Healthy Lands & Watersheds
Protect Colorado’s Farms, Food & Drink
Food security is tied directly to the health of the land and of the water systems that sustain our farms and communities.
In its earliest days the Colorado Farm & Food Alliance grew out of the need to secure protection for the public lands that surround the North Fork Valley and the forests that protect the headwaters to all who live downstream.
“If you care about what is on your plate, you should agree with the need to protect the health of the land and the security of the water source,” was a foundational idea.
The Colorado Farm & Food Alliance still sees this as at the root of our work: that healthy lands and watersheds protect Colorado’s farms, food and drink.
We also know that landscape conservation and protection of natural places is a powerful tool for addressing climate change and for building resilience to mitigate impacts from it.
This project supports:
Landscape-wide protection for all the public lands that make up the North Fork Valley watershed.
The Gunnison Outdoor Resources Protection (GORP Act) and Protect the Dolores campaigns.
Public lands and watershed education and engagement.
2024 Update
In 2024 important gains were made in efforts to protect public lands in the region, while other efforts gained new momentum, like at the Dolores River canyons, and for public lands in Gunnison County.
A decision earlier this year from the U.S. Department of Interior removed some public lands in the Thompson Divide area from the oil and gas leasing pool, capping off more than 20 years of community campaigns in both the Roaring Fork and North Fork valleys, and beyond. Some headwaters to the North Fork river are included in this mineral withdrawal.
Colorado Farm & Food Alliance also educates about and organize community projects around watershed protection, usually in partnership with the Western Slope Conservation Center the local leader in watershed protection and public lands.
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