Rio Grande Initiative: Haywood Ranch Conservation Easement

Category: Conservation Easements
Organization: Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust
Date Approved: September 2012
Basin Funds: $25,000
State Funds: $400,000

This project helped fund the purchase of a conservation easement on the 400-acre Haywood Ranch in Rio Grande County. The conservation easement secured approximately 30% of the Silva Ditch, the #1 most senior water right on the Rio Grande in Colorado, to the property. This is an important addition to the landscape-scale effort to protect and sustain the historic water use patterns along the Rio Grande river corridor by tying the water rights to the land through permanent, voluntary conservation easements.