In a typical project announcement, COL shares good news about protected acres of land. Today, we’re very excited to share that a family has chosen to protect the water on their land after the land itself had already been conserved.
Waggener Farm is an irrigated family farm located in Weld County just outside the Town of Berthoud. Positioned at the gateway into Berthoud, the Waggener Farm conservation easement helps to protect the agricultural character of Berthoud’s greenbelt while also preserving the iconic views of Longs Peak and Rocky Mountain National Park on the drive into town. The farm has keystone water rights on three major ditch systems that ensure that the prime soils on the farm continue to be irrigated. The water rights also help to fortify the overall integrity of the ditch systems in the local community. A longstanding farm lease is in place with the Olander family, founders of Root Shoot Malting, who closed on a conservation easement on their own farm in 2022.
Previous phases of work with this family conserved the farm’s 466 acres with valuable native water rights. This fourth and final phase adds 53 units of Colorado Big Thompson (CBT) water rights. While historically they were developed for supplemental irrigation water, the CBT decree allows for the rights to be used for multiple purposes, including municipal and industrial uses, making them highly coveted by growing municipalities and water providers. The family approved flexible water sharing language in the conservation easement, which would allow for the landowner to lease some of the water to other users in the community in certain years. By building in this flexibility, landowners retain some diversification of income opportunities while also freeing up water for other uses that support the landscape and local community. Having access to leasable water relieves pressure for municipalities to “buy and dry” farms. This project benefits not only ag producers in South Platte Basin, but also municipal water users and managers, wildlife that depend on reliable water sources, and proponents of conservation across Colorado!