Newsweek Recognizes Colorado Easement Donor

Sandwiched between Pierre Omidyar and Brad Pitt, in Newsweek's List of 15 People Who Make America Great, Randy Rusk is recognized for teaming up with The Trust for Public Land and selling a conservation easement to the Colorado Cattleman's Agricultural Land Trust to save 1,500 acres on his ranch in Colorado's Wet Mountain Valley.

Randy Rusk relaxes on a fence at his 11,000-acre ranch in Westcliffe. Photo by Tamara McCumber, Canon City Daily Record.

Rusk received one of Newsweek's 15 "Giving Back Awards" this July, in recognition of people who through bravery, or generosity, genious or passion, devote themselves to helping others. Using himself as an example and through his position as chairman of the Lands Committee of the Colorado Cattleman's Agricultural Land Trust, Rusk has helped persuade other ranchers in the area to preserve their land with easements. By 2007, over 11,000 acres of land in the Wet Mountain Valley will be protected. "If you love the land, you want to keep it whole," he explains in the article.

"One hundred years from now, nobody will remember who I was, but this place will still be here," Rusk further explains in an article published by the Canon City Daily Record on July 8, Love of the Land. "My mission has been to keep it in one block of land, with boundaries as far as the eye can see. Even as a child, I dreamed of keeping the ranch together."

(posted 7/19/06)