Unveiling the Beauty of Grand County's Protected Lands with Jeremy Krones

Speaker 1: 0:00

My guest today is Jeremy Krohns. Jeremy is the Executive Director for the Headwaters Land Trust here in Grand County. We talk about the history of the land trust as well as some really fun and unique events that he has going on this summer.

Speaker 2: 0:27

So sit back and enjoy.

Speaker 1: 0:30

Good morning Jeremy. How are you today?

Speaker 3: 0:33

I'm well, Gaylene. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 0:35

You bet. Well, the Land Trust, the Headwaters Land Trust, has a lot of stuff going on this summer. You've got three events, but I want to see if you could first give us a little history about the Land Trust.

Speaker 3: 0:48

Sure. So Colorado Headwaters Land Trust was founded almost 30 years ago. We're coming up on our 30th anniversary next year. We were founded as the Grand County Land Conservancy and this was born out of a group of local movers and shakers who wanted to initially protect the Fraser Valley against development. We can see that that did not come to fruition. But 30 years later we are still going strong. So over the last 30 years we've developed into a pretty strong local organization.

Speaker 3: 1:20

Our first name, as I said, was the Grand County Land Conservancy. After about five or six years of that we became the Middle Park Land Trust and then, after about 10 years as Middle Park, we changed our name again to Colorado Headwaters, and each name change was precipitated by an event or a conversation that our board was having. But the real goal was to continue to more explicitly narrow our focus. We've only ever worked in Grand County. We are a local land trust, so we only work in Grand County, but calling ourselves the Grand County Land Conservancy. Maybe people thought we were a governmental agency or otherwise affiliated Middle Park Land Trust. Unfortunately there's no hit TV show called Middle Park, so we found after a couple of years that a lot of people just didn't put two and two together, but really no one can argue that the Colorado River starts anywhere but in Grand County, so we felt that this was a safe name.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Perfect. Well, how many trusts? Is that the correct terminology? Do you have it here in the county Easements? So we are a land?

Speaker 3: 2:27

trust Yep, and our primary tool of private land conservation is a conservation easement and this is a title document that transfers development and subdivision rights, as well as any other rights that come through negotiation, from the landowner to the land trust. And then we are bound by every level of government, all the wayowner to the land trust, and then we are bound by every level of government, all the way up to the IRS, to never touch those rights. So your property, the land that has a conservation easement on it, is effectively conserved forever. The landowner's responsibility is to uphold their end of the agreement. So they signed a document saying that they would not build a Ferris wheel. My job is to make sure and visit their property once a year to make sure they haven't built a Ferris wheel. So to date we have 66 conservation easements throughout Grand County, totaling 9,310 acres, and these easements range our smallest one is less than a third of an acre up on Shadow Mountain Lake and our largest one is about a thousand acres just south of Granby.

Speaker 1: 3:31

That's great for the county.

Speaker 3: 3:32

It is yeah.

Speaker 1: 3:34

So nice job. So let's go into some of the events that you have going on this summer.

Speaker 3: 3:42

Yeah, thank you. So you know our perspective. A lot of people don't know what a land trust is or, if they do, they don't quite understand how we work. But ultimately my goal with a lot of our events is to bring conservation to the people. A lot of people maybe they don't own land or they only own, like me, they only own a yard and a house and so there's not a whole lot to conserve there. But my goal with a lot of our summer events is to make conservation a little more tangible for people who might not otherwise appreciate the land or live on the land in that way. So our three big and now annual summer events Our first one is the Hot Sulphur Run.

Speaker 3: 4:21

This is something that we brought back last year and I think it used to be called the Hot Sulphur Suffer or other names for a fun run.

Speaker 3: 4:30

It's always on the weekend of Hot Sulphur Days, which is the first summer festival in the county for the towns. This year we are partnering with the Sweetheart City Racing, which is a family business out of Loveland, and they do all of the races in and around Loveland, and this year they're starting to branch out into the mountains. So it was a really nice, nice matchup that we made. This will be a six kilometer, so it's a little bit more than a 5K, so everyone can set their own personal record on this one through the town of Hot Sulphur, starting at the Pioneer Village Museum and then going up onto what's called Heinbaugh Gulch or the Jones Creek Ranch Conservation Easement. This is one of our recent easements. The land is owned by the town of Hot Sulphur Springs and there's a beautiful trail that's on it and you can really get a really good view of that part of the county. The run will be on Sunday, june 9th, starting in the morning.

Speaker 3: 5:26

But if you go to our website, you can find registration and more information there. Like I said, we are partnering with Sweetheart City Racing, and so they're doing a lot of the coordination, but if you want to participate, run or walk or sponsor, you just give me a holler.

Speaker 1: 5:41

And I have to say it's Heimann Gulch, is that right?

Speaker 3: 5:44

Heimbalg.

Speaker 1: 5:45

Heimbalg Gulch. I hiked that last week because it was an area that was dry in the county and it's great that is so pretty up there.

Speaker 3: 5:55

It's a gorgeous piece of land, yeah, and it's under multi-use, so there might be cattle grazing out there under lease. You'll see a lot of good wildlife, some water. It's a really beautiful part of the county and we're very proud to have protected it.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Nice. Okay, let's go on to the second event.

