Your community, your vision

From 2019 to 2021, over 600 community members and multiple nonprofits and local governments throughout the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys shared their concerns for the future with Aspen Valley Land Trust, with a focus on how conservation can help. From this input, we created a five-year roadmap to address these concerns through protecting and stewarding land and water, engaging our community on and with the land, and committing to our forever conservation mission by building a capable organization. Protecting Coffman Ranch provides the perfect opportunity to help meet all of these goals while providing a place to celebrate conservation and community for generations to come. 


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​Nestled on the Roaring Fork River just a couple of miles east of Carbondale,


Coffman Ranch features 141 acres of productive ranchland, native wildlife habitat, and more than a century of deep agricultural roots.

​For the last 65 years, Rex and JoAnn Coffman have worked and cared for this land and now seek to place it in good hands for the future. Now is the time to save this family ranch, honor its history, and protect its critical wildlife, riparian, and wetland habitat. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to benefit the community by purchasing and caring for this ranch for the good of all, human and wild.

With your support today, Coffman Ranch will be a welcoming place for this community to discover and build deep connections with land, wildlife, and water. 


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Decades of caring for the land


For 65 years, Rex and Jo have cared for this land and watched wildlife come and go every season while they worked their dairy, raised beef cattle, and eventually leased to other local ranchers. As they turn 90 and aim to step back from ranching operations, Rex and Jo agreed to sell this special place to AVLT while retaining the right to live out their days here. You can help them create a legacy and ensure the ranch remains active in local agricultural, a place for wild critters and plants to thrive, and a quiet place for the community to enjoy. We are excited to provide a chance to help make dreams come true, not just for Rex and Jo, but for the entire community, and we need your support!

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​PROTECT  |   A vision of a healthier future for the land, water, air, and you
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​Space for wildlife and biodiversity


With your help, we can protect a diverse riparian ecosystem that has co-existed with the ranch operations for decades.

The ranch supports several rare species and plant communities that make conserving this property an urgent priority. This land connects habitat in the high country to the river's edge and is one of the last long stretches of undeveloped land and native habitat along the Roaring Fork River.

Mule deer, bald eagles, great blue herons, hawks, osprey, bears, and more rely on the ranch. The Coffmans have watched a pair of sandhill cranes return every summer for over a decade. Conserving Coffman Ranch means protecting land for wildlife to forage, nest, and thrive and protecting the amazing biodiversity within its extensive wetland and riparian areas.




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​STEWARD  |   A vision of food systems, wildlife, and community thriving together



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A rich heritage of sustaining working lands


Ranching in Western Colorado is part of our herirage, our way of life, and vital to our future. With escalating land prices and increased costs of living, it is becoming harder and harder to sustain. While development pressure continues to encroach on open lands, it is important to protect the spaces between places, which in turn protect community character and our most critical natural resources.

Coffman Ranch is a keystone in the local ranching community and a historic icon of a bygone era. The ranch's deep and fertile soil and abundant water rights must be protected for local food and fiber production. Its history must be protected for a healthier future. 
​Alongside ranching, this project provides the potential to dedicate acreage to small, equity-focused farm programs that may benefit aspiring farmers, local students, and under-resourced communities. Coffman Ranch can help connect community to land, the cycles of agriculture, and fresh, nutritious food.
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​Rare riparian and wetland habitats


Coffman Ranch is one of the most important properties along the middle Roaring Fork River.

Some key features of this unique riverfront ranch include: 
  • 3/4 mile of river frontage along a state listed Gold Medal fishery and some of the last high-quality riparian areas remaining in the valley,
  • 35 acres of wetlands,
  • Abundant pre-compact water rights,
  • High water table, flood-inundated ecosystem, and deep soils that sustain vibrant plant communities, including a healthy, regenerating cottonwood forest and a federally threatened wild orchid, the Ute Ladies Tresses.

