Thanks to the almost 1,000 of you who participated in our survey! Your answers and comments will help guide us into the near future and beyond.
Below is a link to a PDF of responses to the multiple choice answers. We are still processing the many answers to open-ended questions, and will post those as we process them over the coming months. Please be patient with us!
As always, if you have further comments or suggestions, we welcome them at info@olt.org
Below is the introduction to the survey, to refresh your memory. Thanks again for helping us take care of the place we love so much!
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Orient Land Trust (OLT) has started a journey of yearly surveys of the OLT Community. The results will be used by OLT's staff and Board of Directors as a communication device, a bellwether for future planning, a source of creative suggestions, an educational outreach tool, and whatever else YOU suggest and would like it to become. Through this, we want to find out how best we can determine and balance the competing needs and desires of everyone involved with OLT. We strive to do this while giving full consideration to the financial, legal and environmental realities facing OLT.
As you are probably well aware, a perfect survey is rarely possible in any situation. OLT is an amalgamation of diverse properties, encompassing Valley View Hot Springs, Everson Ranch, Orient Mine, and other lands. Our community is a gathering of diverse people, each with disparate needs and desires. As the issues facing our young organization are complex and unprecedented, and our people so passionate, this process is doubly difficult.
We want your input on how best to shepherd OLT into the future while maintaining alignment with OLT’s Mission. Just to refresh, here is the Orient Land Trust Mission Statement:
Orient Land Trust is a nonprofit land trust dedicated to the preservation of natural and biological resources, agricultural lands, wildlife habitat, open space, and historic and geologic features of the northern San Luis Valley for the enjoyment of current and future generations.
To achieve this mission, Orient Land Trust (OLT):
• Actively engages the northern San Luis Valley community to preserve and conserve lands with important conservation values from being sold, subdivided or overdeveloped
• Works within the greater land conservation community of the San Luis Valley, including public land management agencies, to protect contiguous lands with important conservation values
• Protects the natural and biological resources and historic and cultural heritage of OLT lands, including soil, water, air, plants and animals
• Maintains low-impact, clothing-optional recreation facilities with limited development to a diverse public at a minimal cost
• Encourages scientific studies of unique, natural and biological resources on OLT lands
• Promotes educational programs, community outreach and public appreciation of OLT lands
Please understand that the survey is not a solicitation for votes, the results do not guarantee an outcome. The survey is also not intended to imply or promise that anything is in the works already or decided upon as yet. Final decisions will incorporate these survey results, but there are also necessarily many other considerations – legal, financial, technological, scientific, strategic.
All topics in this survey came from the OLT Community through a pre-survey process distributed to the community through the December newsletter, email addresses in our system, and word of mouth. We have tried not to ask leading, biased, or slanted questions, which is not as easy as it sounds for a group of such passionate people.
We are reaching out to you in the spirit of community and of our Mission. Please join us in that spirit, help us as much as you can, and bear with us as we find the best path towards our goal. Please help us in our goal by completing our initial survey as completely as you feel comfortable. We greatly appreciate your participation!
Please note that if you do not want to answer a question, feel free to skip it. If you have a comment about any issue, including the process, please give feedback to us at the end of the survey.
Enjoy!
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Orient Land Trust