservation easement workshops.