The national Land Trust Alliance presented is award of excellence to the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust Thursday night during the trust’s national convention in Denver.

“I am thrilled to accept this honor on behalf of CCALT, our landowners and supporters,” executive director Erik Glenn said in a statement for Colorado Politics. “Ranching heritage and natural beauty have always defined Colorado. CCALT is privileged to have the opportunity to work with the landowning families that steward Colorado’s productive agricultural lands to conserve what makes Colorado such a unique and special place to live.

“CCALT’s work benefits all Coloradans in a profoundly positive yet largely unrecognized way. Thank you to the Land Trust Alliance for the recognition of our work and commitment to helping ensure that Colorado will forever be defined by its natural beauty and western heritage.”

The award recognizes excellence in “innovation, collaboration, communication and initiation of broader support for land conservation.”

The Washington, D.C.-based alliance has more than 1,000 land trusts in its membership.

About 2,000 people from the U.S,, Canada, South America and other locations are attending the 30th annual National Land Conservation Conference, which started Thursday and lasts through Sunday at the Colorado Convention Center.

Since the Colorado Cattleman’s Association started it in 1995, the trust has worked with more than 265 ranching families, partners and supporters to set aside more than 513,000 acres from development across the state.

“It’s important to have an organization like CCALT that can bridge the divide between urban and rural, between Republican and Democrat,” Jim Peterson, the Colorado state director for the Trust for Public Land, said in a video honoring the CCALT.

State Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Vail, also speaks in the testimonial video. Donovan is a Vail Valley rancher and public lands advocate who passed the legislation that created the nation’s first state Public Lands Day last year and first celebration was held statewide last May.

“When you picture Colorado, you picture that classic mountain scene, you know, the lone cowboy pushing the cattle across the skyline,” she said.