Kudos to Keith Evans for opening his property to hikers and mountain bikers, and more kudos for carrying that generosity into the future.
Evans has several miles of trails on property that connects with the Geer Memorial Park and the Carpenter Natural Area north of Cortez. He has allowed public access to that property for several years, and now intends to construct a trailhead on North Mildred Road.
Sharing his land with the public is an unusual gesture, but Evans has gone one giant step further. He has placed the land in a conservation easement that will provide access for years to come.
A conservation easement is a legal deed restriction that prevents future development of a property. The easement is enforced by a conservation easement holder — in this case, the Montezuma Land Conservancy — to protect specific values and uses. Those values may include wildlife habitat, open space, scenic views, agriculture, education, or outdoor recreation. Public access is not always a feature of conservation easements; landowners decide which uses to protect.
Landowners who place property in qualifying conservation easements receive a state tax credit, but they must pay fees to create and record the easement, and their future development of the property is restricted. The establishment of Evans’ easement was aided by a grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, which allocates Colorado Lottery proceeds to benefit parks, wildlife, trails and open spaces.
The costs of conservation easements are offset not by the financial benefits but by the satisfaction of perpetuating a valued use of the land. Landowners who love the way Southwest Colorado looks now find easements an attractive option for safeguarding those qualities.
A mountain biker himself, Evans has given present and future recreationists a generous gift. The ways in which trails of all kinds — biking, hiking, dog-walking — benefit local residents are numerous and diverse. Exercise makes us all healthier, and exercising outdoors reminds us of why we’ve chosen to live here. Southwest Colorado and the corners of neighboring states offer gorgeous landscapes.
The whole area benefits greatly from the recreational opportunities available here and the tourists those opportunities attract. Federal lands are huge attractions, but Cortez itself punches above its weight in providing attractive parks and open space. Because of trails like those on Evans’ easement and at Phil’s World east of town, and events like 12 Hours of Mesa Verde, mountain biking is becoming a major recreational focus of this area, bringing in affluent visitors who spend money locally. A future trail between Cortez and the Mesa Verde exit would expand that reach.
Mountain bikers are attracted by a hybrid set of amenities. Most of them want established trails in beautiful locations that are both accessible and seemingly remote, and that retain an atmosphere of wilderness. Hikers and bikers care about conserving those locations, and that makes them responsible visitors. The more miles of trail an area has, the more mountain bikers hear about it, and that benefits the local economy in significant ways.
Evans’ altruism is a multi-faceted and far-reaching gift to the community. Thank you, Keith, on behalf of recreationists who will enjoy that property both now and far into the future.
