As conservation groups scramble to motivate advocates in support of public lands, one item in the Trump administration’s budget is the quiet redirection of $387 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund that Trump “permanently” funded at $900 million with his Great American Outdoors Act in 2020.

Slashing the Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF, funding threatens three high-profile and long-planned projects in Colorado, all ranking among the most high priority national conservation efforts listed by LWCF for the coming year.

One of the largest LWCF conservation projects ever considered in Colorado includes a $34 million plan for 2025 to protect the 650-acre Snowmass Falls Ranch outside Snowmass Village.

The Wilderness Land Trust and Pitkin County in 2024 partnered to purchase the 650-acre Snowmass Falls Ranch outside Snowmass Village. The property — a gateway to the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness — was acquired for $34 million by the Pitkin County Open Space Program. The plan calls for transferring the acreage over to the White River National Forest using funds from the LWCF.

The deal marked years of work to protect 614 acres of the 650-acre ranch as wilderness and protect public access across the property to reach one of the state’s most trafficked wilderness areas.