Successful 2026 Hands for Lands Season Wraps Up

By Jodana Thompson, AmeriCorps Blue Elements Watershed Steward and Community Engagement & Resource Management Assistant

Thanks to our wonderful volunteers who made this season’s Hands for Lands ditch cleaning work parties in April such a success! Each spring, the Hands for Lands community shows up to help local ranchers clear out their ditches before the irrigation season, lightening the workload and helping to create valuable wetland and wildlife habitat, critical in dry years such as this one.

First, we served at Kelly Ranch near Buena Vista on Friday, April 10, cleaning the ditches that come out of the Maxwell Creek Ditch. This ranch has been in the Kelly family for five generations and has about 40 acres of wetlands which are permanently protected in a conservation easement. Dave Kelly is a former water commissioner and was instrumental in helping the Central Colorado Conservancy create the Hands for Lands program. It was a cool, overcast day – perfect weatherfor our hard-working group of 14 volunteers to tackle some gnarly, overgrown ditches. The Kellys led the charge with 3 separate groups for different sections of ditch and were excellent hosts. We look forward to coming back next spring!

Next, we visited the Cooper Property in Salida on Friday, April 17. The Cooper brothers have a century-old farmhouse on their property that was bought in the 1940’s by their parents who were alfalfa farmers. The Cooper Property is part of Salida’s agricultural heritage as many historical small farms have been surrounded by growth or disappeared altogether.

Though the Cooper brothers are no longer farming, cleaning their ditch each spring helps them maintain their water rights. They use the water for landscaping and the beautiful fruit trees on the property.

This time we had 12 volunteers. We helped clear leaves from the yard, then went to work clearing weeds, woody debris, and garbage from the Boots and Hinton ditch which crosses Illinois Ave and diverts water from the South Arkansas River.

The last event was on April 24, helping ranchers Abby & Art Hutchinson prepare the Del Monte ditch for the irrigation season. The Hutchinson Ranch is a 7th generation family ranch between Salida and Poncha Springs that provides incredible value to our community including scenic beauty, deer and elk habitat, and educational opportunities for children. The Del Monte ditch starts by the disc golf course in Poncha Springs and runs 4 miles to the Hutchinson Ranch through piñons as well as two subdivisions and feeds two center pivots that irrigate alfalfa.

It was a beautiful, sunny Friday and our team of 12 volunteers (not including staff) got the opportunity to see progress on the Del Monte Ditch Project which was being piped and under construction. This project will allow the ranch to use their full decreed water right, reduce sedimentation in the ditch, reduce maintenance for ranch hands, repair a highly erosive wastewater flume, allow the ranch to measure the water flow in their ditch more accurately, and eliminate the need to continually disturb the riparian area around the diversion. Being able to use their full water right will allow the Hutchinson Ranch to put 25 acres back into hay production.

The project has been a collaborative effort between Hutchinson Ranch, Central Colorado Conservancy, Upper Arkansas Conservation District, Town of Poncha Springs, local water commissioners (past and present), CWCB, CAWA, US Army Corps of Engineers and others. Funding for the project comes from Chaffee County Common Ground, the Hutchinsons, and a grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board.

Our team of volunteers worked to clear large rocks, weeds, and debris from a long section of ditch across the street from the project construction. By the end of the day, we had accomplished clearing the entire section that the Hutchinsons were hoping for, and Abby had T-bone steaks for all of us as a thank you!

Thanks again to our impressive volunteers and to CCC staff and board members who jumped in to help and get their hands dirty this season, including Joanne Castendyk, Ricki Garden, Nathan Ward, Suzanne Copping, and Jo Thompson.

Come join us next year for incredible scenery, fresh air and exercise on some beautiful and iconic ranches in the valley! Sign up for our newsletter for updates and visit https://www.centralcoloradoconservancy.org/handsforlands to RSVP.

The Hands for Lands programis made possiblewith funding support from Chaffee Common Ground.