Wetlands and riparian areas - land along rivers and streams - are among the most essential yet threatened habitats in the arid west. Colorado has lost over half of its wetlands and riparian areas since the 1800s, severely impacting its wildlife and ecosystems. These precious riverside habitats help clean and store water as well as carbon, cool the landscape, and provide critical space for most wildlife species (including birds, amphibians, fish, and mammals) at some point in their life cycle. A primary goal of the Coffman Ranch project is to protect and enhance these rich natural resources and, in the process, provide valuable lessons and learning for wildlife conservation and climate resilience.   

​Want to experience one of the longest natural stretches of the Roaring Fork?


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Inspiring the next generation of farmers


Accessible farmland is in short supply in the Roaring Fork Valley. 

Alongside ranching, this project provides the potential to dedicate acreage to small, equity-focused farm programs that maybe benefit aspiring farmers, local students, and under-resourced communities. Coffman Ranch can help connect community to the land, cycles of agriculture, and fresh, nutritious food.  

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​ENGAGE  |   ​A vision of generations of diverse land stewards
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​​A home for community and for conservation


With your support, we can evolve Coffman Ranch into a conservation homestead that will provide unique opportunities for the community to learn about and engage directly with conservation, habitat restoration, and agriculture. This demonstration ranch will showcase the best of what conservation has to offer and help invest in the next generation of land stewards, regenerative land management, natural climate solutions, and connection to the land. The ranch's significant wildlife habitat, floodplain connectivity, agricultural importance, and remarkable biodiversity are treasures we can't afford to lose.

In the final phase of our vision, the ranch will become home to Aspen Valley Land Trust's offices and a center for field studies, agriculture, and conservation. It may host places to gather, explore, and learn and house land managers, farmers, or visiting scientists and interns.

We hope to create a homestead for conservation that becomes a springboard and showcase for furthering land and water conservation goals throughout the region.


​Inspiring the next generation of land stewards


​​We all need to feel the replenishing and grounding energy of simply being outside immersed in nature. Especially kids. One of the most significant ways you can help protect the places you love is to invest in more opportunities for the next generation to learn - and be inspired - outside.  
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A primary goal of this project is to provide a special place for kids of all ages to experience the outdoors and build meaningful connections to nature and healthy food systems.   

Educational experiences may range from early-childhood immersion in nature, to advanced scientific research, to community awareness around agriculture and the complementary relationship between nature and livestock. Public schools currently lack free, safe, and easily accessible outdoor learning environments that could be provided at Coffman Ranch. Investing in community partnerships like this can help ensure that EVERY child in our community has the opportunity to see the river, learn about local agriculture, and be inspired by the wildlife who make their home on the land.
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Want to talk about our community's future?
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​​You can make the vision a reality


​When you help conserve Coffman Ranch, you will help build new and innovative partnerships and programs to benefit the whole community and help expand support for conservation and its importance for a growing and diversifying community.

With your support today, Coffman Ranch will be a welcoming place for this community to discover and build deep connections with land, wildlife, and water. From wildlife viewing and bird watching, to interpretive conservation trails, to immersive educational experiences, and exposure to regenerative agriculture, the opportunities to inspire and engage our community are endless. Access to Coffman Ranch will be community-driven, inclusive, equitable, and in balance with protecting the abundant natural resources and wildlife habitat.
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​COMMIT  |   ​Your gift will turn this vision into a reality. Your gift will last forever.
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Your gift is an investment in a future of possibilities


This land, resting at the foot of Crown Mountain and nestled along the Roaring Fork River gives life, health, and the promise of a flourishing future. Diverse and abundant ecosystems provide crucial habitat connecting the riverbanks to the mountaintops, with rich riparian areas and wetlands, deep agricultural roots, and acres of healthy soil. Coffman Ranch is an icon of Western Colorado heritage and the next chapter for this ranch, and conservation in Western Colorado, is in front of you today.
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This is your opportunity to help protect and steward land and treasured water, and experience a working ranch first-hand. This is your opportunity to help a vision for your community come to life, to empower the next generation of land stewards, and to save a piece of the past for a healthier future. 
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Grow with us


​Contact Jeff Davlyn at jeff@avlt.org 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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WANT TO DISCUSS YOUR PLEDGE?
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Learn how you can make the vision a reality
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