Colorado Headwaters Land Trust’s mission is to preserve and steward open lands within the headwaters of the Colorado River for agriculture, water, wildlife and vistas, in partnership with landowners and for the benefit of all.

The land trust was incorporated in 1995 as a Colorado non-profit corporation and is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization. The land trust was established in 1995 as the Grand County Land Conservancy. The name was changed to Middle Park Land Trust in 2000 to avoid confusion that the land trust was a Grand County government entity. Then, at its April 2013 board meeting, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to change the name to Colorado Headwaters Land Trust.

The name, Colorado Headwaters Land Trust, reflects our mission, our geographic focus, and the fact that the headwaters of the Colorado River — including many of its headwaters tributaries such as the Fraser River — is located in Grand County. From its headwaters in Rocky Mountain National Park in Grand County, the Upper Colorado River is struggling to retain its valuable natural attributes: critical cold-water aquatic habitat, wetlands, vital water rights, working ranches, scenic open space, and world class rafting and fly fishing.

Colorado Headwaters Land Trust, the only local land trust servicing Grand County, is a Colorado-certified land trust and nationally accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission.

The land trust’s primary land protection tool is the conservation easement, a voluntary binding legal document between the landowner and the land trust that identifies the conservation values that qualify a property and permanently protects those values by restricting development, subdivision and other non-compatible uses.

Colorado Headwaters Land Trust currently holds 64 conservation easements on nearly 9,000 acres.