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A vision for the future of conservation


​With your support, Aspen Valley Land Trust’s Conserving Land & Connecting Community capacity-building and capital campaign aims to raise $5.8 million to double AVLT’s conservation impact and activate Coffman Ranch and the former Outward Bound Basecamp to serve as ambassadors for conservation and provide a permanent home for AVLT and an outdoor education basecamp for youth across the region.
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​A unique point in time


​​On rare occasions, organizations reach a point where the convergence of history, urgency of need, and vision create an opportunity for monumental transformation and impact. Aspen Valley Land Trust is at that point.

As the oldest regional land trust in Colorado, AVLT has worked with landowners and community partners since 1967 to forever protect over 51,500 acres of open and productive​ land from Independence Pass to the Roan Plateau. ​The imperative to protect more of this cherished landscape before it’s too late and to bring the entire community along on the journey led to AVLT’s first Strategic Conservation Plan, released in 2022. ​

This campaign addresses the plan’s major goals by ramping up organizational capacity to double the amount of conserved land and by raising the capital to fund the restoration, management, and activation of AVLT’s “ambassador” properties.

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​Campaign Goals


​Thanks to this generous community, AVLT is strongly positioned and committed to meet this moment. Now is the time to increase capacity to forever protect and care for more land and complete capital projects to build support and longevity for this work into the future. You can help AVLT seize this opportunity of this unique point in time to conserve important land and grow healthier, more connected communities.

Double Conserved Land

Conserving large, connected areas of ranchland and key wildlife habitat is essential to the health of our wildlife, our way of life, and our future. The open lands you love are rapidly transforming, making the next decade a crucial window to protect and connect as much remaining high-priority open land as possible.​​

Activate AVLT's Coffman Ranch

With generous support from partners and supporters like you, AVLT has been uniquely positioned to purchase and protect cherished places with incredible ecological significance and community value. In 2021, AVLT acquired the historic Coffman Ranch near Carbondale. Now is the time to restore and reignite these special places for the benefit of our children and community, and ultimately for the benefit of conservation.

Activate AVLT's Marble Basecamp

In 2023, AVLT was entrusted to protect and steward the nation’s first Outward Bound Basecamp in the crystalline high country above Marble – a complement to AVLT’s beloved outdoor education campus, Chapin Wright Marble Basecamp, located next door. Now is the time to restore and reignite these special places for the benefit of our children and community, and ultimately for the benefit of conservation.​

  



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DOUBLING CONSERVED LAND

​One decade to double our impact


This campaign aims to generate resources for conservation to allow AVLT to add land stewardship and conservation staff to carry out our goal of strategically protecting an additional 45,000 acres of land by 2031. Additionally, this campaign includes funding for AVLT’s long-term Stewardship Investment Fund, which funds annual costs of monitoring and enforcing conservation easements, as well as caring for lands owned or stewarded by AVLT, such as Coffman Ranch and Marble Basecamp.
Furthermore, your support for this campaign will provide seed funding for a Catalyst Fund that can be leveraged to access over $45 million per year through Colorado’s cutting edge conservation tax credit program, and millions in potential matching funds from Great Outdoors Colorado, county open space programs, and other grants. It will even allow AVLT to pilot new conservation incentives and support the creation of new local government open space funding measures.

​STATEWIDE CONTEXT
While Aspen Valley Land Trust is a leader in private land conservation on the Western Slope, we are not alone. In 2023, Keep It Colorado, the statewide coalition of conservation organizations, published a statewide plan, Conserving Colorado: A 10-year Roadmap for the Future of Private Land Conservation, that outlines ambitious goals for doubling the amount of private land conserved over the next decade, mirroring AVLT’s own plan.

Both plans call for the continued and increased protection of Colorado’s natural resources in the face of growing threats from a changing climate, drought, water loss, and population growth. Both plans also emphasize the need for increased engagement in conservation – specifically including those who have historically been excluded.

These goals will only be possible if AVLT and land trusts across the state adapt to the current challenges we face to double our conservation impact, double our community engagement efforts, and double the resources available to make conservation happen.

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​AN AMBASSADOR FOR CONSERVATION

Activating AVLT's Coffman Ranch


For 65 years, Rex and JoAnn Coffman cared for their historic ranch on the banks of the Roaring Fork River, while watching wildlife come and go with the seasons. As they turned 90 and prepared to retire from ranching, Rex and Jo agreed to sell Coffman Ranch to AVLT in order to see its future protected.

