Current Projects

The Crested Butte Land Trust is enthusiastically working to protect open space and view corridors, preserve our ranching heritage and provide access through trails. We have protected over 5,200 acres, working with over 50 landowners and their families.

Kochevar Parcel

The Crested Butte Land Trust, along withit’s partners, the Trust for Public Land, the Town of Crested Butte, and the Kochevar family, has preserved two phases of a three phased project which will permanently protect and preserve more than 384 acres in the Slate River Valley. This area is a high priority for the land trust, and the Kochevar Parcel is contiguous to the over 1,200 acres that the Land Trust already holds there.

The Kochevar Parcel connects four existing open space parcels, buffers National Forest, preserves wildlife habitat (including an elk migration corridor), and provides future trail and recreation opportunities. Over 100 acres of the Kochevar Parcel are adjacent to, and very visible from Crested Butte: protecting this land will preserve views of Paradise Divide.

Gunsight Bridge Wetlands Reclamation Project

The Land Trust partnered with the Colorado Division of Reclamation and Mining Safety to pull over 11,000 cubic yards of coal waste from the wetlands north of Gunsight Bridge.  Additionally, the steep slopes below the abandoned Smith Hill Mine were stabilized so that coal does not continue to deposit in the wetlands. Over 10,000 shrubs, trees and grasses were planted by hardy volunteers.

beth carter

Rozman Ranch Conservation Easement

The historic working Rozman Ranch has been owned and operated by the Rozman family since the 1880s. The Rozman Ranch is located just a few miles south of Crested Butte at the base of Whetstone Mountain. The Land Trust is committed to preserving our agricultural heritage while protecting the wildlife habitat, riparian wetlands, river frontage and scenic views provided by this ranch.