(Denver) -- The Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Board has awarded its first grants of this fiscal year with $6 million lottery dollars being used to protect 7650 acres of open space, fund 24 community park and outdoor recreation projects and four planning efforts that will result in future projects.

The most significant project grant is $427,000 to Colorado Open Lands (COL) to assist with the preservation of 800 acres in the first land deal in the ambitious Peak-to-Prairie large landscape conservation effort.

"We believe there is still time to coordinate and balance preservation and conservation with recreation and economic development so the natural integrity and heritage of the Mosquito Range is not lost," said Cara Doyle, President of the Alma Foundation.

(Steamboat Springs) -- On Thursday, as The Nature Conservancy was completing the first of two important conservation easements in the Yampa Valley, it received word from the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Board that it had just been awarded another $750,000 in lottery funds to work toward completion of the second easement in this ecologically significant area.

The Conservancy worked closely with the landowner and partners to complete protection of 1280 acres of important ranchland and high quality wildlife habitat by placing a conservation easement on a portion of the Wolf Mountain Ranch. The easement protects a unique midchannel island, known as Elk Island, and a scenic sagebrush ridge across the Yampa River from the Conservancy's historic Carpenter Ranch.

(Denver) -- The Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Board has awarded its final grants for Fiscal Year 2005. The $8.2 million awarded yesterday closes out a year that saw the Board award a record $97 million in lottery proceeds.

Yesterday's grants will help protect more than 7000 acres of open space, much of it agricultural land containing critical wildlife habitat and scenic viewsheds, but also urban parcels that will provide key connections to other public lands and trail systems. The grants will also help with outdoor recreation projects in 31 counties across the state.

(Denver) -- The Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Board has awarded lottery grants to four projects to develop plans for future trails, outdoor recreation, environmental education, and open space.

(Georgetown) - Using a $5.2 million Lottery bridge loan from the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Trust Fund, Clear Creek County Open Space acquired the remaining 1442 acres of the Beaver Brook Watershed today, securing more time for the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to complete the purchase and preservation of the scenic wildlife habitat located east of Mount Evans.

(Gunnison)  - Bob (Harold) Robbins and his son, Bob, have decided to give up forever their right to subdivide and develop 500 acres of grazing land and wildlife habitat in the Steuben Creek Valley, about 8 miles west of Gunnison. The family has granted a conservation easement to Colorado Open Lands, a statewide land trust. Local grassroots organization, Gunnison Ranchland Conservation Legacy (GRCL), coordinated the easement project and secured grants and donations to fund the deal. The land is now restricted to allow only one home on the entire 500 acres.

Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), funded by the Colorado Lottery, granted $299,343 for the agricultural land preservation project. The Gunnison County Land Preservation Fund, 1% for Open Space, and private donations provided the remaining cash. The Robbins Family donated $125,000 worth of easement value.

(Telluride)  - On January 7, 2005, the San Miguel Conservation Foundation (SMCF) closed on Phase 2 of a two-part conservation easement transaction with the Schmid Family Ranch, LLC. The closing comes more than five years after an option agreement to purchase a conservation easement on the 800-acre ranch for $1.6 million was negotiated with a partnership of local conservation organizations comprised of SMCF, the San Miguel County Open Space Commission and The Nature Conservancy.

The second phase of the Schmid transaction put 320 acres under conservation easement, adding to the 480 acres already protected in phase 1, and was funded in part with a $600,000 lottery grant from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO).

(Fort Collins) - Today the Larimer County Open Lands Program and The Nature Conservancy acquired the Red Mountain Ranch, the centerpiece of the Laramie Foothills/Mountains to Plains Project. The 13,500 acres of the ranch that lie in Colorado were purchased with $7.8 million in lottery funds from Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) and $1.4 million from Larimer County's 1/4% Help Preserve Open Spaces sales tax fund. The Nature Conservancy purchased over 1,500 acres that lie in Wyoming.

"Purchase of the Red Mountain Ranch was urgent and key to the entire vision of this ambitious effort to protect a total of 55,400 acres," said John Swartout, GOCO executive director. "This project is a great example of the landscape scale protection the GOCO Board intended with its recent Legacy grants." The $7.8 million is part of an $11.6 million Legacy grant the GOCO Board awarded to the project on December 1.

(DENVER) - The Colorado Division of Wildlife (DOW) has collaborated with an international construction materials company, Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO), and the Yampa River Legacy Project to protect prime riparian habitat in one of western Colorado's fastest-growing communities.

The land is located at the site of a tapped out Lafarge North America gravel mine and concrete pit. Lafarge was considering options for the Routt County property, and both the City of Steamboat Springs and the DOW were among the entities interested in acquiring it from the company.

(DENVER) - Governor Bill Owens today joined with members of the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Board in announcing an unprecedented investment of $60 million in state lottery proceeds. $48 million of that total will help preserve 80,000 acres including dramatic landscapes in Northern Colorado's Laramie Foothills, Jefferson County's Front Range Mountain Backdrop, and southwest Colorado's San Juan Skyway. The remaining $12 million will advance work on two new State Parks, trails, and regional outdoor recreation areas.

"With broad support from communities across the state, large expanses of open space that define the rich beauty of Colorado will now be preserved. This unprecedented investment by the GOCO Board to protect open space is good for Colorado's wildlife, our citizens and economy," Owens said. The Governor was joined by GOCO Board members and project sponsors at the State Capitol.

(FORT COLLINS) - Over 4,500 acres of the best remaining Front Range wildlife habitat, located west of Fort Collins, has been protected by a conservation easement granted to The Nature Conservancy by long-time rancher Catherine Roberts.

Under terms of the easement, which resulted from a strong partnership that brought together the resources and expertise of the City of Fort Collins, Larimer County, Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) and the Conservancy, 4,557 acres of the historic 16,000-acre Roberts Ranch will be protected from subdivision and residential development. The property will remain a working cattle ranch.