La Plata Open Space Conservancy

“The tax preparer meets with the vice president of the corporation to review the completed return and obtain his signature. The president is given copies of the return to present to the board at the next board meeting.”

“The conflict of interest policy is discussed at board meetings.”

“All copies of governing documents and tax returns are made available to the public if requests are made to the director through mail or by phone.”

“The organization's primary exempt purpose is to permanently protect, for the benefit of the community and the general public, lands in southwest colorado that have significant agricultural, wildlife, open space, recreational and/or historical/archeological resources.”

“Land protection and stewardship: since incorporating in 1992, lposc, including in partnership with local governments or land management entities, has accepted donations of conservation easements protecting in excess of 17,000 acres of land with superior conservation values across six counties in southwestern colorado. After divesting over the years certain conservation easements to geographically better-positioned organizations, lposc now holds 167 easements. As a certified conservation easement holder, lposc is legally obligated to monitor land use and ecological conditions on each property on which it holds a conservation easement to ensure that the conserved land and natural resources are being used in compliance with easement restrictions. Monitoring helps lposc to establish and/or maintain valuable relationships with owners of conserved land, and further helps to foster lposc's image in the community as a trusted land steward. During 2018, lposc furthered its land protection efforts in southwestern colorado through reaching agreements with the archeological conservancy and history colorado to permanently conserve a grouping of ancestral puebloan structures already featured in the national register and historic places. In addition, lposc began working with colorado parks and wildlife and the colorado department of transportation to secure wildlife migration corridors at key highway interfaces in anticipation of future construction of wildlife crossing bridges.”

“Outreach and development: the conservancy's community outreach and development program is key to connecting people to the lands we protect. During 2018, lposc continued to provide educational presentations regarding its role in accepting donations of qualified conserevation interests and the benefit acceptance of those interests provides the community. Similarly, lposc continued to host informational booths regarding such role at regional fora appropriate for the same. In addition, lposc continued involving fort lewis college interns and community volunteers in the monitoring program and in stewardship programs involving habitat restoration, further connecting our community to the landscapes lposc protects. Lposc counts as strong, close supporters 500 community members and businesses, and has a social media following of over 1,000 individuals. These interest groups are routinely apprised of the work lposc undertakes, and the perceived benefit such work provides. In turn, generous support from these interest groups enables lposc to achieve its mission to protect valuable lands for generations to come.”

“Prior year receivables -6,925”