{"id":1314810,"date":"2019-09-19T21:48:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T03:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/valley-land-trust-launches-save-the-lake\/"},"modified":"2019-09-19T21:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-20T03:48:00","slug":"valley-land-trust-launches-save-the-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/valley-land-trust-launches-save-the-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"Valley land trust launches \u2018Save the Lake\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EAGLE COUNTY \u2014 An effort has started to preserve Sweetwater Lake. It could take some time, but those who love the area are optimistic.<\/p>\n

While the lake is in Garfield County, the effort is being spearheaded from Eagle County \u2014 the only road access is off the Colorado River Road just north of Dotsero.<\/p>\n

The nearly 500-acre property includes most of the lake and a lot of surrounding property. The property has gone through a number of owners over the decades, and the current owners have had it on the market for a couple of years. Marketing for the sale has touted the property\u2019s development potential. That hasn\u2019t gone over well with the neighbors.<\/p>\n

Bill Stephens and his family are longtime residents in the area. Stephens said he and his neighbors are \u201cextremely\u201d happy to see the preservation effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need another golf course or high-density housing,\u201d Stephens said, adding that the lake is a \u201ccenterpiece\u201d of the community.<\/p>\n

A community\u2019s heart<\/p>\n

The resort, Stephens said, has long been \u201ca neat place to congregate.\u201d It\u2019s also been a resource for the community, he added.<\/p>\n

There was an automated external defibrillator at the resort for a while, Stephens said. That device put help a matter of minutes away in case someone suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. An ambulance could take the better part of an hour.<\/p>\n

The resort was also a good staging area for fire crews in case of a nearby wildfire.<\/p>\n

This is the second summer the resort hasn\u2019t been open. That\u2019s been a disappointment to those who would spend an afternoon or weekend there.<\/p>\n

The resort was well-known as a good place for a bit of breakfast or lunch, and is renowned for its pie. Those who dined on the deck overlooking the lake often shared the space with countless hummingbirds. Visitors could rent a rowboat, or launch their own from the dock.<\/p>\n

Adrienne Brink has run the resort for about 35 years. These days, she\u2019s running the horseback riding and outfitting operation just a short way from the now-closed resort.<\/p>\n

Brink said her business income has taken a substantial hit with closing off the property from public use.<\/p>\n

Brink would like to see the preservation effort succeed, of course, not just for her own business but for the public.<\/p>\n

School kids have been known to take field trips to a cave across the lake from the resort. That cave, on private property, contains a number of cave drawings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like it to be open, and have the public back again,\u201d Brink said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Save the Lake\u2019<\/p>\n

That could happen again if the Eagle Valley Land Trust\u2019s \u201cSave the Lake\u201d campaign succeeds.<\/p>\n

That campaign is being conducted in conjunction with the Colorado chapter of The Conservation Fund. In fact, The Conservation Fund has the purchase contract for the property.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s where the effort gets serious.<\/p>\n

The fundraising campaign seeks a total of $9.5 million. The local land trust hopes to raise $3.5 million. Much of the funding from outside Eagle County could conceivably come from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.<\/p>\n

Eagle Valley Land Trust director Jim Daus said there\u2019s a lot of competition for money from that fund \u2014 which would come from the U.S. Forest Service in this case. But, he added, a large local contribution to the purchase price can help in that competition.<\/p>\n

Private donations will probably make up much if not all of the local match. But there could be some public money involved.<\/p>\n

Gypsum Town Council Member Tom Edwards is also a member of the Eagle County Open Space Advisory Council, as well as a board member at the Eagle Valley Land Trust.<\/p>\n

Asked to put on his open space committee hat, Edwards said he\u2019d be \u201cwilling to listen\u201d to a request for county open space money, although Sweetwater Lake is in an adjacent county.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy contention is it\u2019s a really neat amenity for Eagle County.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his role on the Gypsum Town Council, Edwards said that board for several years held budget meetings at the resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody gets a cell phone call up there,\u201d he said, adding that between the ambiance and the pie, everybody stayed in a pretty good mood through the day-long meetings.<\/p>\n

If the fundraising is a success \u2014 Daus said he\u2019s optimistic \u2014 and the federal funding comes through, the question then becomes what to do with the property.<\/p>\n

The Forest Service is probably the most likely recipient of the space. If that happens, the resort could reopen as a concessionaire.<\/p>\n

The important, thing, Daus said, is preserving the land, the lake \u2014 and its water.<\/p>\n

The \u201cSave the Lake\u201d campaign is \u201cpossibly the most important project we\u2019ll have worked on\u201d at the land trust, he said. \u201cI\u2019m really excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vail Daily Business Editor Scott Miller can be reached at smiller@vaildaily.com<\/a> or 970-748-2930.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EAGLE COUNTY \u2014 An effort has started to preserve Sweetwater Lake. It could take some time, but those who love the area are optimistic. While the lake is in Garfield County, the effort is being spearheaded from Eagle County \u2014 the only road access is off the Colorado River Road just north of Dotsero. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314810","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 18:20:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}