A co-founder of the High Line Canal Conservancy is stepping down. For 11 years Harriet Crittenden LaMair has been in charge of the conservancy, whose mission is to preserve and improve the High Line Canal Trail.
“I think the conservancy is in a great place,” LaMair said. “I’ve reached a point with the project that I feel … the plan is underway. The board and staff have never been stronger.”
The walking and biking trail is 71 miles long and runs from Waterton Canyon at the base of Colorado’s foothills to an area close to Denver International Airport. It runs through 860 acres in the Denver metro area.
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“I think the most exciting thing that our organization has been able to do as a nonprofit is to harness the community passion for this resource and to bring thousands of people together with local governments and Denver Water to create a lasting and vibrant plan for the future of what is an old irrigation channel, to transform it into a 71 mile greenway,” LaMair said.
LaMair says she first started working with the conservancy because she had concerns that with the explosion of growth in the Denver region, people were going to lose touch with the healing experiences that nature provides.
“It needed to be preserved,” she said, referring to the trail.
During her time as chief executive officer of the conservancy, $130 million in improvements have been made to the High Line Canal Trail. That includes underpasses, bridges and adjacent park improvements. The conservancy also oversees a program where hundreds of people come to the trail to remove thousands of pounds of trash.
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Along the way, the conservancy as built strong partnerships with local governments — something LaMair says is key to the trail’s future.
“Together with the conservancy raising $33 million in private funds, and the local governments matching it with $66 million, we’ve got a great plan, and it’s being implemented, and the team is there to get it done,” LaMair said.
LaMair called the trail a “spectacular, beloved community resource.” She said she hopes that as the conservancy continues its work, they will continue to spread awareness that our environmental resources need care.
“I really think that that is important in today’s environment … for people to have a place where they see that the resource that they love needs their care and attention,” she said.
