March 26, 2019 | Giving to nonprofits and residents in need through the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado increased 20 percent in 2018, and that’s not even counting the $700,000 donated to help those affected by the 416 Fire.

Giving through the foundation totaled $3.17 million last year, which came from private residents, companies and private foundations. It also includes funds the foundation manages for other nonprofits.

March 4, 2019 | Trail-building season will begin this spring with $150,000 going toward the construction of three trails totaling 9 miles on Midland Hill near Buena Vista, thanks to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife grant.

February 28, 2019 | Trail building season will begin this spring with 150,000 more dollars going toward the construction of three trails totaling 9 miles of trails on Midland Hill thanks to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife grant announced last week. The project will also restore and close 1.5 miles of unauthorized trails.

February 28, 2019 | In the far western stretches of Socorro County, in the mountainous San Mateos, Cibola National Forest is preparing for another prescribed burn. Cibola National Forest’s Magdalena District Forest Ranger Kim Obele said the burn is needed to reduce dead and down woody debris from the forest floor, help restore the natural fire regime to the ecosystem, recycle nutrients, and increase wildlife habitat diversity.

“These treatments protect nearby communities by decreasing the amount material available to burn during a wildfire, lessening the overall impact to private and public land,” Obele said.

The first phase of a prescribed burn is clearing out fuel, in other words, small junipers, tiny Ponderosas and dead and down trees, all of which can make the burn uncontrollable.

February 12, 2019 | RiversEdge West captures the human spirit of riparian (riverside) restoration in their Riverside Stories series. In this video, we meet Emily Kasyon, Watershed Program Coordinator for the Southwest Conservation Corps. Emily dedicates her time to managing invasive plants like tamarisk along the stunning Dolores River in Colorado. She often finds herself overseeing conservation corps crew members who use chainsaws and herbicide to reduce invasive plant populations, as well as monitoring and reestablishing native plants along this river corridor for the benefit of the community and wildlife, alike. This work plays into a larger collaborative effort to restore the Dolores River's riparian ecosystem which is being led by the Dolores River Restoration Partnership and RiversEdge West.

February 7, 2019 | While he was growing up on the arid, remote Hopi Nation in northern Arizona, Marshall Masayesva never paddled a kayak or went backpacking. People who lived in his community spent a lot of time outdoors, but the term “recreation” was seldom uttered; Masayesva never thought of himself as an outdoors person.

That began to change after high school when Masayesva’s sister encouraged him to get a job in the conservation field. “She wanted me leave the reservation, so she threw an application at me,” he says.

January 4, 2019 | On the “bucket list” for people all over the world is to hike the Grand Canyon, most notably, the Bright Angel and Kaibab Trails. Of the six million-plus annual Grand Canyon visitors, it is estimated less than 7 percent actually hike down into the canyon (only 1 percent to the bottom). Even so, that adds up to 434,000 hikers a year on the corridor trails.  

Maintaining these popular trails for safe passage are many people who work at times in high heat and low temperatures to ensure hikers and mule riders a safe journey.   

December 19, 2018 | CREEDE — The Mineral County Board of County Commissioners passed resolutions, shifted board positions, received a youth program update, discussed property issues and scheduled meetings for 2019 at their Dec. 18 meeting. The board compared calendars and identified meeting dates for the entire year. Chairman Scott Lamb also noted three joint sessions with Creede officials in 2019, starting with a meeting on Jan. 17 at 5 p.m.

November 13, 2018 | Youth members of Conservation Legacy’s Southwest Conservation Corps Ancestral Lands Program will work with the Grand Canyon Youth guides and mentors to halt and reverse the spread of invasive non-native plant species along the Colorado, San Juan, Escalante, and Dirty Devil Rivers. 

For Immediate Release: Durango, Colorado | November 5, 2018

The Conservation Legacy Board of Directors today announced the appointment of Susan Cimburek as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.