Development pressure continues to threaten agricultural property across the North Fork Valley. But a recent collaboration offers a success story for local farmers and those who enjoy the fruits of their labor. Colorado West Land Trust joined forces with Dirt Capital Partners and the Kropp family to permanently conserve organic orchard land in the North Fork Valley. The easement ensures that the property will remain a working farm in perpetuity, protecting agricultural soils, senior irrigation water, wildlife habitat, and the rural landscape of Delta County.
For the Colorado West Land Trust, it's another successful conservation project, adding 30 acres of prime organic orchard to the 5,000 acres already conserved in the North Fork Valley. That's part of 150 ,000 acres total in Delta County. Conservation Director Ilana Moyer described the work of the Grand Junction-based organization and talked about the cooperation that is always inherent in creating such protections in perpetuity.
“Our mission is to conserve land for future generations, and that's really about keeping our landscapes whole, keeping ecological systems operating and keeping farms and ranches in business,” said Moir. “All of our work is collaborative, whether it's only collaborating with one landowner on their property and maybe the five different family members that are involved. I mean, that alone can be quite a collaboration, is getting everyone to the table and making sure that each family member's goals are met through a conservation agreement. And then we have these projects like the the project with the crops, where we had a funder coming in to buy the property, an investor, and then we had landowners that were wanting to sell the property and really had no interest in the long-term side of the property. Then we had the Kroops, in this case, the farmers that want to be involved with the property, they want to farm the property, but needed some help getting from A to B, going from farming it to actually purchasing it.”
Brothers Kris and Kevin Kropp had previously tried to buy the property. They own orchards on two sides, including 50 acres already under a conservation agreement. The brothers described the way they first learned from the owner that the property, currently in pears and apples, was to be subdivided and sold.
Kris Kropp began the story. “He says, I just wanted to let you know this is going on the market tomorrow. And I say, really? He says, yeah, we got DMEA coming in here to put in the power. We got the well permit. We're gonna start drilling.”
“He broke it up into four different lots,” added Kevin.
“It was all going to be parceled out,” continued Kris. “It was already, it was just happening. Oh, my heart just sunk.”
“We were heartbroken,” said Keven. “This cannot happen. We sent up a flare to Colorado West. This is the property, this is the situation. And they started working on it and found some people. They ended up being Dirt Capital Partners.
“We got to know them. They got to know us. We saw that we were on the same page as far as preserving the land, you know, and keeping it in agriculture.”
“You know, this soil here is like four or five feet deep,” said Kris. “The water rights are phenomenal. You know, it's just one of those places that shouldn't grow houses. It should grow crops.”
The Kropp family made their first investment in an orchard on Pitkin Mesa in 1978, when Kris and Kevin's parents, who were teachers in Salida, toured the area looking for a place to retire.
“They came up through the dobies from Delta, and said, oh my gosh, this is pretty desolate,” said Kris. “Then they got up here, up on top, and they said, wow, this is really beautiful. They asked a realtor if there was any property for sale, and there was an orchard up here on Pitkin Mesa that Ben and Lois Wiancko had run for years. Twenty acres, and Dad had no idea, of course, neither one of them, what they're getting into. And so they bought that orchard, and Dad, I think he picked 52 tons of cherries off of that place that first season. And it about drove him, I mean, he just was beside himself.
“It's a lot of work. He didn't pick those himself, of course. 52 tons, he had a lot of help, but didn't make any money off of that crop. Yeah, I think he actually lost money. I think they got 18 cents a pound return on that crop.”
“But he continued to teach school and come over in the summers and on weekends,” said Kevin. “And he'd drag Kris and I over on the weekends. Teenagers that just wanted to go do stuff with their friends, and we'd come over. And he thought we'd be really interested in it. And we were somewhat, but he found out just how much work it really is. And he said, this does not look like a retirement project to me.
“And so Kris was first on board. I mean, that year we had a big apple crop, and dad asked Kris. Kris can tell the story about how he was newly married and kind of had his life in front of him. And here, dad throws this on him. But tell what happened.”
“Yeah, Tammy and I just got married in 1981,” continued Kris. “And I was going to school at CSU. I had a watershed management degree going, and I had no idea at all of coming over here. And Dad said, please, I need some help. I'm going, Dad, you know, I don't know anything about orchards.
“But Ben Wiancko had stayed on, and he helped us kind of get through it. Tammy and I said, well, we'll give you one year. from 1981 — and here we still are.”
“We believe it's our calling to be good stewards,” said Kevin, “to leave that soil, leave that ground better than where we found it, and to pass that on to the next generation, whoever that might be. That's our motivation. That's our privilege, really, to just take care of this land.”
