CARBONDALE - Colorado Rocky Mountain School has sealed a deal with
Aspen Valley Land Trust to protect a stretch of riverfront property
along the Crystal River that is home to two rare species of orchids and
is considered an important area for wildlife.

The deal was part of a record-setting year
for the land trust, which put 7,000 acres between Aspen and DeBeque
into conservation easements in 2007. AVLT has some 28,000 acres in
conservation easements in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys.

Last year's easements included a 2,000-acre
donation of ranchland along Garfield Creek, west of Glenwood Springs,
the largest-single donation the land trust has ever received. That
donation, from a Florida-based ranchland company, adjoins a state
wildlife area and includes a broad range of habitat, from sagebrush
meadows to evergreen forests.

The CRMS property stretches along 500 yards
on the west side of the Crystal River. It's an undeveloped part of the
school's 300-acre campus. School officials say they bought it in 1999
largely as a buffer from nearby development, and for river access for
kayak races.

"Any time you can get a piece of the river,
it's important habitat and open space to protect," said AVLT Executive
Director Martha Cochran.

Colorado State University lists the site as a
conservation protection area, and ranks it as urgent because of nearby
development pressure. Its status as a conservation protection area
largely is due to the presence of two rare orchids - the canyon bog
orchid and the yellow ladyslipper. The property is also home to a host
of wildlife, including bald eagles, osprey, elk, mule deer, and bears.

"We bought it to forestall any development
being there," said CRMS spokesman Jeremy Simon. "We've always intended
to keep it in a natural state, but we've been doing it by holding this
piece of land."

By turning it over to the land trust, the
school will keep the property as open space forever. The school will be
able to continue to use it for science classes and for kayak races. It
also maintains the right to build a boat barn, to graze livestock,
build trails and use the land for low-impact recreation.

"We were certainly not planning to develop
it," Simon said. "Our board decided if we want to keep this land in
perpetuity as natural habitat, let's do it now so a generation down the
line, a different board, different people, don't change their minds."

dfrey@aspendailynews.com