Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust

By RiGHT

Founded in 1999, the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust (RiGHT) is a local non-profit organization that works with private landowners, public agencies and other conservation organizations to protect and support working ranches and farms, water resources, wildlife habitat, and scenic landscapes. RiGHT is the only local land trust that serves the entire San Luis Valley.

At RiGHT, we act out of a deep-seated belief that land and water conservation benefits us all.  Conservation secures the future for agriculture, keeping it viable as our long-term economic base. It maintains critical wildlife habitat and supports a variety of recreational activities.  Conservation efforts help to sustain the unique beauty of our area, our rich cultural heritage, and the rural quality of life in the San Luis Valley.

RiGHT accomplishes our conservation mission by working with interested landowners on a permanent, voluntary restriction of development rights known as a conservation easement.  A conservation easement is a voluntary, binding legal agreement between a landowner and a qualified conservation organization that identifies the Conservation Values of a property and protects those Conservation Values by restricting non-compatible uses of the property. As a land trust, RiGHT is a non-profit organization that is qualified under IRS standards and the laws of Colorado to accept charitable donations and to “hold” conservation easements.

Under the conservation easement the landowner retains ownership and the land remains privately held.  As such, the landowner keeps the right to sell or transfer ownership of the property.  Each easement is unique to the parcel it is designed to protect and to the needs of the landowner completing the conservation easement.

To date, RiGHT has completed 33 conservation projects permanently protecting 21,677 acres in the San Luis Valley and over nineteen miles of the Rio Grande river corridor.

Conservation Benefits the San Luis Valley