A pilot project aims to protect land in northern Colorado through a combination of conservation and agriculture
Nic Koontz, left, and his wife Katie Slota, founders of Native Hill Farm at Kestrel Fields Natural Area in Fort Collins on Wednesday, October 25, 2023. On a surprisingly brisk September morning, the just-risen sun cast its warmth over a line of young cottonwood trees and a fallow field. Steps away, greens burst from the ground in perfect alignment, a hint to the rows of carrots, lettuces and onions growing below. Homes bordered the scene on three sides.
In 2020, the city partnered with Poudre Valley Community Farms , a nonprofit focused on connecting food producers with affordable land in order to make it easier to grow food locally. The goal: Determine if agriculture could help achieve conservation benchmarks, such as improving soil quality, restoring plant life, supporting wildlife habitats and reducing water use.
The pair approached some people they knew in the community about their struggles, and PVCF, which has since transitioned into a nonprofit, was born.The five-year pilot program with Fort Collins blends the city’s focus on conserving and restoring landscapes with PVCF’s efforts to find affordable lands for conservation-minded farmers to work.
Kestrel Fields is one of three pilot sites. The other two are 150-acre Flores del Sol Natural Area, which hosts vegetable crops and grazing animals and acts as a business accelerator to help farmers get up and running with education and equipment support, and a parcel adjacent to Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area, where grazing by goat, sheep and cattle is supporting the grasslands and reducing wildfire risk.
“As a farmer, we’ve seen a lot of the land, the beautiful farmland that surrounds our community, be changed into houses or changed into gravel pits — exchanged for things you can’t really get back as far as agriculture goes,” Slota said. “ making sure that the public understands that we can have both agriculture and natural areas in one space and that working landscapes are an important part of our community.
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