Root Shoot Malting is pursuing a conservation easement to ensure the pace, quality, and permanence of protected agriculture in the region.
Colorado-based Root Shoot Malting and Traverse Image are asking craft beer and whiskey lovers for their support to preserve and regenerate Colorado agriculture, allowing Olander Farms to continue growing and producing local grains on their farmland, and to keep telling this story through the new film titled 100 Year Lease.
Root Shoot and Traverse Image introduced the 100 Year Lease documentary film in March with a campaign originally slated as a series of educational and social gatherings. The outbreak of COVID-19 has caused the craft maltster and documentary filmmaker to shift their efforts to virtual platforms, allowing even more family farming advocates to get involved.
Our brewing and distilling partners depend on us to grow and produce malt and grains, and the livelihood of our small business depends on farmland, a commodity that for us and so many others is scarce and exponentially depleting. Farmers in Colorado have especially seen an increase in pressure from subdivision development, water depletion, falling commodity prices, and oil and gas expansion.
For the past three years, Olander Farms and Root Shoot Malting have been together pursuing a conservation easement to preserve and protect the beloved and crucial land around us. We're campaigning to keep farmers on farms.
This agreement, in partnership with Colorado Open Lands, will permanently limit the use of our farm, 112 acres, to agriculture production and will ensure the continued pace, quality, and permanence of protected farmland in our region. We're protecting our farmland from the most important issues facing our state of Colorado: subdivision and water rights.
We're partnering with Colorado Open Lands, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit land trust that exists to protect and conserve Colorado's natural lands, water resources, and agricultural values. Founded in 1981, Colorado Open Lands holds 479 easements in 46 Colorado counties, protecting over 560,000 acres. They've funded over 45 Fellowships statewide, leveraged over $321,000,000 of donated land value, and protected over 358 miles of Colorado's waterways.
Together, we're working to place a voluntary agreement called a conservation easement on our 112-acre property. A conservation easement, at its core, is a mutually agreed-upon document that outlines the conservation values of a property and determines how the land will be protected...forever. It is intended to support working lands and will restrict division of the property, surface mining, and continued historic use of water rights on the property.
Our application has been officially approved, and we're now conducting our due diligence in accepting the conservation easement. There are various partners who help with this process and, consequently, large costs associated with the agreement. We're raising funds via The Steward Foundation to help mitigate the upfront costs associated with the agreement, which include the following:
We need your support to help us preserve and regenerate Colorado agriculture, allowing us to continue growing and producing local grains on our farmland, and to keep telling this story through our new film titled 100 Year Lease. 100 Year Lease is a documentary short-film produced by Root Shoot Malting and Traverse Image to convey the significance of family farms and preserve the longevity of Colorado agriculture. This project is rooted in Colorado and inspired by a premise that we live and believe: Together we can save family farms, one beer at a time
A contribution towards our conservation easement and regenerative agricultural efforts shows your support for local family farms, and for the 100 Year Lease mission and documentary film. It's an affirmation of your commitment to knowing your farmer, your maltster, and your breweries and distilleries who utilize craft malt. You’re pledging to seek out products made with local grains as an ambassador of craft.
“We rely on the land, and Mother Nature— and that's what we want to take care of.
Our mission is to put a plan in place so we can always have farmland.”
— Todd Olander, Root Shoot Malting, Co-Founder
The Steward Foundation Inc. is an IRC 501(c)(3) charitable organization created to manage contributions and fund grants to projects surrounding sustainable and regenerative agriculture. By making a donation to The Steward Foundation, you will be contributing directly to the project noted above. 100% of your charitable donation will be distributed to the project. Your donation will be tax-deductible to the extent that no goods or services were provided to you in exchange. The Steward Foundation’s tax identification number is 37-1912757.
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