The policy and institutional milieu surrounding private lands conservation using conservation easements in Colorado is complex and can involve local, state, and federal agencies, for profit and not-for-profit service providers and organizations, as well as landowners. Here, we focus on state level taxpayer supported programs, but our alternatives are informed by the variety of compensatory programs and mechanisms in Colorado and elsewhere.
This policy brief aims to increase understanding of expenditure patterns and economic impacts stemming from $88.9 million federal agricultural conservation easement program payments to the state of Colorado. An anticipated $195 million in generated economic activity and more than 1,200 jobs from federal agricultural conservation easement payments is a sizable and important contribution to the state. Anticipated easement payments will provide an important source of farm debt reduction, savings and risk mitigation in these increasingly uncertain times. Easement programs disproportionately benefit rural counties where economic opportunity, employment and safety nets are less diverse and less robust.