With a generous donation from the Coffman family, and support from Great Outdoors Colorado, Pitkin County Open Space & Trails, Garfield County, the Town of Carbondale, and others like you, AVLT purchased and forever protected this 141-acre ranch in 2021. In total, the acquisition phase of this campaign (Phase I) raised $8.5 million to purchase, conserve, and support initial planning, restoration, and pilot programming.

Phase II of this campaign will help bring to life the community vision for Coffman Ranch as a conservation homestead that will double as an “ambassador” for conservation. Coffman Ranch is a place that celebrates ranching heritage, the future of agriculture, and extraordinary wildlife habitat. With your help, it will also become a place to learn, share, experiment, and connect. It will be a place that offers opportunities for experiential learning in the outdoors to schools, universities, and nonprofits throughout the region. Only two miles from Carbondale, this unique gem is perfectly situated to become an ambassador for conservation and a demonstration ranch that features and welcomes the whole community.

This campaign will help restore a historic barn that will memorialize the valley’s ranching heritage, and create a publicly accessible river trail, outdoor classroom, and parking area, along with a native plant nursery or vegetable farming area. Finally, it will allow AVLT to build a multi-purpose pole barn and community kitchen to host events, classes, and community gatherings that will sustain AVLT’s work into the future and engage the community in authentic, homegrown farming, ranching, wildlife, and conservation experiences.
This property is forever protected by a conservation easement held by Pitkin County.
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​CONNECTING THE NEXT GENERATION TO CONSERVATION

Activating AVLT's Marble Basecamp


​When AVLT acquired Chapin Wright Marble Basecamp in 2016 with a generous outpouring of community support, a return to our grassroots origins began.

Used and loved by Aspen Middle School for outdoor education for over 50 years, AVLT opened Chapin Wright Marble Basecamp to thousands of children from schools across the region – all for free. Input from educators and partners helped create a customizable outdoor education program supported by basic infrastructure and optional curriculum offerings. With this model, schools are able to lead their own turn-key trips in a pristine alpine setting, introducing the next generation to a love of nature, self discovery, and authentic connection. 
​With AVLT’s 2023 acquisition of the nation’s first Outward Bound campus and 80 acres of adjacent forestland known as the Back 80, we have expanded what is possible at Marble Basecamp and become guardians of a living legacy that the Colorado Outward Bound School built over 60 years.

​The campus is equipped with bunks, a dining hall, commercial kitchen, bathhouses, and staff housing that provide a unique opportunity to expand equitable access to outdoor education – and which will require love and repair to again be usable.   

With your support, AVLT will restore and reactivate this historic campus and protect the surrounding forest, while working with schools and nonprofit partners to open the campus to students who have never before had the opportunity to access this incredible experience. In addition, we will lease it back to the Colorado Outward Bound School for a period each summer to continue their landmark experiential learning programs. Numerous funding partners assisted with these acquisitions, and the land is now forever conserved under conservation easements held by Pitkin County and Crested Butte Land Trust.

By supporting this effort, you can help protect critical elk  habitat, a legacy of outdoor education, and future generations’ 
connections to nature and conservation.

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Learn more

You can make the vision come to life. Read more about the Conserving Land and Connecting Community campaign and how you can become a leader in creating the future you want to see for the places you love.
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Now is the time


You can commit to the future of these valleys when you support the ability of Aspen Valley Land Trust to protect this beautiful region and our community. AVLT is at a time of unprecedented opportunity and you can help bring these goals and possibilities to life. To achieve this campaign’s $5.8 million goal, leaders like you must step forward. Make your commitment to the future of AVLT today and help protect this beautiful region and to serve the community while we have the time.

Please contact Jeff Davlyn at [email protected] or 970.456.3560 for more information on how Aspen Valley Land Trust and Coffman Ranch can help fulfill your giving goals. 
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GIFTS OF STOCK
Making a gift of stocks, mutual funds or bonds can provide you with a double tax benefit. When you give these types of securities to AVLT, you avoid capital gains taxes on the increased value and also receive a tax deduction for the full fair market value of your gift.
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MULTI-YEAR PLEDGES
Your multi-year campaign commitment can help shape the future of the places you love. Your multi-year gifts provide steady support that helps long-term projects move forward with clarity, stability, and stronger results.
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DAF CONTRIBUTIONS
Consider a gift through your Donor Advised Fund. Gain the advantage of making a contribution at a moment that is right for your tax planning, while directing support to the cause you value on your own timeline.






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WANT TO DISCUSS YOUR PLEDGE?
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Learn how you can make the vision a reality
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