The Great Outdoors Colorado board awarded a $72,377 grant to Montezuma Land Conservancy to implement community-informed strategic conservation plan revisions, launch a small farm protection initiative and hire a conservation fellow.<\/p>\n
Montezuma Land Conservancy has faced a 50% budget cut in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the funding will support its financial stability and ongoing work in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n
With the funding, MLC will continue work on its community values assessment to inform a new strategic conservation plan and identify priority conservation areas determined through GIS mapping, data from drought resiliency and climate models, and big game habitat.<\/p>\n
Funding will also explore a farm conservation program to protect small, family-owned farms producing local fruits, vegetables and meats.<\/p>\n
Finally, the grant will assist MLC in hiring a conservation fellow from the community. The fellow will lead outreach programs to stakeholders, develop tools to advance the small farms protection initiative and help analyze community survey results.<\/p>\n