By Richard Bangs

Vice President, Douglas Land Conservancy

     CASTLE ROCK – Four hundred seventy-five acres of prime ranchland lay in the gateway to East Plum Creek just outside of Sedalia. With developers knocking on his door, the rancher turned to the Douglas Land Conservancy to save his property from being subdivided for trophy homes.

            When residents of Perry Park feared developers would carve up their beloved 77-acre “Big D” meadow, they turned to DLC.

            A landowner on busy East Mainstreet of Parker could see what was happening all around and looked for a way to preserve his land. Now there is an 80-acre oasis in the sea of homes that surround Parker.

            These are just a few of the stories of the Douglas Land Conservancy, a Castle Rock-based non-profit land trust that has worked in Douglas County for 20 years to help preserve the unique open spaces and soaring vistas that break up the waves of rooftops pushing south from Denver and north from Colorado Springs.

            Started 20 years ago by a few residents who wanted to conserve open space in Douglas County, the land trust is governed by a volunteer board of trustees and managed by Executive Director Patty Hostetler. For much of its 20-year life, the Conservancy has been managed by the volunteer board but now has one full-time staff member in Hostetler.

            Recent statewide media coverage of land conservation issues and audits of easements by the Colorado Department of Revenue and the IRS has raised questions about the practice of granting conservation easements to gain tax advantages.

            Auditors are concerned that in some cases inflated appraisals of land prior to the granting of easements are creating too large tax benefits for landowners. Douglas Land Conservancy uses strict criteria before accepting any conservation easement with top priority being the preservation of land for wildlife habitat, scenic views and open space. It particularly has rigid standards for appraisals used to value land prior to the granting of any easement.

     Douglas Land Conservancy has secured with willing landowners easements on more than 12,000 acres in the last 20 years. It is just a part of a large effort in Douglas County where many entities are involved. Residents of the county passed an open space tax in the 1990s and the county has used that money to preserve ranchland, wildlife habitat and scenic vistas.

   DLC’s easements range in size from 7 acres to a 1,380-acre ranch in the southeastern part of the county. The easements have helped ranch families keep their land, have helped keep development in check in areas where there is great pressure to carve up land into 35-acre tracts, or have helped reduce densities in areas that are deemed appropriate for development.

            DLC also has easements in Elbert and Jefferson counties and is especially interested in helping the people of Elbert County buffer their land against unbridled development.

            In addition to DLC and the county, many of the largest land conservation entities in the state and the nation have interests in Douglas County – including Colorado Open Lands, The Nature Conservancy, Colorado Cattlemen’s Land Trust and the Conservation Fund.

            All told, there have been easements placed on more than 45,000 acres in the county.

   The next time you drive south of Castle Rock and notice the rugged beauty of Dawson Butte, Greenland Ranch or the J.A. Ranch just northeast of Larkspur, or when you drive in to Perry Park, or out east on Mainstreet in Parker, just remember that without the efforts of organizations such as DLC, the Douglas County Open Space department, willing landowners and others, those open spaces you see likely would not be there.