• Client: Colorado Parks and Wildlife
• Date: October, 2021
• Project Type: Conservation easement baseline documentation report
• Info:  CPW hired Blue Mountain Environmental Consulting  to provide a conservation easement baseline report. They used the report to satisfy the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with respect to charitable contributions.

The 480-acre private property is located in Mesa County, Colorado, south of Grand Junction. Blue Mountain prepared a baseline documentation report in accordance with Title 26 of the Internal Revenue Service Code [§ 1.170A-14 (g)(5)]. Report methodology followed the suggested format of the Land Trust Alliance and the Trust for Public Land. Blue Mountain documented site conditions, providing numerous site maps and site photographs.

The property clearly supported relatively natural habitat and open space conservation values with its sweeping changes in elevation. It ranged from a meandering creek along a valley floor to the top of an elevated plateau. This created a diverse landscape of more than 25 land-cover types, and a wildlife habitat for a variety of species.

Additionally, the property qualified for designation as a significant habitat or ecosystem due to its proximity to the Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area, which protects spectacular canyon country of the Uncompahgre Plateau.