Partners

Program Partners

Logo for City of Fort Collins Natural Areas, featuring stylized text with a mountain outline, a blue wave, and three cattail plants.

City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department

Since 2019, PVCF has been growing an incredible partnership with the City of Fort Collins Natural Areas Department. Purchasing farmland is difficult in the current real estate market so this partnership is of the utmost importance to expand our land and water acces. Our mission to expand local food production and has already resulted in leases to many new and established, local farmers! Our partnership began with a lease at Flores del Sol Natura Area, and we soon added Kestrel Fields Natural Area and Pryor Farm to our portfolio. Together, these lands serve as a pilot program to understand how Conservation Agriculture can help achieve conservation goals on open space while growing food for our community.

Yellow graphic with three white aspen tree trunks on the left and the words Colorado Open Lands in bold black text on the right, with Open written vertically.

Colorado Open Lands

Colorado Open Lands and PVCF have been collaborating since 2017, when we partnered to conserve 86 acres of farmland in perpetuity. Our partnership remains strong with a shared vision of protecting Colorado’s lands, waters and farmers. Together, Colorado Open Lands and PVCF aim to connect farmers and ranchers with affordable land and water in Northern Colorado through the use of voluntary conservation easements. The process protects open space, water, and wildlife habitat and ensures affordable farmland for future farmers — forever. PVCF and Colorado Open Lands continue to collaborate on land and water access projects that will support the future of food production and food system stability in Northern Colorado.

Northern Colorado Foodshed Project

PVCF partners with the Northern Colorado Foodshed Project by providing land at Flores del Sol Natural Area and support for their Farm Business Accelerator Program. The program supports farmers by providing low-cost, low-risk access to land, water, infrastructure, technical support, mentorship, marketing assistance and business education through a partnership with PVCF, and Colorado State University (CSU) Extension’s Building Farmers Program.

A three-year program, the Farm Business Accelerator program provides farmers with access to plots of shared land starting at 3/4 of an acre, as well as access to irrigation equipment, farming tools and equipment, electricity, and storage space. By working in a collaborative environment with established and beginning farmers, surrounded by activities such as public education and food access programs, participants in the Accelerator are members of a community-based project aimed at supporting a vibrant, local food economy.

Funding Partners

USDA logo with large blue letters USDA above green, stylized farmland lines and shapes, representing the United States Department of Agriculture.
The image shows the CoBank logo with a green square graphic on the left and the word “CoBANK” in bold blue letters to the right on a white background.
American AgCredit logo with a green four-leaf floral design on the left and the text “American AgCredit” in gray and “Your future grows here” in green on the right.