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Our mission
​Aspen Valley Land Trust protects the open land and special places of the Roaring Fork and middle Colorado River valleys for wildlife, agriculture, and community, forever. 

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Our vision
We seek a future where land, wildlife, and people flourish together, and where land is a treasure to be passed on forever.​


​Our values
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​We believe the following values are core to effective and inclusive conservation for the benefit of the future health of our region:
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COMMITMENT
Conservation is a commitment to the future of our open lands and the lives that depend on them. We pledge to uphold our conservation commitments in perpetuity and to build a trusted, effective organization to steward them. We strive for organizational and professional excellence in all that we do, and pledge to maintain our national accreditation by adhering to the best management practices advanced by the Land Trust Alliance. 

COMMUNITY
We believe that conservation is community building, and should seek to support more inclusive, healthy communities. We believe in collaborating with, learning from, and serving the diverse communities across our region, because everyone has the right to enjoy open spaces, special places, and a healthy environment. We also believe conservation should reflect the values and changing needs of those communities.

RESILIENCE
We seek to conserve lands that foster ecosystem, food system, and community resilience in the face of increasing development pressure, declining natural resources, and a changing climate. Similarly, we seek to develop an organization that is resilient, adaptable, and strong far into the future.

RESPECT
Conservation stems out of respect for the natural world and for the people who have come before, and those who share it now. We believe that respect helps create a better balance between humans and nature, so that both may thrive and enjoy a future of health and vitality. Similarly, we treat our staff, board, volunteers, partners, and supporters with respect, and believe that a healthy work-life balance and connection with the outdoors is key to an effective organization.  

TRUST
Trust is the foundation upon which land trusts are built. Conservation can only happen through strong relationships with landowners, donors, and community partners. Your land trust will always honor these relationships and be willing to listen, learn, and grow.
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​Our story
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​Aspen Valley Land Trust has partnered with landowners and our community since 1967 to forever protect over 44,000 acres of spectacular​ land. That’s 67 square miles – the distance from Aspen to Rifle one mile wide. Within these protected places are 10 public parks, 30 miles of hiking and biking trails, 100 miles along rivers and streams, and over 30,000 acres of important winter habitat for deer and elk. Almost anywhere you go in the Roaring Fork or Colorado River valleys, you will come across open landscapes and community spaces that will remain that way forever.
​​The organization that would become Aspen Valley Land Trust, the Pitkin County Parks Association, was born because a small group of legendary citizens led by John Doremus and others recognized that the loss of land to unplanned development threatens our quality of life and economy. They pioneered the conservation movement, first by planting flower gardens, founding parks, initiating citywide clean-ups, and creating an Arbor Day tradition by planting 50 trees along Main Street in Aspen.
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​Inspired to protect the sweeping vistas, working ranches, and wild forests he called home, George Stranahan donated the first-ever conservation easement in Colorado in 1978 to Trust for Public Land, and in 1982 gave Aspen Valley Land Trust its first conservation easement on Flying Dog Ranch in Carbondale.

Our founders transformed conservation by protecting pocket parks, hiking trails, and eventually some of the scenic and productive ranches that then stretched from one end of the valley to the other. By the end of the century, AVLT had conserved over 4,700 acres in Pitkin and Garfield counties.
Thanks to our generous supporters, our work now spans two major watersheds and five counties. We continue to face sprawl and haphazard development but now climate change, diminishing wildlife populations, threatened waterways, a loss of children’s connection to nature, and changing community needs present new challenges for conservation. 

​We need your help to protect the special places that define this region, for the people that define this region. To inspire a deep understanding of nature and broad support for conservation, our work has aims to engage and partner with all of our diverse community. The grassroots spirit of our founders continues to inspire our approach to permanently protecting special places for the benefit of working family ranches, wildlife, water, and community.
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Our commitment continues to proactively protect land critical to ecosystem integrity, wildlife habitat connectivity, and other key natural resources for the most positive impact and public benefit.

After gathering feedback from you, our community, AVLT created a five-year roadmap to guide our work. You can see our Strategic Plan here.

​We hope you join this conservation mission and help invigorate an inclusive legacy of conservation from Independence Pass to the Roan Plateau, where land is a treasure to be passed on forever. ​​​


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​Our commitment

to diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice

We believe that conservation is community building, and should seek to support more inclusive, healthy communities. We believe in collaborating with, learning from, and serving the diverse communities across our region, because everyone has the right to enjoy open spaces, special places, and a healthy environment. We also believe conservation should reflect the values and changing needs of those communities.


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​LAND TRUST ALLIANCE ACCREDITATION

AVLT has achieved renewed land trust accreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance.

This accreditation is awarded for meeting national standards for excellence, upholding the public trust, and ensuring that conservation efforts are permanent.
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​STATE CERTIFICATION OF LAND TRUSTS
 
AVLT is certified to hold conservation easements by the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Division of Conservation.

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​​WE NEED THE LAND, AND THE LAND NEEDS YOU

You can protect the future of our land