Yoga supports the mind, body and spirit. The Eagle Valley Land Trust supports land conservation. Put the two together and you've got one hell of a tree pose.
On Saturday at 10 a.m. the two join forces at the EagleVail Community Garden for Yoga+Land, a fundraising event that will continue all summer long on the second and fourth Saturdays of June, July and August. For a $10 donation, yoga teachers from Revolution Power Yoga (Eagle-Vail's new studio) will teach a 90-minute, all levels class in the grassy park area at the community gardens. There will also be a class for kids at the same time, so the whole family can enjoy a little morning yoga.
Afterwards, yogis can hear about all the past and future projects of the Eagle Valley Land Trust (find out where that 10 bucks is going) and nosh on organic veggies from Ripe produce stand in Edwards and sip on High Country Kombucha tea. Both businesses will have booths set up. And, did I mention door prizes? Now that's a Saturday morning.
The Eagle Valley Land Trust preserves land for us - you, me, the whole community - whether it's for our views, our recreation, our wildlife, and our agriculture or to preserve Colorado landscapes, like land tied to our ranching history.
This past winter, the Land Trust preserved a 32-acre parcel of land along more than a mile of river on the valley floor in Edwards. Called Miller Ranch Community Open Space, the river frontage was saved for public recreation use and public river access.
And currently, the Land Trust is nearing completion on a conservation project that will add four new conservation easements and over 325 new acres of protected land south of the Homestead neighborhood in Edwards. It's a public-private partnership led by the Land Trust, where two private land owners donated three parcels of land into conservation easement and then Eagle County bought a fourth adjacent parcel and also placed it into conservation with the Land Trust. The result is what the Land Trust calls the "Front Door Access Points" project, because it will provide publicly accessible open space right out of people's front door. The county parcel will be 100 percent accessible to the public and the three private parcels will have public trail easements running through them.
"Many people in the community think that the Eagle Valley Land Trust owns land and that we work to buy land, but we do not," Kara Heide says, executive director. The Land Trust does not own land and we do not buy land. We conserve and protect land by placing a conservation easement on the land, but the property remains in the hands of the landowner. The Land Trust does not take land away from private landowners, we partner with private land owners to preserve their land and restrict development, while also protecting the conservation values of their property forever."
Heide says it's all about what we are doing now for the next generation, what they will inherit, and she hopes that events like Yoga+Land will not only raise money but will raise awareness about the benefit of land conservation in Eagle County.
Freelance writer Cassie Pence is passionate about living a more sustainable lifestyle, She owns Organic Housekeepers, a green cleaning company, and is actively involved in the EagleVail Community Garden, the Eagle Valley Alliance for Sustainability and Slow Food Vail Valley. Contact her at cassie@organichousekeepers.com.
