By Jerd Smith , The Denver Post
Thursday, April 24, 2008

Thousands of acres of private lands that are home to critical wildlife habitat, river corridors and scenic landscapes would be saved from development under an $800 million plan unveiled Wednesday.

The undertaking is the work of a new coalition called Keep It Colorado. Its high-profile members include the Conservation Fund, Colorado Open Lands, Nature Conservancy, Trust For Public Lands and Colorado Conservation Trust.

The group will focus attention and preservation efforts on 700,000 acres of land in 24 different regions of the state, from the San Juan Valley to the Eastern Plains.

Keep It Colorado officials are counting on landowners to donate easements on critical properties worth $400 million, and they hope to raise roughly $400 million from private and public sources, possibly from severance tax funds.

But severance tax funds are far from guaranteed.

Rep. Bernie Buescher, chairman of the Joint Budget Committee, said if changes are made to oil and gas severance tax rules, then voters will be the ones to decide if new monies are channeled into land conservation.

“And the fact is that there is going to be a lot of competition for that money,” Buescher said.

The plan is not without its critics.

“We have no shortage of open spaces in Colorado,” said Jon Caldera, president of the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank.

Caldera doesn’t think Colorado should be spending tax money to protect land.

“What gets me is that right now everyone is licking their lips over oil and gas money and more taxes,” said Caldera. “The only thing we need much more of is energy. The last thing I want to tax is what we need the most.”

But Gov. Bill Ritter, who introduced Keep It Colorado to dozens of conservation groups at a breakfast at the Denver Botanic Gardens on Wednesday, lauded the plan. “This will invigorate our collective efforts to preserve what’s best about our state,” he said.

Colorado has become a national leader in land conservation, saving more than 1.1 million acres using easements, legal tools that allow property owners to claim lucrative income tax credits in exchange for prohibiting development on their lands.

But Colorado’s program, enacted in 2000, has been plagued with abuse, with hundreds of easements under investigation for using faulty appraisals and for protecting lands of questionable public value.

Ritter acknowledged those problems, but said he wanted the conservation tax credit program preserved.

“We’ve found there are people who have abused the tax credit program. And worse, there are people who say it should end. But we are not going to let it go away,” he said.

Great Outdoors Colorado, an independent agency funded with lottery dollars, has protected hundreds of thousands of acres statewide, as have local open space programs.

But Colorado’s lands are under increasing pressure due to residential and commercial development and new oil and gas production.

“If we are ever going to keep it Colorado, now is the time to do it,” said Michael Dowling, chairman of the Boulder-based Colorado Conservation Trust.

Where ‘Keep It Colorado’ hopes to find $800 million

The coalition has identified 700,000 acres of critical view sheds, river corridors and wildlife habitat that it says should be protected from development. The lands targeted for protection are private. Here’s how the coalition envisions funding the ambitious plan:

Total cost $800 million

Private land donations $400 million

Private cash donations $100 million

Public funds from Great Outdoors Colorado grants and local open space funds $100 million

Unmet need, possibly from severance tax funds $200 million

Money committed to date:

$2 million: Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

$15 million: Colorado Division of Wildlife

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