HISTORY
History of the Eagle
Valley Land Trust
The Eagle Valley Land
Trust was founded in 1982 by Roger Tilkemeier. The original
board of directors included John Benton, Floyd Crawford,
Chris Jouflas, Don Price, George Rosenberg, and Jen Wright.
It was the third land trust established in Colorado. Just as
the Land Trust was getting off the ground, the sharp
recession of 1982 curtailed the immediate need for it.
During the next several
years, growth was sharply reduced in Eagle County. In 1989
the Land Trust accepted a donation of 62 acres of land near
Eagle on Brush Creek. This land was subsequently put under
conservation easement.
In the early 1990s,
rapid growth began anew in Eagle County. In 1994 Board
President Terrill Knight began to reinvigorate the Land
Trust. New board members were added and the board began a
search for funds to hire an Executive Director.
In 1996 the trust
received a grant from the Great Outdoors Colorado Trust Fund
to hire an Executive Director. Thanks to matching funds from
Vail Associates, Harry Frampton of East West Partners,
Cordillera, the Catto Charitable Foundation, and the Ruth
and Vernon Taylor Foundation, the Trust secured the
necessary funds to hire its first full time staff person.
After a substantial
search, the Trust hired Brad Udall in May, 1997. Upon
becoming EVLT's Executive Director, Brad emphasized three
primary goals for meaningful conservation projects in Eagle
County: to protect key lands, especially in the I-70 corridor; to provide for the
long term financial security of the trust; and to acquire a
source of funds to purchase land and development rights.
Under Brad's leadership, the Land Trust completed several
significant projects. Among the most important achievements
were the conservation easements placed on Webster Ranch and
the Diamond S Ranch, the inclusion of 640 acres of
state-owned land in the conservation-oriented Stewardship
Trust, and the public acquisition of more than 1,800 acres
along East and West Brush
Creek which became part of Sylvan Lake State Park.
In March, 2001, Brad
left the Trust to join his family on the Front Range. At
that time, the Trust hired Cindy Cohagen, a Colorado native
with broad experience in fundraising and public relations.
Her first priority was to increase community awareness of
the Land Trust. As part of these efforts, the Trust
developed an annual fundraising event (The SHINDIG);
enhanced its educational materials, including development of
a CD, a slide show, improved collaterals and a
professionally produced annual report. Her second major
initiative was implementation of a number of standard
business practices, including an annual audit, a copy of
which is available at the Trust offices. Under her
leadership, the Trust has completed more than a dozen
conservation transactions, the largest of which is the
4,800-acre Bair Ranch.
In 2003, Jen Scroggins
joined the Trust as its Business & Finance Manager and was
promoted to Associate Director in 2006. Under
her guidance, the Trust has implemented rigorous financial
policies and procedures; undertaken an exhaustive review of
all of the Trust's conservation easement policies,
procedures and practices to assure the Trust complies with
standards set by the national Land Trust Alliance; and
positioned EVLT to become one of the first land trusts in
the country to apply for voluntary accreditation. EVLT was
selected in February 2007 to be one of 22 land trusts to participate
in the LTA Accreditation Commission's pilot program.
