The words "conservationist" or "environmentalist" have never been used to
describe Colorado rancher Randy Rusk� �� ��until now. It's a description he's not
entirely comfortable with, insisting that he's still very much a mainstream ag
producer.
As passionate as he is about the title "rancher," and as much as he looks right
at home in his boots and cowboy hat, his focus has shifted. At 56, Rusk is
looking past how many head of yearling he'll run this year and ahead to how much
open land will exist generations from now.
"I saw all of this development coming in and the negative impact it was having
on our community and on our families," he says. "I thought there had to be
another way. I just didn't know what it was at the time."
The better way, Rusk learned, was the idea of conservation easements. He was
motivated to look into this strategy, as his parents were reaching an age where
something would have to be done with their Custer County ranch. Rusk has a
brother and sister who weren't interested in farming, and he hated to see the
beautiful land he woke up to every day divided and sold� �� ��likely to developers.
This valley, called Wet Mountain Valley, is bordered on the west by the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains and the east by the Wet Mountains. It ranges from highly
productive, irrigated land to rocks and junipers. There is still an unobstructed
view for Rusk on the west and to the north. Look south, though, and you'll see a
new subdivision. It was that view he didn't want to leave to his
granddaughter� �� ��the sixth generation to be raised here.
So Rusk worked to protect 1,500 acres of family land through a conservation
easement. It can continue to be farmed or ranched and will have the water stay
with the land, but it will never be developed.
Rusk sold the development rights to provide funds to settle the family estate.
This decreased the value of the land but bought an eternity of beautiful views.
In a lot of cases, that would be the end of the story. Rusk saved the family
farm from developers, and all's well that ends well. But for Rusk, those 1,500
acres weren't enough. Now that he knew how to save his land, he wanted to teach
others how to stay on their land through the use of conservation easements.
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| David M. Barreda, Rocky Mountain News |
"People say I was setting an example with my land," he says. "I don't see it
that way. For me it was more about survival of a way of life that was important
to me. I wanted to be able to continue to do what I love, and I wanted to keep
this land available for agriculture forever."
Rusk soon found that the deep attachment he felt for this land was not something
unique in this valley.
As he talked to other landowners, Rusk encouraged them to work with the Colorado
Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust to set aside more acreage. In 2007, about
11,000 acres of Wet Mountain Valley are in easements. This acreage amounts to
just a little more than 2% of land in the county.
CCALT is the only land trust in the state that exclusively serves the
agricultural community. Today, more than 250,000 acres in the state have been
preserved through the CCALT.
While Rusk has had a lot of success, he's no darling of local developers. He has
pointed out that uncontrolled development ultimately costs a county more than it
makes in tax revenue. And, he says, agricultural land costs the county far less
in services.
"We funded a cost-of-services study and found that while developers kept telling
us the highest and best use of land was residential development, it wasn't true.
"For every $1 of tax revenue development created, it cost this county $1.30 to
service it. Ag land, on the other hand, only requires 50 cents of service for
every $1 of tax revenue."