COLORADO OPEN LANDS 

Lakewood 

News: Wendell Fleming perhaps said it best in her explanation of the “why” behind the Lakewood-based nonprofit, Colorado Open Lands: “It’s not enough to just love this state … we have to preserve it. We have to preserve it not just for us, but for the people we’ll never meet.” 

Fleming, a Colorado Open Lands board member, is also executive director of the LARRK Foundation and serves on the board of the Boulder-based Women’s Wilderness Institute, an organization that offers extended experiences in the wilderness for girls and women. 

Her remarks were part of the program at For Love of the Land, Colorado Open Lands’ signature fundraiser. It was held May 14 at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and while net income was still being determined at press time, the paddle-raise alone yielded $432,200. 

In addition to raising money, board chair Paul Phillips noted that the gala is held to “Celebrate Colorado’s magnificent lands and water and all the gifts they’ve given us. Colorado Open Lands is proud we’ve helped farmers and ranchers continue to do what they do best in the face of some very intense development pressures.” 

To date, Colorado Open Lands has completed conservation easements on over 800 projects in 50 of Colorado’s 64 counties, according to Tony Caligiuri, the president and chief executive officer of Colorado Open Lands.  

The gala was also the occasion for Colorado Open Lands to present its 2026 Champion of the Land award to Kate Greenberg, the Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture. She is the first woman to hold that position. 

In her keynote address, Greenberg said that while she didn’t grow up on a farm, she was “surrounded by agriculture” in her native Minnesota and developed a true love for the land while studying environmental studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash. 

Prior to becoming state agriculture commissioner, Greenberg was Western program director for the National Young Farmers Coalition, where she advocated for sustainable farm policy, farmland affordability and equitable access to water and land. She also contributed to the development of the Colorado Water Plan and broader water policy in the Colorado River Basin. 

“It’s a shared love (of all of this) that brings us together tonight,” she said. 

Among the guests:  

Former Colorado first lady Dottie Lamm; state Sen. Cleave Simpson; Eric and Janice Wilkinson (he’s the retired general manager of Northern Water and a 2023 inductee to the Colorado Agriculture Hall of Fame); such board members as Rob Deline, Cat Augur, Michael Dowling, Ford Frick, Martha Records, Stephanie Tryba and Dr. Don Aptekar; trustee emeritus Wes Segelke, who with his wife, Marty, were Steward Sponsors of the gala; Newell Grant, whose family members were Guardian Sponsors with the Jornayvaz Family and the LARRK Foundation; Charlie and Jennie Kurtz; Ken and Rebecca Gart; Gail and Jack Klapper; Brad and Margaret Buchanan; Woody and Lucinda Beardsley; Bob and Suzanne Fanch; Pete Marczyk and Barbara McFarlane; and Leigh Penny, Miss Colorado Earth 2026. 

About the organization: The nonprofit Colorado Open Lands works with landowners and community partners to permanently conserve and steward Colorado’s most important land and water resources, protecting fish and wildlife, iconic views, healthy waterways, local food, Western culture, rural economies and recreation opportunities. 

Website: ColoradoOpenLands.org 

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