Community Programs
Land Access
Community Land Partnership of the Southwest
In 2025, after a multi-year research and community listening process alongside local partners, Montezuma Land Conservancy (MLC) established the Community Land Partnership of the Southwest (CLPS), a new land-holding wing of our organization. CLPS will be dedicated to creating land access opportunities for young, aspiring, and existing farmers and ranchers who lack opportunities to affordably access land on which to run viable local food businesses.
CLPS creates a platform through which our organization can acquire farmland properties through purchase or donation and manage those lands through equitable leasing arrangements, opportunities for equity building, and shared resources including land, equipment, infrastructure, access to funding, and mentorship.
While CLPS is a part of MLC, it is a community-driven sub-organization. CLPS currently has a founding board of managers made up of local community members passionate about supporting farmers and ranchers, and our local food system.
Background
The growing barriers to land access have spurred the creation of several innovative land transfer models throughout the country.
In 2022, MLC formed a partnership with the La Plata Open Space Conservancy and the Old Fort Farm of Fort Lewis College to research existing land access models and to explore opportunities that may best fit our local area.
This work, which led to the creation of CLPS, involved a community engagement process consisting of listening sessions in both Montezuma and La Plata Counties to discuss barriers and opportunities to land access, and how organizations such as land trusts might be able to support such efforts.
