TEN OPEN SPACE PROJECTS

WIN GOCO/LOTTERY GRANTS

Youth Corps Projects Also Chosen

Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) ended its fiscal year by awarding $4.5 million in grants for ten open space projects  that will protect 15,433 acres of land and plan for a future project. GOCO received 18 open space applications this round requesting $9.3 million.

“Communities continue to want to invest in one of Colorado’s best economic assets – our state’s great outdoors,” said GOCO Executive Director Lise Aangeenbrug. “We continue to be impressed by the number and quality of projects identified by communities across the state as their priorities for providing outdoor amenities for their citizens.  We continue to receive many more projects than we are able to fund.”

Examples of the projects funded include:

• Cold Spring Ranch sponsored by The Trust for Public Land -- $730,000 GOCO/Lottery Grant -- TPL will purchase and Colorado Open Lands (COL) will hold a conservation easement over 190 acres of the Cold Spring Ranch, located just east of Crested Butte at the south entrance to the Upper East River Valley in Gunnison County. Completion of this project will preserve prime grazing land and expansive scenic views, re-open public access to the popular Strand Hill Trail, and help stabilize an uncertain financial situation for the landowners. Protection of Cold Spring Ranch will create a critical conservation bridge between two National Forest areas, ensure habitat connectivity, and protect the owner's senior water rights.

• Upper Trout Creek Valley Conservation Initiative sponsored by the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust -- $485,450 GOCO/Lottery Grant – CCALT will purchase a conservation easement over 1,300 acres located along Trout Creek in southern Routt County ten miles south and west of Oak Creek. The area is a central component of the Upper Trout Creek Valley Conservation Initiative.The 1,300 acres consist of irrigated hay meadows, sub-irrigated pastures along the creek bottom, mixed aspen forest, montane shrublands, and more than two miles of willow-lined riparian corridor along Trout Creek. The area is home to elk, mule deer, bear, mountain lion, bald eagles, and sandhill crane.

Youth Corps Projects Also Chosen

GOCO also allocated $500,000 it awarded in April to the Colorado Youth Corps Association (CYCA) for work on open space and local government park and recreation projects. Two-hundred young people ages 16 to 25 will get jobs this summer because of the funding. Support for land stewardship projects is in high demand, according to Jennifer Freeman, CYCA’s executive director. “We received $1.3 million in project requests from 29 counties, and have funding to support $500,000 of those proposals. The good news is that there is plenty of work to keep 200 young people employed this year and next – while providing them with valuable transferable skills.” Of the counties that proposed projects, 20 will receive youth corps crews; four of the projects were sponsored by land trusts.

GOCO is the result of a citizens’ initiative passed by 58% of the voters in 1992. As the recipient of approximately half of Colorado Lottery proceeds―$56.4 million in Fiscal Year 2010―GOCO awards grants to local governments and land trusts, and makes investments through the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado State Parks. Since 1994, more than 3,400 projects in all 64 counties have benefited from GOCO grants

A full list of grant awards follows.