The Trust Celebrates its 30th With a Successful Project Where It All Began
The view from the Trust’s Copper Glance Lode property
Feb. 4, 2022 – In 1992, attorney Jon Mulford worked with the U.S Forest Service (USFS) on several small land transactions outside of Aspen, Colorado. Through this experience, he discovered that private inholdings within the boundaries of federally designated wilderness were posing environmental threats to the landscape and creating management issues for the agency.
This information inspired Jon to develop a plan to acquire private properties within the wilderness designation and turn them over to public ownership. His vision was a national wilderness preservation system free from the threat of human development.
On February 6, 1992, Jon founded The Wilderness Land Trust to fulfill his vision. Since that time, The Trust has acquired and transferred 514 properties totaling 54,110 acres throughout the west, including 6,077 acres in Colorado.
The Trust’s Copper Glance Lode property
As the staff lead for projects in Colorado, I am honored to announce the purchase of our latest inholding where it all started. The Copper Glance Lode is a 10.33-acre property in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. This parcel sits in the scenic Queens Basin and was part of the former Copper Glance mining operation. With the Trust’s purchase of this parcel, Queens Basin is now free of the threat of development.
This year, The Wilderness Land Trust celebrates its 30th anniversary. I reached out to Jon Mulford and asked him for his thoughts. His response was simple, “Keep up the good work.” On behalf of our entire staff and board, we want to express how grateful we are to our supporters, project partners, agency staff and landowners who make our mission to protect wilderness possible.
Thank you Jon, for starting us on this journey. We promise to keep up the good work.
-Kelly Conde, Wilderness Land Trust Lands Specialist
