MALT Receives Largest Gift in Organization’s History
For the first time in Mountain Area Land Trust’s (MALT) 25 year history, a parcel of land has been donated to the organization. Local Evergreen resident, Bob Meade has donated his property located near Kittredge that he and his late wife Mereth have owned since 1980.
“I feel relief, and I feel a little sad. But if you can’t get out and take care of it, it’s time to pass it on. At my age, you have to give stuff away that you’re done with. It was a wonderful three and a half decades of being a forester, but I’m not a forester anymore. It’s a piece of luck to be able to give this land to MALT and turn my back and walk away – wow. There is nobody better to take care of it than MALT.” said Meade.
MALT Executive Director, Jeanne Beaudry said, “What a gift and legacy Bob has left to MALT. We are truly humbled and grateful by his generous donation. This is the largest donation that MALT has received since the organization’s founding in 1992.” As a member of MALT’s Vista Giving Circle, Bob has been planning this land donation to MALT for many years. Vista Giving Circle donors are supporters who plan on leaving a gift to MALT (either financial, land or both) in their will or estate plans.
Bob and Mereth enjoyed the property together for many years, and in 1996 when Bob retired from the United States Geological Survey, he embarked on a retirement project, taking on his first ten year forest management plan with the help and guidance of the Colorado State Forestry Service.
Fast forward to 2017, and Bob is still working on his land, having just completed his final 20 year forest management plan –or as Bob likes to call it, his “health club.” Bob lost his wife Mereth in May of 2013 but continued to work on his land sharing that it has always been a source of physical, mental and spiritual health for him.
“The way you learn to love children is to take care of them, and it’s the same with the landscape, said Meade, “You put yourself into it. I think Robert Frost said it best: The land was ours before we were the land’s.”