Speaker 3: 6:12

Yeah, our second one is the Wildflower Walk, also on Heimbach Gulch, which is, like I said, in Hot Sulphur Springs. This is our I think our fourth year doing this walk, and this is just so if you ever go out and about in the county this summer, you can brag to your friends that you know what a certain flower is or what you're looking at. We've moved this event around. The first couple of years we tried it, we tried it in the Fraser Valley, we tried it earlier in the summer, later in the summer, and we finally realized that late June and hot sulfur is kind of a perfect time to do this walk. We have two local ecologists, doreen Summerlin and Mike Crosby. They come out and they lead the group on a walk on these trails on the conservation easement, to show you what you're going to be looking at. That will be on Sunday, june 23rd. Registration is required because we don't want a big group out there and that one is not on our website yet but will be very shortly.

Speaker 1: 7:08

And I have to say Doreen's been on this podcast quite a few times, but she is so good about her flowers.

Speaker 2: 7:18

Yeah, she's really great.

Speaker 1: 7:20

Yeah, we have to do a lesson every season, that's right.

Speaker 3: 7:26

Well, and you know, I've worked in professional conservation for a long time. But I always have to remind my friends and supporters who want to meet with me that I approach conservation from the social science side, not from the ecology side. So don't ask me to identify flowers. I do have Doreen's phone number, so if you need to know I can call her.

Speaker 1: 7:48

That's great, okay, and I really love this last event that you're doing.

Speaker 3: 7:53

Yeah, and I agree this is one of my favorites. This is our Songs and Stars event also our fourth year doing it and it's an annual stargazing event. We started in the Fraser Valley and then last year moved to Grand Lake, mainly because the event was getting so big we didn't have a really good venue to host everybody and have this party. And also this year we're moving it a week later. So this year it'll be on Saturday, August 17th, as part of Buffalo Days, which is the Town of Grand Lakes annual festival, and this event started as a way to teach people the benefits of conservation beyond just what you might see on the trail or you see when you're out and about during the day, but the benefits of land conservation to the night sky, and so we talk about the constellations and the planets and any type of celestial goings on, that we might see meteor showers or something, but then also talk about light pollution and how that affects wildlife and how that affects us. So at this event it's always a catered dinner and some music. Some local musicians will come and play. I do a presentation on what I do here at the Land Trust and then some of the benefits of land conservation to the night sky. And then I turn it over to Dave Schlichting and his crew at the Grand County Astronomy Club. These are great, great folks. They always bring out their telescopes and they talk about what we're seeing. It is August, so it's a late night. Sun doesn't set until about nine o'clock, but it's a really fun time if you can get out there.

Speaker 3: 9:25

This year I know I've thrown a lot of new information out, but I will say this year it's also at the Shadowcliff Mountain Lodge in Grand Lake, which will be the first time that we have an event there, but we're really excited. It's a beautiful venue overlooking the lake and some really great night sky showings. And then, lastly, something also special about this year with relation to Buffalo Days. Another partner on the event is the town of Grand Lake, because they are on a campaign to be dark sky designated and I'm on the steering committee for that and I know that you just had, was it Kim, who was on the podcast just last week. So it's and it's a great campaign and this event will count as one of their educational events. For this, they're required to have a number of public education events throughout the year and other materials that they produce to talk about dark sky designation for the town of Grand Lake. So that will be on Saturday, august 17th, and that registration is not yet up, but mark your calendars.

Speaker 1: 10:24

Jeremy, is there fees for any of these events?

Speaker 3: 10:27

Yep, so for the run there will be a fee, as well as for stargazing. So for the run there will be a fee, as well as for stargazing. Wildflower Walk is free, that one. We just ask that you do register and we do cap it up 30 people, just because it gets a little untenable past that.

Speaker 1: 10:40

So you said some of these events are on your website, right?

Speaker 3: 10:43

now.

Speaker 1: 10:44

People find out more information.

Speaker 3: 10:46

Sure, ColoradoHeadwatersLandTrustorg. It's all spelled out. You can Google it or just type that in and you'll find it on the front page. We have a little calendar and then you can go to the events page to learn more. We are also on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, all with the tag CO Headwaters LT, and you can get to those from our website as well.

Speaker 1: 11:06

And you also have a great newsletter that I really enjoy getting.

Speaker 3: 11:09

Oh, thank you yeah if you go to our website, we do have a pop-up that you can register. I send one email a month, outside of special event emails, and I need to say that over the summer because we do, do you know, leading up to an event we'll send out little pushes to register. But yeah, I send out one email a month talking about upcoming events, any news if the land trust or conservation is in local news and any other community events that you might want to know.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Jeremy, I appreciate your time today and everything you do. If I had land here, I would put it in easement. Well, thank you very much.

Speaker 3: 11:46

I appreciate it. And if anyone wants to come and hang out in person, my office is here in downtown Granby on First Street. So if you turn right at the light, we're right next to the Blue Credit Union.

Speaker 1: 11:55

And drive by Pi.

Speaker 3: 11:58

And drive by Pi.

Speaker 1: 11:59

Yes, well, jeremy, thank you again, and I look forward to seeing you at some of these events.

Speaker 3: 12:05

Thank you so much, Kayleen.

Speaker 2: 12:07

Thanks for watching.