Land Stewards – Conservation Easements Provide a Viable Alternative to Development

By Ron Sering

Area rancher Joe Cogan does not mince words about commercial land development. “I don’t think much of subdividers. They come up to you, shake your hand, and then try to get in your pocket.”

Since 1889, the Cogan family steadily built their area holdings through a combination of leases and purchase, to hundreds of acres. “I had three boys, but two of them decided to do something else for a living.” Cogan soon found himself with more land than he could work. “I divested myself of several leases,” Cogan said. “We kept the land we worked down to a minimum.”

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The map and the territory

Essay by Ed Quillen

Land – October 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

THERE’S AN OLD SAYING that often pops up either in semantics classes or when discussing Zen: “The map is not the territory.” Its meaning seems so obvious that we seldom give it much thought (of course there’s a difference between a drawing and the object it purports to represent), but around here, it’s something we should always bear in mind. In Central Colorado, the map is not the territory, and it may not even be a useful representation of the territory.

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